Effective Communication in The Workplace

Effective
Communication
in the
Workplace
Training Agenda
• Learning Objectives
• Introduction
• Awareness of Your Personal Style
• Skillful Listening
• Expressing Yourself
• Impact of Emotions
Click to advance to next slide Effective Communication in the Workplace

Learning Objectives
After completing this workshop

presentation, you will be able to:
1. Develop an awareness of your personality and
communication tendencies
2. Learn how to listen more effectively to others
3. Express yourself in a more clear and specific way
4. Appreciate the power of emotions

Introduction
•The ability to effectively communicate with others is one of the most

powerful tools for personal and/or professional success.
•Most people are challenged by the many day-to-day interactions with

co-workers, family, and friends.
•Emotion, communication and conflict are present in all human

interactions and affects each of us in different ways.
•Everyone manages emotion, communication and conflict from habit –

patterns and styles developed early in life and over time.
•80% of problems in the workplace are communication related

Introduction
• One of the quickest ways to alienate yourself from other people is to

communicate unsuccessfully.
• Effective communication empowers you to influence others.
• Your capacity to communicate is often seen as an indicator of your ability and

intelligence.
In this presentation, you will learn a variety of strategies to improve your

communication skills, and break the cycle of destructive habits of personal
interaction.

Remember
7% of what we communicate is based
on vocabulary
38% of what we communicate is

based on voice inflection
55% of what we communicate is

based on non verbal behavior
Unit One – Awareness of Your
Personal Style

Unit One Awareness of Your Personal Style
Past Experiences Shape Communication Style
•Communication doesn’t just happen; your style is based on your experiences that
over time have developed into a pattern of attitudes and actions.
•It is a continuous cycle. Your experiences influence your thoughts. Your

thoughts, over time, become your attitudes. These attitudes become the blueprint
for new experiences, which develop into patterns of behavior.
•An awareness of your personal style is critical to begin to transform negative

attitudes and behaviors into positive ones.
•It is key to empowering you to establish personal responsibility and accountability

in the midst of changing your behavior. Remember, the only person you can
ever really control or change is yourself.

PERSONALITY SPECTRTUM OF
COMMUNICATORS
Oftentimes, the way we

communicate betrays our
personality
There is a wide spectrum of communicators in large

or small discussion for a based personality types
COMMUNICATORS
ABRASIVE
COMMUNICATOR
Who has the knack for creating dissent &

antagonism
COMMUNICATORS
AGGRESSIVE
COMMUNICATOR
He tends to bring his ideas across in a

strong manner
COMMUNICATORS
ASSERTIVE
COMMUNICATOR
He is authoritative, seems to know what

he is nor hog discussions.
COMMUNICATORS
AFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATOR
He will listen to everybody and try not to

be confrontational in his response
COMMUNICATORS
ANXIOUS
COMMUNICATOR
Has a lot of doubts and misgivings…

COMMUNICATORS
AQUIESCENT
COMMUNICATOR
He seems to nod and agree to what

everybody is saying, but one never really
knows what’s in his mind.
COMMUNICATORS
AUTOCENTRIC
COMMUNICATOR
When he speaks, it is often not in relation

to what anybody is talking about.
Unit Two – Skillful Listening

Unit Two Skillful Listening
Nine Steps to Effective Listening
1. Face the speaker and maintain eye contact.

2. Be attentive, yet relaxed.
3. Keep an open mind to the speaker’s message – try to feel what the speaker
is feeling.
4. Listen to the words and try to picture what the speaker is saying.
5. Do not interrupt and do not impose your "solutions."
6. Wait for the speaker to pause to ask clarifying questions - ask questions only
to ensure understanding of something that has been said (avoiding questions
that disrupt the speaker's train of thought).
7. Give the speaker regular feedback, e.g., summarize, reflect feelings, or
simply say "uh huh."
8. Pay attention to nonverbal cues -- to feelings, tone of voice, inflection, facial
expressions, gestures, posture.
9. Be aware of potential barriers that impact your ability to listen effectively.

Barriers to Listening
Sometimes people have a barrier that impedes their listening skills. Awareness of
a barrier is the first step in being able to overcome it.
Barriers to listening include:
•past experiences that influence our reaction to the speaker or the message
•worry, fear, anger, grief and depression
•individual bias and prejudice
•semantics and language differences
•noise and verbal "clutter"
•preoccupation, boredom and shrinking attention spans
Activity:
Awareness of a barrier is the first step in being able to overcome it and
improve your listening skills. Look at the above list of barriers. Can you
identify one or more barriers that may/does impact your ability to listen?

Skillful Listening
Unit Two
Active Listening
Stay active by asking mental questions.

Some questions you can ask yourself as
you listen are:
1. What key point is the speaker

making?
2. How does this fit with what I know

from experience?
3. How can this information benefit

me?

Looking and Acting Like a Good Listener

Non-Verbal Communication
• Turn your body and tilt your face toward the speaker.
• Use other parts of your body besides your ears to receive the message:
1. Look at the speaker to pick up nonverbal signals or cues
2. Your eyes will also send signals to the speaker
3. When the speaker sees a receptive audience they are motivated to work
harder to communicate their message
• React to the speaker by nodding your head.

Acknowledgement
•Listen and acknowledge what you hear the speaker

saying, even if you don't agree with it. At this point do not
express your point of view.
•Acknowledging the speakers thoughts and feelings does

not mean that you approve of or agree with the speaker’s
opinions or actions.
•Your ability to listen and then acknowledge what the

speaker said allows the speaker to feel a sense of
satisfaction of being understood

Skillful Listening
Unit Two
Reflecting back
•When making a statement, paraphrase and reflect back what you've heard
the speaker say.
•Reflecting is affirming to the speaker and encourages the speaker to

elaborate further or delve more deeply into the topic.
•Meaningful exchanges between you and the speaker are built on feedback.
•In order to accurately feedback a person's thoughts and feelings, you have to
be consciously, actively engaged in the process of listening.
•Try to experience what the speaker is describing, feeling the speaker’s

feelings through the lens of your own experience.

Seven Levels of Listening
1. Not listening
2. Pretend listening
3. Partially listening
4. Focused Listening
5. Interpretative Listening
6. Interactive Listening
7. Engaged Listening
Unit Three –
Expressing Yourself

Unit Three Expressing Yourself
Communicating Long or Emotional Messages
•Briefly
. explain the intention of your conversation.
•The other person(s) will attend better if they have a basic

understanding of the time and effort they will be bringing to the
conversation.
•Use “I” statements to communicate your feelings, and what you

have personally seen, heard, need, or expect.
•Do not engage in verbal attacks on the other person. if you need
to criticize, describe the behavior or actions of the other person
that bother you.
•State what you need or expect in positive terms.

Utilizing “I” Statements
•Accept responsibility for your emotions

•Use “I” statements. Say “I feel angry when…” rather than “You make me mad…”
Activity:
Consider the following statements you might make. How would you change
them
. into “I” statements?
1. You make me so mad when you don’t complete your work on time.
2. My supervisor frustrates me when she doesn’t communicate her
expectations.
3. My employee aggravates me when she comes in late.
4. My boss made me happy when he complimented my financial report.
5. Those students make me sad when they don’t study and fail their tests.

Five Components of Your Message
Your communication should include these five important

components:
1. What you are seeing – have seen
2. What you are hearing – have heard
3. What you are feeling – have felt about the issue
4. What you need or want
5. What the positive result will be from receiving/acting on your

request

Five Components of Your Message
Activity: For the three situations listed below, think how you would
communicate:
• What you are seeing – have seen
• What you are hearing – have heard
• What you are feeling – have felt about the issue
• What you need or want
• What the positive result will be from receiving/acting on your request
1. Your boss marked you low on your performance review. This was the first
indication you had of how you were performing in your job.
2. An employee you supervise has been frequently absent causing lost

production and a hardship for the rest of the employees in your unit.
3. Your coworker has been opening your mail and going through your desk
drawers, as well as saying negative things to others behind your back.

Unit Four –
Impact of Emotions

Unit Four – Impact of Emotions
Unit Four
Emotional Obstacles
Emotional obstacles to effective communication include:
Vulnerability – people may not express their true feelings

because they do not want to expose themselves to others
Protecting – people may not want to express their true

thoughts because they don’t want to hurt or upset the other
person
Expectations - social, professional, or cultural “rules” may

inhibit expression of some feelings
Fear – people seek approval and acceptance so they are often

reluctant to say what they really mean for fear of rejection

Impact of Emotions
Unit Four
Manage your emotions
•Recognize what you are feeling. Are you angry,
embarrassed, or hurt?
•Simplify your feelings. Select one or two words to describe

how you feel. Be specific.
•Do not act on your feelings right away. Don’t make a

decision, enter into a discussion, or send an email in anger or
frustration.
•Choose an appropriate time and place to communicate.
•Accept that you are responsible for your emotions; Use “I”
statements. Say “I feel angry when…” rather than “You make
me mad…”

Unit Four Impact of Emotions
Managing a conflict
•Keep yourself calm by breathing slowly and deeply. Remember that this is only
one temporary moment in your life.
•Concentrate on what you need to move forward rather than dwell on the other
person’s mistakes.
•Summarize the other person’s feelings to make sure that you understand what
they are communicating.
•Give affirmation to the other person about what they may be feeling.
•Acknowledge and apologize for any mistakes you may have made.
•Focus on positive results and make specific requests that will enable the
achievement of those goals.

Unit Four Impact of Emotions
Activity:
Reflect on the following situations.
1. Your boss reprimanded you at a department meeting for emailing a joke to
others in the workplace. Personal emails and jokes are routine at the office.
2. Recently you shared your idea with a coworker on how to improve

departmental operating procedure that could result in greater efficiency
and increased revenue for the college. You scheduled a meeting with your
supervisor to introduce the concept, but your coworker beat you to it, and
has claimed your idea for their own.
3. You have learned that one of the employees you supervise frequently
criticizes you harshly to others in and outside of your department.
What pointers from Managing Conflict and Managing Your Emotions would be
helpful to you in the above situations?

Check Your Knowledge
Following are a series of

questions for you to complete.
These questions are designed to
check your understanding of the
information you just reviewed.

Question 1
1. Past experiences
A. have little or no effect on your communication

B. influence your thoughts which in turn become
your attitudes over time
C. are key to empowering you to establish personal
responsibility
D. All of the above
(Click the answer you think is correct.)

You have answered
A. “have little or no effect on your communication”
This answer is incorrect.
Back to Question 1
Click Back to Question 1 (above) to review the question,
then click “B” for further explanation.
You have answered
C. “Is key to empowering you to establish personal responsibility”

Back to Question 1
You have answered
D. “All of the above”
Back to Question 1
You have answered
B. “Influence your thoughts which in turn become your attitudes over time”
This answer is correct.

Communication doesn’t just happen; your style is based on your experiences that, over
time, develop into a pattern of attitudes and actions.
It is a continuous cycle. Your experiences influence your thoughts. Your thoughts, over
time, become your attitudes. These attitudes become the blueprint for new experiences,
which develop into patterns of behavior.
An awareness of your personal style is critical to begin to transform negative attitudes

and behaviors into positive ones.
It is key to empowering you to establish personal responsibility and accountability in the

midst of changing your behavior. Remember, the only person you can ever really control
or change is yourself.
Continue
Question 2
2. Acknowledging what the speaker is saying is valuable because
A. It does not mean that you approve or agree with the

speaker
B. It allows the speaker to feel understood
C. It is a defensive posture
D. All of the above
E. Only A and B

You have answered
A. “It does not mean that you approve or agree with the speaker“
Back to Question 2
then click “E” for further explanation.
You have answered
B. “It allows the speaker to feel understood“
Back to Question 2
You have answered
C. “It is a defensive posture“
Back to Question 2
You have answered
D. “All of the above“
Back to Question 2
You have answered
E. “Only A and B”

Briefly explain the intention of your conversation.
The other person(s) will attend better if they have a basic understanding of the
time and effort they will be bringing to the conversation.
Use “I” statements to communicate your feelings, and what you have
personally seen, heard, need, or expect.
Do not engage in verbal attacks on the other person; if you need to criticize,
describe the behavior or actions of the other person that bother you.
State what you need or expect in positive terms

Continue
Question 3
3. Consider the following scenario
You and your office coworkers have worked well together for approximately one year.
Another person has joined the work team and trouble has started. This person appears
very sensitive and frequently complains about being ignored. You and the staff have tried
to include this person in conversation and activities, but the employee went to the
supervisor after two weeks on the job and reported on a long list of office infractions.
Several of the complaints were exaggerated or totally false. The supervisor held a
meeting and firmly stated that department rules must be followed, that the office was too
busy for pettiness, and that future complaints or issues should be settled between the
staff. A preferred way to handle the situation would be which of the following?
A. Tell the coworker how mad they make you.

B. Demand to “have it out” with the coworker while it’s all fresh in your mind
C. Listen not as a critic, and desire to understand your coworker rather than to achieve either
agreement from or change in them
D. Concentrate on what you need to move forward rather than dwell on the other person’s mistakes.
E. B and C
F. C and D

You have answered
A. “Tell the coworker how mad they make you”
Back to Question 3
then click “F” for further explanation.
You have answered
B. “Demand to “have it out” with the coworker while

it’s all fresh in your mind”

Back to Question 3
You have answered
C. “Listen not as a critic, and desire to understand
your coworker rather than to achieve either
agreement from or change in them”

Back to Question 3
You have answered
D. “Concentrate on what you need to move

forward rather than dwell on the other person’s
mistakes.”
Back to Question 3
You have answered
E. “B and C”
Back to Question 3
You have answered
F. “C and D”
In managing a conflict you should:
1. Concentrate on what you need to move forward rather than dwell on the other person’s
mistakes. Focus on positive results.
2. Summarize the other person’s feelings to make sure that you understand what they are
communicating. Give affirmation to the other person about what they may be feeling.
3. Acknowledge and apologize for any mistakes you may have made.
4. Focus on positive results and make specific requests that will enable the achievement
of those goals.
To manage your emotions:

1. Recognize what you are feeling. Are you angry, embarrassed, or hurt?
2. Do not act on your feelings right away. Don’t make a decision, enter into a
discussion,
or send an email in anger or frustration.
3. Choose an appropriate time and place to communicate.
4. Accept that you are responsible for your emotions; Use “I” statements. Say “I feel angry
when…” rather than “You make me mad…”
Continue
Question 4
4. When you want to communicate a long or complex
message, you should
A. Let the other person know this may be a long

conversation
B. Briefly explain the intent of the conversation
C. Use “I” statements to specifically state your
feelings
D. Not engage in blame or verbal attacks
E. All of the above

You have answered
A. “Let the other person know this may be a long conversation ”
Back to Question 4
You have answered
B. “Briefly explain the intent of the conversation”
Back to Question 4
You have answered
C. “Use “I” statements to specifically state your feelings”
Back to Question 4
You have answered
D. “Not engage in blame or verbal attacks”
Back to Question 4
You have answered
E. “All of the above”

When communicating long or emotional messages, you should
Briefly explain the intention of your conversation.
The other person(s) will attend better if they have a basic understanding of the
time and effort they will be bringing to the conversation
Use “I” statements to communicate your feelings, and what you have
personally seen, heard, need, or expect.
Do not engage in verbal attacks on the other person; if you need to criticize,
describe the behavior or actions of the other person that bother you.
State what you need or expect in positive terms Continue

Conclusion
Congratulations – you have completed the pre-workshop
on Effective Communication in the Workplace
You will receive verification via email or phone that you are registered for the
instructor led workshop on Effective Communication in the Workplace.
Your supervisor will receive an email notifying them that you have completed the
pre-workshop activity.
Thank you for your participation. If you have any questions, please do not
hesitate to contact the IT3 office at
253-7338 or at [email protected]
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What are the four learning objectives of the workshop?

What are the four learning objectives of the workshop?

What are the five main points made in the introduction?

What are the five main points made in the introduction?

Effective

Click to advance to next slide Effective Communication in the Workplace

After completing this workshop

Click to advance to next slide Effective Communication in the Workplace

•The ability to effectively communicate with others is one of the most

•Most people are challenged by the many day-to-day interactions with

•Emotion, communication and conflict are present in all human

•Everyone manages emotion, communication and conflict from habit –

•80% of problems in the workplace are communication related

Click to advance to next slide Effective Communication in the Workplace

• One of the quickest ways to alienate yourself from other people is to

• Effective communication empowers you to influence others.

• Your capacity to communicate is often seen as an indicator of your ability and

In this presentation, you will learn a variety of strategies to improve your

Click to advance to next slide Effective Communication in the Workplace

38% of what we communicate is

55% of what we communicate is

Click to advance to next slide Effective Communication in the Workplace

Past Experiences Shape Communication Style

•It is a continuous cycle. Your experiences influence your thoughts. Your

•An awareness of your personal style is critical to begin to transform negative

•It is key to empowering you to establish personal responsibility and accountability

Click to advance to next slide Effective Communication in the Workplace

Oftentimes, the way we

There is a wide spectrum of communicators in large

Who has the knack for creating dissent &

He tends to bring his ideas across in a

He is authoritative, seems to know what

He will listen to everybody and try not to

Has a lot of doubts and misgivings…

He seems to nod and agree to what

When he speaks, it is often not in relation

Click to advance to next slide Effective Communication in the Workplace

1. Face the speaker and maintain eye contact.

Click to advance to next slide Effective Communication in the Workplace

Click to advance to next slide Effective Communication in the Workplace

Stay active by asking mental questions.

1. What key point is the speaker

2. How does this fit with what I know

3. How can this information benefit

Click to advance to next slide Effective Communication in the Workplace

Looking and Acting Like a Good Listener

• React to the speaker by nodding your head.

Click to advance to next slide Effective Communication in the Workplace

•Listen and acknowledge what you hear the speaker

•Acknowledging the speakers thoughts and feelings does

•Your ability to listen and then acknowledge what the

Click to advance to next slide Effective Communication in the Workplace

•Reflecting is affirming to the speaker and encourages the speaker to

•Try to experience what the speaker is describing, feeling the speaker’s

Click to advance to next slide Effective Communication in the Workplace

Click to advance to next slide Effective Communication in the Workplace

Communicating Long or Emotional Messages

•The other person(s) will attend better if they have a basic