Communication skill Essay
Becoming a highly skilled communicator is not easy. The good news is that the skills of effective communication are learned. Effective communication takes place only when a bridge is built between content and emotional impact, connecting the two components and assuring that both are given equal consideration, thus the supervisor must be skilled at facilitating such. Supervisors command a wealth of knowledge and information. Their challenge is to determine exactly what information should be communicated to others and the level, depth, and complexity of the content. Linden (2003) notes that the criteria for determining what to communicate varies from organization to organization and from discipline to discipline. Reporting requirements, job descriptions, and the knowledge base of the receiver play significant roles. When breakdowns occur involving information distribution, they are usually the result of some common communication mistakes.
To avoid these mistakes, supervisors should always communicate beginnings and endings; changes; developing needs; priorities and deadlines; and the impact of the supervisor’s activities on others. The earlier that needs are communicate, the less disruption is experienced by the department. Many crises are created because developing needs were not anticipated and communicated early enough to allow for proper planning and availability. It is also critical to a supervisor’s success to raise awareness of developing needs prior to one’s attempts to gather additional resources or seek help. Others may be quick to assume that a supervisor is going behind their backs or undermining their authority if he/she has not notified them of the developing needs. It is likewise important for supervisors to thoughtfully identify the people who constitute their critical communication points, those with whom they share important data or information that impacts performance, either theirs or someone else’s. This information may establish current or future expectations. It may contain either positive or critical comments and the evaluation of past activities.
SKILL AT EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
Two of the constant goals of supervision are increasing the productivity and efficiency of employees, and enhancing employee satisfaction. Although it is realized that unlimited improvement in the first area is not feasible, it is believed that considerable savings in unit labor costs and overhead costs can be achieved by increasing the output per employee per unit of time. There are many ways of achieving this increase. But one of the best is the judicious application of incentives as stimuli to increase individual and collective output, or, simply put, motivation. By applying these stimulating factors, supervisors endeavor to induce employees to increase efficiency either by improving methods of working or by reducing wasted efforts and material.
In the past, there have been two ways of viewing the role of motivation relative to the productive activities of employees in an organization. The first one was the scientific management approach and the second was the human relations approach (Sharbrough, et. al., 2006). Both approaches are still prevalent today under different names and in varying degrees. To be successful in motivating employees, the supervisor must be able to perceive those inner-striving conditions which are variously described as wishes, desires, drives, attitudes, and needs. This is difficult, for often the individual does not perceive his needs himself. But once the needs and desires of an employee are known, or at least estimated, the supervisor is able to apply some form of incentive, either positive or negative, material or nonmaterial, as a stimulus to induce him to increase his productivity.
Motives are the drives within the person which incite him to action; incentives are the external situations or stimuli which trigger the motive. They are the conditions which initiate or halt, encourage or discourage, and direct or inhibit human activities. Thus, incentives are the situations which arouse dynamic forces within employees or the conditions introduced in jobs with the expectation of influencing or altering the behavior of people.
BUSINESS ANALYSIS SKILL
Business analysis skills are yet another example of a skill area supervisors need to acquire that was once the primary responsibility of managers. Traditionally, the supervisor was concerned with getting scheduled work completed. When problems in production came up, the supervisor often scheduled more overtime and became personally involved in the execution of the work. Working longer hours seemed the only solution to getting work completed. Although many employees may not mind extra hours initially, even the most dedicated employees get frustrated when putting in sixty, seventy, or even eighty hours a week becomes a never-ending reality. It is not surprising that organizations have lost good employees over the years. Many good employees leave a company that knows only how to work harder. Good employees (including good supervisors) want to work smarter, not harder.
According to Kramer and Messick (2005), business analysis skills enable a supervisor to learn what his/her organization does—and how. Identifying the process of work highlights the importance of each step and helps a supervisor determine which steps can or cannot be improved, adjusted, or eliminated. Establishing the cost of what the supervisor and his/her people are responsible for educates everyone to the seriousness of doing things right the first time. Educating workers on both process and costs enhances the supervisor’s efforts as a leader and increases the likelihood of achieving department and team goals and targets.
Using organizational savvy, supervisors come to understand and utilize organizational dynamics in order to achieve objectives. It is a key component of the ability to influence and impact organizations, both one’s own and others. The skill of business analysis has at its core the desire to understand how decisions are really made and how power is really distributed in an organization. It includes understanding the alliances and relationships among groups of people within the organization. And for supervisory positions, business analysis is important when one needs to influence a complex organization in order to achieve one’s objective.
Supervisors have always been responsible for at least some of the decision making in their work environment. The supervisor who becomes a proactive decision maker will be high in demand in the contemporary business world. Supervisors have an increasing amount of information available to them. This information allows them to be more proactive in anticipating potential problems and making decisions to prevent those problems before they happen. That is why it is imperative for supervisors to have a comprehensive understanding of good decision-making techniques in addition to his/her other supervisory skills.
Decisions are made in the organization on a professional basis, not on grounds of personal loyalties, self-aggrandizement, or for other reasons. Professional differences exist and are not suppressed in the decision process. Full and honest discussion helps maintain a core of agreement so that a decision is supported vigorously by those who opposed as well as those who supported it. Decisions are not agonized over. They receive full discussion conducted in an efficient way. The importance of developing the skill of decision making needs to be stated very strongly, because the well-being of all the members of the department and even the survival of the organization itself are dependent on the decision-making skills of supervisors. When these skills are poor the consequences for staff can be quite negative.
Better decision making is something all great leaders strive to accomplish. Leaders recognize that others depend on their ability to look forward, assess the dangers and options, and guide people to the shortest road toward improved performance. Supervisors are the leader to whom others look for direction. The employees depend on the supervisor’s ability to assess a situation and consider the pros and cons before committing to one particular direction. As supervisors strengthen their ability to measure the performance in their department and incorporate that information into their supervisory efforts, they will command greater support from employees and senior managers (Carroll and Tholstrup, 2001).
As supervisors, they are responsible for the smooth running of the group and that means making sure that all the necessary tasks are done, not doing it all by themselves. In terms of how supervisors organize and administer the work of their section, they are making a rod for their own backs if they do try to do everything themselves. The advice normally given to supervisors is to try to delegate every task that they can. Even if supervisors succeed, there will be plenty left for them. If supervisors delegate effectively, they will have more time for the jobs that only they can do.
However, barriers to effective delegation may exist because attempts at delegation by supervisors may be perceived as weakness, laziness or incompetence. Another important consequence of having poor role models in the organization, according to Gazda (2002), is that both staff and management may believe that delegating means off-loading jobs which supervisors want to relinquish. It is perceived by some staff as load-shedding, which should be resisted as strongly as possible, particularly as the pressures on staff have already been greatly increased by the apparently endless changes of the business environment is more rarely perceived by staff and management as a two-way process in which the delegator learns how to coach and the delegatee has increased opportunities to learn about supervisorial duties and responsibilities.
Thus, it would be useful for supervisors to remember that delegation is a two-way process. It is necessary for both parties to work carefully and sensitively towards full delegation of a task. The delegatee is helped and supported, with gradually decreasing monitoring, by the delegator. The delegated delegated task is defined so that both parties are clear about expected outcomes, time, legal and financial constraints, and available resources. Methods of working are discussed but not defined, so that the delegatee can develop his/her ways of working, which may be different from those of the delegator.
Many supervisors (like most other people) barely think past the end of the week. Perhaps that is why so many problems creep up unexpectedly and why supervisors spend so much energy dealing with emergencies. If supervisors are truly going to sustain continuous improvement in their respective departments, Burke, et. al. (2002) suggests that they will have to adopt an effective method of goal-setting, which, like all other topics mentioned in this paper so far, is a skill that has to be learned. Creating a vision is a major step toward becoming a better supervisor, but supervisors should be prepared for the possibility of negative feedback. Future thinkers must always contend with a few doubters and whiners.
Goals must be specific so everyone involved in reaching the goal will know exactly what each individual and the team as a whole are working toward and when they have achieved it. Making goals measurable also makes them more specific. To be measurable, a goal must be stated in such a way that supervisors will know precisely when it has been reached. The measurement might be in terms of dollars, percentages, units produced, tons, time, telephone calls received, or any unit of measure that relates to the specific goal. Once goals have been identified, agreed upon, and documented, then creating a detailed plan for reaching it must follow. A plan is nothing more than a map of the steps a supervisor must take to achieve the goal. Depending on the goal, the supervisor may have as many as fifteen to twenty steps—or as few as two to three. The number of steps is not as critical as the clarity and conciseness with which each step is described.
Supervisors who succeed in the twenty-first century must work as hard to create a workable plan as they worked on the vision casting and goal development. They must be committed to putting worthwhile goals down on paper and then be devoted to supporting those goals with clear planning that will pave the way to each goal’s achievement, and therefore result to the success of the department, and ultimately, the organization, as a whole.
STRESS MANAGEMENT SKILL
Stress management is the capability to face one’s feelings in a way that keeps him/herself and others in fine emotional as well as physical state and that sustains the achievement of business goals. It involves containing one’s feelings when appropriate, expressing them when appropriate, and helping others do the same. People strong in stress management can interact with courtesy and restraint in difficult situations, and can also choose to use emotional expression to communicate and help get things done (Olmstead, 2002). Stress management does not mean remaining unemotional or calm all the time. There are times, for example, when getting angry is an effective tool to control disruptive behavior. Someone who cannot express anger may be as weak in stress management as someone who expresses anger often.
Stress management is actually a complex process that involves a number of elements. One is the ability to utilize listening and empathy to help relieve the stress of others. Often the act of listening empathetically to others is sufficient to reduce their emotional stress level. This skill is underutilized in the business world as most supervisors immediately focus on fixing problems rather than allowing people to talk and work through the problems themselves. Another is the ability instantly to change one’s emotional state in response to the needs of the moment. When a supervisor is leading an organization in crisis, his/her ability to exhibit the appropriate emotional response can affect the stress level of the organization.
One more is the ability to track one’s emotional response back to its root causes. Often individuals project their distress from one situation onto another. If a supervisor is upset about the revenue figures for the last quarter, he or she may yell at the administrative assistant for misfiling a document. By keeping in mind the original source of distress, one can more easily deal with subsequent situations in a way that everyone can find more productive and beneficial.
TIME MANAGEMENT SKILL
An effective supervisor always has a clear idea about the priorities for his/her work. For most, there always seems to be a mountain of things that need to be done and so little time. Some things will have a very high priority because they are so urgent, however, they may not actually be very important at all. This could mean that they could be done quickly without taking up too much time. Other things may have a high priority because they are extremely important. Some important tasks may not have an urgent deadline, but need a lot of thought. To do them properly and without a last-minute crisis, supervisors, using their time management skills, have to make enough time for them when they plan out their work. Last-minuters may produce good work, but are rarely popular with their own department or with the management. Making clear middle-and long-term plans and prioritizing could help supervisors to work better within the deadlines (Olmstead, 2002).
In the real world, not all activities that need to be done has the guarantee of being done at one sitting since, for instance, a supervisor needs to wait for confirmation which can take several days. Obviously not all top-priority activities can be finished in one fell swoop because, for example, a supervisor needs further information which will not be forthcoming for several days. When the confirmation comes, it is only when the activity can resume, and other activities on the day of the confirmation will be moved down the list, since the earlier activity is top priority.
Most of the time, when the activity is complex, it is broken down into several activities. The signs of good time management skills are: increased focus, output and enthusiasm, better sense of direction, extra decisive, proactive as opposed to reactive, tackling procrastination and perfectionism, improved timekeeping, and improved subordinates’ morale due to the avoidance of stress coming from time pressure. Lastly, there should now be enough time to finish all necessary functions.
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SKILL
This is the competency by which supervisors plan their strategy and tactics, monitor and measure their performance, and address performance problems. This competency often overlaps with results orientation, but it is distinguished because many supervisors set challenging goals but are weak at monitoring and measuring their own and subordinates’ performance. This competency is likewise the one that most often evokes employee resistance. For many employees, the idea of measuring performance conjures up the vision of a punitive parent or teacher who will punish them for their transgressions.
Setting challenging goals without effective monitoring and tracking will work for only a small percentage of people. Keeping track of progress and reinforcing behavior change are critical to achieving challenging goals. As supervisors, managing performance includes keeping track of the projects they manage as well as of the people they supervise. The cost of not addressing performance problems promptly is staggering for any business. The damage will be lessened to the degree that managers are strong in managing performance. Motivating people at work, according to Olmstead (2002), is also engaged in developing the department’s performance; and all processes of managing performance should be utilized and implemented on a regular basis among all departmental people in order for them to gain the greatest benefits.
In the determination of a subordinate’s functions and goals within the department, it is very important that there is a consensus regarding it, as well as an understanding of the clause from both sides. This agreement can only be reached through having a determined discussion between the parties. Employees need to know why they are assigned to the job and how important it is to the achievement of overall goals. After they realize just how important their functions are within the department, then they can live up to the expectations of them and measure up to performance standards.
The definition of negotiation contains a general formulation concerning the use of process to attain desired objectives. But whatever the preferred operational system or approach to negotiation–and there are many–there is usually a follow-on statement concerning how process objectives are to be attained. Negotiation as a method of managing organizational conflict usually involves interdependent parties who trade proposals for a settlement. Most organizational negotiations involve a mixture of cooperative and competitive motives that influence the proposals and counterproposals negotiators exchange (Rogers, 2004). Negotiation communication concerns the messages that negotiators send and receive and by which they come to share meaning during the process. Communication, then, is central to the bargaining process, whether bargaining occurs as an institutionalized form of conflict management, such as collective bargaining, or whether it involves negotiating marketing agreements on legal contracts and settlements or managing inter- and intragroup or interpersonal disputes.
It seems evident that negotiation effectiveness can be determined only contextually, with regard to a goal, and that it differs with different perspectives. What one party deems effective, the other might not because the payoff structure of many negotiations precludes both parties’ completely accomplishing their goals. In some contexts, for example, international relations, the goal might be merely to find some settlement acceptable to both sides. The goal of environmental negotiations may be the public welfare. Effectiveness may mean reaching some long-term settlement or settling without involving a mediator or arbitrator. Maintaining satisfactory interpersonal or business relationships between the negotiating parties, regardless of outcome, is another measure of effectiveness. In distributive negotiations, effectiveness involves maximizing profits or outcomes for one side. Maximizing the parties’ joint payoff is a goal of integrative negotiations.
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT SKILL
The introduction of problem solving and mediators into organizational behavior represented a questioning of the traditional approaches to dealing with conflict, approaches based on a hierarchical and centralized model of bureaucracy that not only defined legitimate authority in the industrial world, but in the society at large as well (Caudron, 2000). However, conflict occurs in several forms in an organization, including intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intergroup conflict. The ability to resolve conflicts is therefore a must for anyone in a leadership position and is important in most individual contributor positions as well. A common way in which managers resolve conflicts is by ordering their subordinates to do it “my way.”
This approach to resolving disagreements tends to discourage employees and create resistance and resentment that eventually sabotages performance. The battle to win the hearts and minds of employees will not be won by ordering them to do it “my way.” In competition, employees use a mistrustful climate and win-lose rewards to believe their goals are negatively related; success by one makes the goal attainment of others less likely. Department members committed to appearing to be the brightest to their supervisor are frustrated when one member develops good ideas because they fear the supervisor will see that person as the most competent.
At its highest level, the purpose of conflict resolution is to resolve issues and disagreements in a way that all parties feel satisfied and affirmed, and that brings out the best thinking of all parties to create the most effective and elegant solutions to problems. Cooperative goals very much contribute to conflict management. In addition, cooperators communicate they are working for mutual benefit, express their views, understand each other, and try to integrate their ideas. Communication skills appear to complement cooperative goals for productive conflict management.
The administrative side of supervision may be the most difficult of the eleven areas discussed in this paper because supervisors are not used to being responsible for administrative areas. In the past, administrative skills were solely the responsibility of managers. This is rapidly changing due to corporate belt tightening. Thinking strategically, setting goals, and making information-based decisions are areas in which supervisors will need to be competent—and they must teach their employees these skills too. The twenty-first-century supervisor will greatly profit from teaching employees to have a vision for the future, to set goals to accomplish this vision, and to carry through with achieving these goals.
Communicating through the written word is a vital skill that will continue to grow in importance. As supervisors take on more and more administrative responsibilities, the ability developed to communicate through letters, memos, e-mail, and performance reports will reward a supervisor. Finally, to keep the department on track, a supervisor must acquire resource management skills, learn to use company documentation, and understand one’s department’s finances. The skill areas addressed in the previous pages are of no value unless a supervisor takes the initiative. Supervisors must be personally committed to driving the continuous improvement process. Zaccaro (2001) asserts that it will require a great amount of initiative on a supervisor’s part to instigate action and change.
With greater administration skills, supervisors will become responsible for more one’s department management, bringing designed projects to a cost-effective close. The supervisor will also become a resource manager, greatly improving one’s own department’s efficiency. The administrative skills a supervisor acquires will support both his/her people and technical skills. Bringing organization and understanding to one’s communications as well as being able to use and understand the technical processes and equipment in the company will be of prime importance to one’s success as a supervisor.
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