Better Communication Skills — Three Tips for Conference Calls

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Tom O'Dea

The conference call has been a way of life in business for many years now. So why are so many frustrating, ineffective calls being held every day? This simple list of reminders is intended to help keep conference calls from becoming wasted time.

1. No multi tasking — I've been guilty on this count, I must admit. But if you force yourself to follow a no multi tasking rule, you get another benefit. You're force to confront the question of whether the conference call is an effective use of your time. It's easy to say yes if you're thinking you can appease someone while you do your email. But if the call isn't worth your time, you need to speak up and say so.

2. It's a meeting, so treat it like one. The call should have a clear PAL (Purpose, Agenda, Limit). Participants should be invited, and attendance taken. Be clear about who is leading the call. Start on time. The leader needs to keep the call/meeting on track, and document actions taken and follow up activities (who, what, by when). End on time. Send an email with the documented action items promptly, preferably before you do anything else.

3. Test for agreement. In face to face meetings, body language and facial expressions provide clues as to whether people are engaged in the topic, even if they choose to remain silent. Not so on a phone call, and while we'd like to live by a rule of silence equals acceptance, that's dangerous. If the number of participants is reasonable, call the roll so everyone has to say yes or no on key decisions. Beware of voice inflections that indicate uncertainty, and tactfully call them out.

Avoid ex partee one to one conversations after a conference call, especially the kind where someone calls you right away to express their frustration or anger. On the other hand, if you're leading a call and you're convinced that someone has been disenfranchised or needs some help dealing with a topic, go ahead and reach out to them.

One more point — the speaker phone is a great invention. But poor quality speakerphones can really bog down a call. People end up talking over one another and sometimes don't even know it. It can lead to repetition and frustration. If you're relying on speaker phones, get high quality equipment. Otherwise encourage people to use handsets or headsets.

The organization that isn't changing is dying. To learn more about Strategies for Managing Change, visit www.thomasjodea.com Tom O'Dea has over 30 years of IT experience, with 20 years of senior leadership in IT and Professional Services with multibillion dollar corporations.

GAS Up Your Workplace Communication

By Leanne Hoagland-Smith

 

George Bernard Shaw once wrote that the greatest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place. Many organizations today realize that effective workplace communication is critical to organizational success.

So what do you need to do to improve workplace communication?

First, you need to establish communication Goals. However before you commit these goals to writing you need to make sure that all of your employees know how to achieve both personal and professional goals. Also, you need to determine what are the measurable results that you desire from these goals.

Then you need to look at the Attitudes of your employees as well as those within the culture of your organization. Attitudes are just reflections of strong personal beliefs. For example, one of your communication goals might be to improve customer satisfaction.

Some of your call center employees may have a 9 to 5 attitude. When a call comes in at 4:59, will your employees take the necessary actions even if it means staying to 5:15 with the same attitude as the first calls received in the morning?

Finally, the Self Leadership Skills for all employees need to be assessed and developed where necessary. Communication is an interpersonal skill that resides within the self leadership of each and every individual. Yet, beyond learning how to read and write, most individuals truly have not been taught, trained or developed to fully utilize effective workplace communication.

When the critical elements of goals, attitudes and self leadership skills are applied to improving workplace communication, amazing results will happen. Just try it and see.

Simply speaking, leaders are readers. If you enjoyed this article, you may find The Leadership Audit of interest at http://www.processspecialist.com/od.htm

Call me, Leanne Hoagland-Smith, The Business Coach, at 219.759.5601 or visit at http://www.processspecialist.com to explore everything from how my solutions double results to articles and resources including the Simply Speaking series.