Learning better communication skills requires a lot of effort and practice. It’s a lot harder and more challenging to communicate really well than it is to fight, coerce, threaten or to just take what you want.

The word “feedback” suggests an exchange of information. It required the reporting of the status of work flow, decisions, requests, problems, deliveries, meetings, answers, questions, queries, outstanding work, movements of people or products etc.

The one thing lacking in most organisations is feedback. There is a serious lack of communication between people, departments, management and staff, service providers and their clients etc – people simply don’t keep each other informed. Even the people who complain about a lack of feedback are guilty of not giving enough or appropriate feedback!

For the information to be useful, it must be:

Reliable and objective

In order to trust the information given it should be objective and reliable.

On time

The information given should be given on time otherwise decisions may be made too late or not at all. This may cause untold damage to the organisation and your own credibility.

Complete

By not supplying complete information, your job is certainly not done and the wrong decisions may result.

Easy to understand

If the information is correct, but not easily understood, due to complicated format or layout, too much information or incomplete data, then it may lead to erroneous decision-making, or delayed decisions due to the need for clarification.

Obstacles

Obstacles should be identified and measures put in place to ensure a steady flow of clear and concise information at all times.

Training

We mistakenly assume that people know how to behave professionally and that they instinctively know how to communicate well when we employ them. The truth is that we should assume that they don’t know. We should provide the necessary professionalism and communication skills training regardless.

By Elsabé Manning

Elsabé runs accredited Professionalism in the Workplace workshops and Effective Communication in the Workplace workshops - SETQAA decision number 2075. For further information please contact her on elsabe@successfactory.co.za or 011 648 8969 or 084 371 9105

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