communication errors

Communication Errors or Issues That
Can Occur in the Workplace
• Communication errors or issues typically occur in the workplace
because of hectic schedules and busy professional lives.
• Resolving communication problems quickly prevents the situation
from becoming worse and disrupting work flow or spreading to
include other employees.
• Poor communication occurs at every level. Choosing the best
mechanism to deliver the message ensures that the recipient fully
understands the contents.
• Despite the fact that today's business environment provides so
many opportunities to communicate, problems arise when
information is incomplete, incorrect or obsolete.
• Overcoming obstacles to good communication include advocating
active listening, writing messages for a specific audience and using
visuals to enhance written words.

Handling Unwarranted Criticism
• Business professionals make presentations and conduct
brainstorming sessions on a regular basis.
• Communication breaks down, though, when co-workers don't
completely engage in conversations. They miss important
details that later lead to misunderstandings and hurt feelings
or worse.
• Constructive criticism provides needed input, but
argumentative behavior usually leads to long-term problems.
By remaining calm and focusing on the problem at hand,
employees can handle these communication issues.
• One technique involves asking to have the problem restated.
Employees should avoid making defensive statements and
overstating the problem.
• By expressing genuine interest in understanding the criticism,
an employee gains perspective and can deal with the situation in
a rational manner.

Dealing With a Crisis
• Communication problems occur in a crisis
situation if no natural leader emerges to provide
guidance and direction.
• Adequate contingency planning can avert these
occurrences, but in the event they do
happen, preventing gossip, rumors and
inconsistencies help people remain calm.
• For example, during a financial
crisis, communicating honestly and openly with
employees, customers and business partners
enables leaders to maintain confidence and deal
with the situation without causing more long-
term consequences.

Using Excessive Jargon
• When business professionals use idiomatic
phrases, they often don't translate to other
languages or cultures.
• Similarly, the use of excessive technical jargon
makes reading email, newsletters or documents
harder for the reader. When used in informal
team meetings, this type of shorthand
communicating makes sense, but it becomes a
problem when people misinterpret the message
or lose interest.
• To keep communication friendly and easy to
read, avoid using excessive jargon .

Dealing With Rejection
• When the message is bad news, people tend to
agonize/worry over what to say. This may lead to
delays in communicating. This in turn causes its
own problems.
• Dealing with difficult situations such as poor
performance reviews, disciplinary action or
canceled projects can be challenging and
stressful.
• By providing facts and reasons, successful
business professionals communicate effectively
and deal with the situation rather than avoiding it
and putting it off, which doesn't rectify the
situation.

Avoid the 7 Most Common
Business Communication Errors
Most employees rate their managers as average to
poor presenters. Here are the seven most
common communication errors made by
managers and executives, according to a survey
of more than 5000 employees in a broad range of
industries and job specialties:
• Presenting without a purpose. Many executives
seem to be communicating just to hear
themselves talk, because those they are
presenting to can’t discern a relevant purpose to
the presentation.

• Presenting without complete understanding.
Many employees report that their managers
and executives present information and ideas
that are either extraneous or
irrelevant, because they don’t really
understand their circumstances.
• Being dull and monotonous.
Or even worse, attempting to open a
presentation with a lame joke or anecdote.

• Saying too much.
Many employees (and customers) report feeling
overwhelmed by a flood of information that
seems random and disjointed.
• Assuming the listener/audience “Gets it.”
More than 70% of employees report having
conversations with managers, or listening to
presentations from them, in which they “don’t
really understand” the information being
presented.

• Assuming the listener/audience agrees. Just
because a presentation ends with loud applause
doesn’t mean that the audience agrees with the
speaker, or buys into their perspective.
• Ending with a loud thud. Both one-on-one
communications and group presentations too
often end with little more than polite smiles and
applause, and both parties being grateful the
ordeal is over.

So what can you do to avoid these errors? Here are seven effective strategies to
help you communicate in a way that’s clear, concise and relevant to employees
and customers:
1. Begin at the End
Almost every effective business communication is in some way a “call to action”
and we should pre-determine the specific outcome or action you want to achieve.
• Do you want an employee to change their work habits?
• Do you want a customer to buy your product?
• Do you want the shareholders to approve the merger?
Decide in advance a specific objective that requires action or commitment on the
part of your audience. If you can’t think of a specific outcome that requires action
of commitment, then maybe you should be asking yourself if the communication
is really necessary at all. Because if the only purpose is delivery of data, there are
probably more efficient ways of doing it

2. Listen First, Speak Second
• Every presentation, every conversation, and virtually every
other interpersonal communication should begin with
questions that enhance the speakers understanding of the
other person (or group). Admittedly, this rarely happens.
• Most speakers and presenters are so focused on THEIR
message that they forget the real priority is the other
person.
• Of course questions take time, and listening to answers
takes even more time, but if we want to consistently
communicate in a way that’s relevant to others, we have
to make sure that we truly understand their perspective.

3. Earn Attention
• Never assume you have someone’s full attention, because
most people have a multitude of thought and ideas flowing
through their mind at any one time. Their mental “noise"
consists of everything that distracts them including noise in
the literal sense, physical or emotional discomfort, personal
problems, negative attitudes, or distracting mannerisms.
This is why gaining attention – EARNING attention – is an
important prerequisite for effective communication.

• Some people do this with an amusing anecdote, or a
compelling personal story, and this works well in many
circumstances if you have the ability to do it naturally. But
you can also gain attention by presenting new information
(the results of a surprising new research study, etc.) that’s
directly relevant to their situation.

4. Present with Brevity
• Oscar Wilde was quoted as saying “Brevity is the soul
of wit.” It’s also the soul of effective business
presentations. Whether you are delivering a keynote
address, presenting a proposal to a prospective
customer, or introducing yourself to a new employee,
the essence of clear communication is brevity.
• When you commit yourself to concise, succinct
communication it forces you to think through your
most important points and to present them without a
lot of “fluff” or extraneous information

• We’re living in the age of 30-second
commercials, and most people expect you to
make a point pretty quickly, then move on to your
next point, and your next, etc.
• Lengthy, drawn-out explanations or stories will do
nothing but bore most people. So even if you
have to deliver fairly intricate, complex
information, break it up into information
“packets” or “chunks” then make sure each
element has “payoff” for the audience.

5. Confirm Understanding
• This means a lot more than just asking “Do you
understand?” In fact, you can always assume that when you
ask employees directly if they understand you, the answer
will be “yes” whether or not they really do understand. And
you can assume the same thing of customers, because
sometimes they don’t know they don’t understand.
• You can ask questions that indirectly let you know whether
they “get it” without putting them on the spot. Then, if you
realize that they in fact don’t fully understand what you’ve
been trying to communicate, you now have an opportunity
to explain again. But remember, repetition isn’t
communication, and if they didn’t understand something
the first time, don’t just repeat yourself – find a new way to
present the information.

6. Confirm Acceptance
• Understanding and accepting your message are two very different things.
An employee may fully understand the basis of your criticism, or a
customer may accurately comprehend the logic of your proposal. But that
doesn’t mean they ACCEPT what you have presented. And again, asking
“Do you agree?” isn’t an effective method, although that is essentially the
information you’re after.

• Genuine acceptance of a concept presented by management, or by
another worker, goes a long way towards ensuring active participation,
and harmonious cooperation, in the workplace. Acceptance of the
information contained in a proposal goes a long way toward closing a sale.
And the key to confirming acceptance is again to ask subtle questions that
reveal acceptance without putting the listener on the spot.

7. Advocate Action
• Wrap up you communication with a specific “call to action.”
This is the moment where you propel your abstract ideas
or theoretical knowledge into the world of reality. Good
ideas that aren’t translated into some sort of action rarely
last. And in most cases the action should be two-sided
(remember, communication is reciprocal) so you’ve got to
do you’re part as well as ask others to do theirs.
• Your first exposure to these ideas may seem a little
overwhelming at first, but you’ll find that if you focus on
them one at a time, letting yourself improve your
communication efforts gradually, you’ll eventually develop
an exceptional ability to communicate in a clear, concise
and relevant manner you can be proud of.

When Communication Goes Wrong in
Business
• Clarify the Assignment:
-Give rock-solid instructions from the start. Not everybody knows what you
know. So make it as easy as possible for them to get it right – without over
whelming them.

• Clear the Air:
-When communication goes wrong, then it’s time to clear the air. Especially
if you intend to work with the person again and learn from the situation.
-Clear documentation gives you a place to start the fresh Communication.
-Clearing the air can save you future headaches. It gives you a chance to see
where everyone is coming from, improves on the relationship for potential
future business, or prepares you to make a different choice.

• Cut Your Losses:
-Some professional relationships just don’t work. If you find out that you
paid for something that the other person doesn’t have the skill to
deliver, then you have to move on to a team that can provide what you
need.

• Create a System :
-Regardless of your choice to continue the relationship or cut your
losses, every communication issue highlights an opportunity to put a few
simple systems in place.
-The goal is to make communication flow better the next time. These
systems don’t have to be complicated, just consistent.
- For example,
create questionnaires for new clients and standard email communication
for fresh assignments so that all work requests are documented. The plan
is to build a better business, and better communication plays a major role.

Partial Communication
• Unclear Goals:
- An employer provides the description of a job
when it advertises a position. This, in itself, is not
enough. When you select a person to fill the
position, take the individual through the job
description face to face. People have different
ways of interpreting a job posting.
-If the company does not communicate its
expectations, the new employee gets confused
and ends up underperforming. Unclear goals lead
to poor communication and frustration.

• Cultural Diversity:
-The world is turning into more of a global village. It is
common to find people from different backgrounds
and locations converging in the same workplace. This
diversity, encouraged in businesses, still can prove a
cause of poor/incomplete/partial communication.
-Different cultures have their own way of interpreting
things, especially with nonverbal language.
For instance while pointing with the index finger is
normal to Americans, the Asians consider it rude. If the
company does not bridge the differences, there is a
danger that misunderstandings will arise.

• Poor leadership:
-Employees look to their leaders to provide direction in
the workplace. If the people at the work have poor
leadership skills, the chances of having poor
communication are high. Incompetent leaders exhibit
indecisiveness and fail to inspire confidence in their
subordinates or over-exert control and pass on poor
communication to their employees.
-They may also be unable to answer queries raised by
the employees, leaving subordinates in the dark over
what to do.

• Personal Issues:
-Though you encourage employees not to let
personal matters interfere with their work, there
are times when it is hard to divorce a person from
situations the individual may be facing outside of
work. A distracted employee is irritable and may
wrongfully communicate disrespect and lack of
interest in the job. Give distracted employees
some time off, where necessary and possible, to
allow them deal with a personal matter.

• Demoralization:
Demoralized employees lose interest in the company.
They may be present at their workstation but only do
the expected and nothing more. Employees gets
demoralized when they are unappreciated,
disrespected or not given a chance to use their
creativity and skills at work. Such employees do not
communicate anything extra other than what is
necessary, leading to weak lines of communication.
When you respect employees, they are more creative,
productive and alert.

No Communication
• Communication problem in a business does not
only happen between managers and subordinate
alone, it can also affect customers. When there is
a breakdown of communication from the head to
the necessary department, it will affect the
operation in the workplace and eventually the
customer. When this happens begins to expect
low patronage, low sales and low profits.
• It impedes/hinder progress.
• Destroys customer and client relationship

• Can bring about bankruptcy
• Hatred and Animosity
• Increase problems that go with been
unemployed example: health challenges like:
depression, insomnia. Others are social ills,
financial crisis etc.

Pre-requisites of good Business
Communication
• Honesty
-Honesty is a cornerstone of all communication. Without
honesty, other useful methods are void. Plus, there's the
issue of breaking the other person's trust, which not only
will dissolve your current communication, it will also
jeopardize future relations.
-obviously dishonesty has a tendency to make itself known
at some point. Granted, use your good judgment for little
white lies that are incidental and spare hurt feelings, but
try to have a grain of truth to what you are saying.

• Direct:
By not getting to the point quickly and
efficiently, you run the risk of your main
message getting lost. You might come across
as poor communicator whom people dread
listening to. Don't beat around the bush.
Instead, be direct, forthcoming and concise
with what you are trying to say. Be assertive
but don't come across as harsh.

• Listening:
Listening to the other person and reacting
accordingly is just as important as what you say.
For example, if you are approaching employees
about a new meal break policy, you may have two
main points. However, employees may angrily
respond to your first point. At that time, don't
robotically move on to your next point; respond
to what they're saying.

• Body Language:
Nonverbal communication is just as significant as
verbal communication. Messages are sent with
eyes, posture and hand gestures. If you are doing
the talking, keep your body language in mind
when you are trying to be assertive and not
aggressive. For instance, don't get in the person's
face or slam your fists on a desk. When you are
the listener, maintain eye contact, avoid
defensive gestures, such as crossing your
arms, and sit still.

PRINCIPLE OF EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION – 7C’S

1. Completeness
2. Conciseness
3. Consideration
4. Concreteness
5. Clarity
6. Courtesy
7. Correctness

Completeness
• Message Receiver- either listener or reader, desire
complete information to their question. e.g. suppose
you are working with multinational company who is
engaging with engineering goods, like A.C. Now let say
one of your major customer wants some technical
information regarding “thermostat” (because he wants
to convey the same to the end users). In this case you
have to provide him complete information in a short
span of time. If possible, provide him some extra
information which he does not know, in this way you
can maintain a good business relation with
him, otherwise he may switch to an other company.

Conciseness
Conciseness means “convey the message by using fewest words”.
“Conciseness is the prerequisite to effective business
communication.” As you know that all businessmen have very short
time. Hence a concise message saves the time and expenses for
both the parties.
How to achieve the conciseness?
For achieving the conciseness you have to consider the following. 2.
Avoid wordy expression 3.Includeonly relevant material 4.Avoid
unnecessary repetition.
Avoid Wordy Expression
E.g. Wordy: - at this time. Instead of “at this time” you can just use
only a concise word: - NOW, Alwayst ry to use “To the point
Approach” in business scenario perspective.

Include only relevant information
• Always try to provide only relevant information to the receiver of
the message. Let’s say one of your customers requested
• For clients of the company
-in reply you should provide simply list of clients at the panel of
your company.
-No need to provide detailed business information about client at
all.
• Observe the following suggestions to “Include only relevant
information.”
• Stick to the purpose of message Delete irrelevant words Avoid long
introduction, unnecessary explanation etc. Get to the important
point concisely.

Avoid un-necessary Repetition
Some times repetition is necessary for focusing some special
issue. But when the same thing is said without two or three
reasons, the message become wordy and boring. That’s
why try to avoid Un-necessary repetition.
Some ways to eliminate unnecessary words
Use shorter name after you have mentioned the long once.
e.g. Spectrum communications Private limited use
spectrum. Use pronouns or initials E.g. Instead of world
trade organization use WTO or You can use I T for
Information Technology. (Keeping in views that receiver
knows about these term

Consideration
Consideration means – To consider the receiver’s
Interest/Intention. It is very important in effective
communication while writing a message you should
always keep in mind your target group consideration is
very important “C” among all the seven C’s.
Three specific ways to indicate consideration
• Focus on “you” instead of “I” or “We”
• Show audience benefit or interest of the receiver
• Emphasize positive, pleasant facts. Using “you” help
you, but over use lead a negative reaction.

Always write a message in such a way how
audience should be benefited from it.
• We attitude: “I am delighted to announce that we
will extend to make shopping more.”
• You attitude: “You will be able to shop in the
evening with the extended hours.” Readers may
react positively when benefit are shown to them.
Always try to address his/her need and want.
Always show/write to reader………… what has
been done so far as his/her query is concerned.
And always avoid that his/her need and
wants. Always avoid that has not been done so
far

Concreteness

It means that message should be specific instead
of general. Misunderstanding of words creates
problems for both parties (sender and receiver).
When you talk to your client always use facts
and figures instead of generic or
irrelevant information. The following guidelines
should help you to achieve the Concreteness.
• Use specific facts and figures
• choose image building words e.g. General He is
very intelligent student of class and stood first in
the class

Clarity
• Accurately is purpose of clarity
 In effective business communication the message shoul
d be very much clear. So that reader can understand it
easily. You should always choose precise words.
 Always choose familiar and easy words. Construct
effective sentences and paragraphs.
 In business communication always use precise words
rather longer statements. If you have a choice between
long words and shorter one, always use shorter one.
 You should try your level best to use familiar/easy to
understand words so that your reader will quickly
under stand it

Familiar Next familiar words
1-after subsequent
2-home domicile
3-for example e.g.
4-pay remuneration
5-invoice statement for payments

Courtesy
• Knowing your audience allows you to use statements
of courtesy; be aware of your message receiver.
• True courtesy involves being aware not only of the
perspective of others, but also their feelings. Courtesy
stems from a sincere you-attitude.
• It is not merely politeness with mechanical insertions
of “please” and“ Thank you”.
• Although Appling socially accepted manners is a form
of courtesy. Rather, it is politeness that grows out
respect and concern for others.
• Courteous communication generates a special tone in
their writing and speaking

• How to generate a Courteous Tone?
The following are suggestions for generating a courteous
tone: Be sincerely tactful, thoughtful and appreciative.
Use expressions that show respect for the others
Choose nondiscriminatory expressions be sincerely
Tactful, Thoughtful and Appreciative Though few
people are intentionally abrupt or blunt, these negative
traits are common cause of discourtesy. Avoid
expression like those in the left hand column below;
rephrase them as shown in the right-hand column

Tactless, Blunt More Tactful
• Stupid letter; I can’t • I should understand it, as
understand there is no confusing word in
this letter, could you please
explain it once again?
• It’s your fault, you
did not properly • Sometimes my wording is not
read my latest FAX precise; let me try again

• Thoughtfulness and Appreciation Writers who
send cordial, courteous messages of deserved
congratulations and appreciation (to a person
inside & outside) help to build goodwill. The
value of goodwill or public esteem for the
firm may be worth thousands of dollars

Correctness
• At the core of correctness are the proper
grammar, punctuation and spelling. However, message
must be perfect grammatically and mechanically. The term
correctness, as applied to business messages also mean
three characteristics
 Use the right level of language
 Check the accuracy of figures, facts and words
 Maintain acceptable writing mechanics.
• Use the right Level of Language
• We suggest that there are three level of language 2. Formal
3. informal 4. Substandard. Take a quick guess: what kind of
writing is associated with each level? What is the style
of each?

• Use the right Level of Language
We suggest that there are three level of
language
• Formal
• informal
• Substandard.

• Formal and Informal Words

Formal writing is often associated with
scholarly writing: doctoral dissertations, schol
arly, legal documents, top-level government
agreements and other material where
formality is demanded. Informal writing is
more characteristic of business writing. Here
you use words that are short, well-known and
conversational as in this comparison list:

More Formal Less Formal
• Participate • Join
• Endeavor • Try
• Ascertain • find out
• Utilize • Use
• Interrogate • question

Substandard Language:
Avoid substandard language. Using correct words, incorrect
grammar, faulty pronunciation all suggest as in ability to use
good English. Some examples follow:
Substandard More Acceptable
• Ain’t • isn’t, aren’t
• Can’t hardly • can hardly
• Aim to proving • aim to prove
• Desirous to • desirous of
• Stoled • stole

Facts and Figures Accuracy
Check Accuracy of Facts, Figures and words it is impossible to
convey meaning precisely, through words, from the head of the
sender to a receiver. Our goal is to be as precise as possible, which
means checking and double-checking and double-checking to
ensure that the figures, facts and words you use are correct. “A
good check of your data is to have another person read and
comment on the validity of the material”
• Figures and facts
• Verify your statistical data
• Double-check your totals
• Avoid guessing at laws that have an impact on you, the sender
and your
• Have someone else read your message if the topic involves data.
• Determine whether a “fact” has changed over time

• Proper Use of Confusing Words!
Our Language (Any) is constantly changing. In fact, even
dictionaries can not keep up with rapid change in our
language. The following words often confusing in
usage:
A, An use a before consonants and consonants sounds
or a long” u” sound. Use an before vowels.
Accept, except accept is a verb and means to receive.
Except is a verb or a preposition and relates to omitting
or leaving out. Anxious, eager Anxious implies worry,
eager conveys keen desire

communication errors

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