The beginning of the year is a busy time for companies. Targets are set. Decisions are made on areas that need improvement. Tasks are assigned. Regardless of the issues addressed, there is lots of work to do and none easy to accomplish. After all, you are attempting to change what already exists, what you’re accustomed to. No matter what your targets are, your first task should be to make your internal company communication perfect. The only way to overcome such a big and important work load can only be achieved by uniting as a team and becoming a single body. Employees, who clash with each other, don’t understand each other, cannot empathize, and most of all don’t share the same goals, cannot be expected to bring the company to the desired level.
There are some relationship principles that each of us must adopt and use in order for healthy communication to occur. These principles can be summarized as follows:
1. To believe that each individual is valuable with her/his own unique characteristics and to show her/him unconditional positive interest during the communication phase,
2. To accept each individual unconditionally,
3. To believe that each individual has the power to solve her/his own problems,
4. To just be yourself, without pretense,
5. To be consistent in our emotions, thoughts and behavior
6. To put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and to have the ability to see their problems through their eyes and to experience what they are feeling without losing our objectivity,
7. All of the aforementioned principles should co-exist as a whole during any type of communication and we should be able to convey it to the other individual.
Thus, a good communication environment will have been prepared. The person of contact will be relaxed, will have no difficulties expressing her/himself, will have the opportunity to get to know herself/himself better and the foundation for a healthy relationship will be built. Different applications of communication are known to directly affect productivity within the company. Communication that is directed accurately plays an important role in efficiency both in terms of production and the motivation of employees. Effective communication allows us to utilize all the other skills that we possess to the best of our ability. Our ability to motivate people, to give responsibility, to organize, to solve problems and to gather information all directly depends on our ability to communicate with others.
We cannot achieve success in our business life or even in our private life, unless we communicate effectively. Allowing others to communicate effectively with you is just as important as communicating effectively with them. Communication is a two-way street. It's just as important to listen to messages from others as it is to convey our messages to others. This type of communication will make it possible for us to give others what they need and receive information that we need. Information flow takes place through three types of communication in workplaces:
1. One-way communication (takes place when a directive is given or information is passed on)
2. Two-way communication
3. Feedback
If an organization has effective and two-way communication practices; one might say that the organization is working successfully. The content, form, ways and style of communication will directly influence employees at the work place and customers. Establishing quality communication; will prevent problems that may arise due to communication conflicts or deficiencies; hence, a quality and healthy work environment will be provided for employees. Subsequently, job satisfaction, motivation, customer satisfaction, an increase in the company’s profits and productivity will emerge in the work place. Dynamic steps cannot be taken by firms, companies or institutions having work environments where people don’t see eye to eye, don’t speak the same language, don’t share information and where walls and obstacles are present between them.
In workplaces where internal communication is inadequate, essential skills such as making quick decisions, making the right moves, the ability to react quickly, to react as a whole are crippled and don’t function efficiently. In-house communication channels can be provided with correspondence tools such as e-mail, as well as face-to-face and telephone tools for small businesses. However, if things discussed or agreed upon are not followed through, employees might resort to blaming each other when problems occur. Most companies practice their own interoffice correspondence techniques so as not to leave decisions or information that have been shared hanging in the air. Nevertheless, no tool can be successful in communication without breaking down the barriers in minds. Some advantages will occur when effective communication is established. There are positive and negative consequences of effective and poor communication.
