榴莲视屏

When someone says communication skill,听you probably think about the 鈥渟oft skills鈥� theme.听Nowadays, the digital era requires from us to have a good mechanical/technical process or routine when it comes to sharing our message.听Let me explain.听Soft skills are great when you have an in-person meeting with someone.听When it comes to digital communication we should be more strategic and use the technology in our hands to mimic the soft skills and deliver the message in the right manner.听With everything we communicate, we are trying to trigger change or action.听To be more persuasive and effective in your communication, use the following five routines:

Draft Your Message First

Start with the end in mind.听What do you want to happen after the receiver reads/receives your message/information?听Write that down as a subject line on a white piece of paper. Be direct.听Below write why, giving a context about your request.听After you got this right, do this next…

Think About the Receiver’s Needs

Of course you need something. But in order to get it, you have to place the receiver’s needs/state of mind on the pedestal.听What do THEY need and how much time do THEY have to process that?听If you are communicating something like Status Report, then you can鈥檛 send the same information to every stakeholder.听Meaning, your team members need information that is highly detailed and highly specific to the work they are assigned.听Going higher in the organisational hierarchy, you should have summarised and actionable, distilled information delivered directly and quickly.听After you give the right form for the right audience to your message, it is time to.

Choose the Right Communication Channel

Let鈥檚 do a quick recap. Right now,

• You know your goal
• You know what the other side needs
• You know in what form you should put your message in order to reach your goal while meeting the receiver鈥檚 needs

In other words, you鈥檝e prepared the right “vehicle”.听Now you need to choose the right 鈥渞oad鈥� for it.听For example:

Status Reports

No paper, ok?听Living in 2015, you should have a听dashboard/PM software听where your stakeholders and team can see/receive the right form of status report.听It will be short, clean and everyone can get it in their smartphone. So prepare your text for that kind of 鈥渃onsumption鈥�.

Workflow Communication

There are two ways to handle this. Normal team communication, execution communication and project related issues should be handled within a听project management software.听Official matters within the project execution should be handled via email and the PM software too.

Urgent Matter

Phone and voicemail.听People often hide behind the monitors, waiting the other side to show up. Action is what it counts. That is why you should pick up the phone anytime you need to deliver concise and urgent message.

Use the Compass Routine

The attention span of people is becoming very short.听That鈥檚 where the 鈥渃ompass鈥� method come in.听It is basically creating a short highlights/overview with links/directions about 鈥渨hat can be found 听where鈥� + attachments.

This is you saying: 鈥淗ere are the main points and here are the places you should go if you want to go deeper.鈥�

To Make It Right, Schedule It

If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter. – Blaise Pascal

To make your communication professional and efficient in the same time, you should really spend time on it (or have someone do it for you.)听That is why you should schedule time in your calendar where you can sit down and work on it.听It is the only way your message to cut through the noise and trigger action on the other side.

As you know, real communication requires many soft skills in different stages like leading, negotiating and providing performance feedback. In this day and age, it is essential to have processes and good techniques too. That is why, the best project managers fancy both the soft skills and the good process skills.听A good part of being good in the communication is the tools you use. The digital trends always introduce something new to us. The problem with that is having too many tools and end up overwhelmed and confused. For other aspects in the construction site, download The Circle of Productivity to further improve your productivity.