Business Communication
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Jenny Rae Le Roux, Managing Director of Management Consulted, discusses key principles for effective business communication. She highlights three forms: emails, meetings, and interpersonal discussions. For emails, she emphasizes clear objectives, bullet points, and single action items. Meetings should start with next steps and follow a structured agenda. Interpersonal communication should be brief, structured, and purposeful. Mastering these skills can lead to more efficient and productive communication within organizations. For more insights, she encourages viewers to reach out or subscribe for corporate training.
Takeaways
- 📧 Emails should start with a clear takeaway and a defined purpose.
- 📝 Bullet points and bold text help emphasize important data or action items in emails.
- ✅ Ask for only one action or request in each email for clarity and effectiveness.
- 📅 Meetings should have clear agendas and expected takeaways shared beforehand.
- ⚡ Start meetings with next steps and follow a structured process to avoid wasted time.
- 🔼 Use the pyramid principle to guide meetings, focusing on assertions and decisions.
- 👥 Interpersonal conversations should follow a structure, with purposeful questions and a clear flow.
- ⏲️ Keep verbal interactions brief and focused to maintain engagement and efficiency.
- 🤝 Pay attention to cues in conversations to know when to conclude or shift direction.
- 📊 Effective business communication drives action, clarity, and better relationships within organizations.
Q & A
What are the three main forms of business communication mentioned in the transcript?
-The three main forms of business communication are emails, meetings, and interpersonal discussions.
What is the key takeaway for writing effective emails in business communication?
-Effective emails should start with a clear purpose or takeaway, use bullet points for data, highlight key action items, and ask for one specific action.
How has the nature of emails evolved over time according to the transcript?
-Emails used to be more formal, resembling letters with headers and detailed information. However, with the rise of communication platforms like Slack and text messaging, emails have become less formal and are now often shorter and more direct.
What is the most common problem with business meetings?
-The most common problem with meetings is that attendees often arrive unprepared, trying to figure out the agenda during the meeting rather than beforehand.
What are the recommended steps to ensure a productive business meeting?
-To ensure a productive meeting, start with next steps, provide a clear agenda beforehand, state your assertions, and focus on seeking approval, input, or updates.
How does the pyramid principle apply to meetings?
-The pyramid principle suggests starting with the most important information or assertion, followed by supporting details, which helps in making meetings shorter and more efficient.
What is the key principle for effective interpersonal communication in a business setting?
-The key principle for effective interpersonal communication is structure, which involves asking purposeful questions, keeping conversations concise, and being aware of cues to end the conversation.
Why is it important to maintain structure during business discussions?
-Structure helps keep the interaction focused and productive, ensuring that conversations are efficient, brief, and lead to the desired outcome, whether it's information exchange or relationship building.
What are the key components of a successful business communication strategy?
-A successful business communication strategy includes clear, direct emails with specific actions, structured meetings with agendas and clear outcomes, and well-organized interpersonal discussions.
What does Jenny Rae Le Roux offer to organizations regarding business communication?
-Jenny Rae Le Roux and her team offer corporate training on business communication, helping organizations improve their communication practices for greater success.
Outlines
📧 Importance of Effective Business Communication
The speaker, Jenny Rae Le Roux, introduces the topic of business communication, emphasizing its importance both inside and outside an organization. She explains that while many mistakes can be made, success comes from mastering a few key principles. Jenny Rae highlights her experience as the Managing Director of Management Consulted and discusses how her team of ex-MBB consultants (McKinsey, Bain, and BCG) focuses on training professionals for success in consulting and beyond.
📧 Email Communication: Getting the Basics Right
Jenny Rae focuses on email communication as the first form of business communication. She explains that emails have evolved from formal, letter-like formats to being more informal due to platforms like Slack and text messaging. Key tips for effective emails include starting with the main takeaway, supporting data with bullet points, bolding important information, and requesting only one action item. Despite the shift in style, the goal remains the same: writing emails that drive action.
📅 Effective Meetings: Agendas and Action Steps
Jenny Rae identifies meetings as the second form of business communication, pointing out that the biggest problem is when attendees come unprepared. To make meetings productive, she suggests always having a clear agenda and focusing on next steps from the beginning. Meetings should start with an assertion and work through the necessary approvals, updates, or feedback. By following a structured approach like the pyramid principle, meetings become shorter and more effective.
💬 Interpersonal Communication: Structuring Conversations
The third form of communication Jenny Rae discusses is interpersonal or verbal communication. She emphasizes the importance of having structure in casual conversations, even without agendas or presentations. Good interpersonal communication involves asking purposeful questions, keeping interactions brief, and being mindful of when to end the conversation. Jenny highlights that mastering these elements ensures effective exchanges within the organization.
🎯 Key Takeaways for Successful Business Communication
Jenny Rae summarizes the three key forms of business communication: clear and direct emails, well-structured meetings, and purposeful interpersonal interactions. By focusing on specific actions in emails, having agendas for meetings, and maintaining structure in discussions, professionals can improve the overall effectiveness of their communication. Jenny Rae closes by inviting viewers to engage with her organization for corporate training and to stay connected through subscriptions and their mailing list.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Business communication
💡Emails
💡Meetings
💡Pyramid principle
💡Interpersonal communication
💡Clear agenda
💡Takeaway
💡Structure
💡Action-oriented
💡Next steps
Highlights
There are only a few keys to success in business communication, both inside and outside of an organization.
Emails should always start with a clear takeaway, explaining the purpose of the message.
Modern emails are less formal than before, influenced by communication tools like Slack and text messaging.
To make emails effective, include bulleted data, bold important points, and focus on one action item.
Emails that are concise and clear will drive action, which is the main goal of sending them.
Meetings should have clear agendas and specific next steps to make them efficient.
Start meetings with the desired outcomes to ensure clarity and direction from the beginning.
The pyramid principle is recommended for meeting communication to achieve concise, effective conversations.
Interpersonal communication, like discussions, also needs structure to maintain focus.
Effective verbal communication involves purposeful questioning, time management, and reading cues for when to end conversations.
Clear and structured emails, meetings, and discussions lead to more productive business interactions.
Emails should avoid overwhelming the recipient with too much information and should be easy to read.
Business meetings should focus on assertions, approval, and input, with clear processes in mind.
Interpersonal communication should balance giving and taking in conversations to achieve clear outcomes.
The overall aim of business communication is to effectively drive action and foster productive relationships.
Transcripts
Business communication.
There are a lot of mistakes to be made, but just a few keys to success when you are thinking
about how to communicate clearly inside and outside your organization.
Hi, I'm Jenny Rae Le Roux, the Managing Director of Management Consulted.
And we’re a group of ex-MBB consultants, McKinsey, Bain, and BCG, who focus on training
organizations and universities on how to develop professionals that are going to be successful
in consulting and beyond.
Our focus today is on business communication.
And what I want to do is I want to walk through three forms of business communication, and
then I want to talk about a few highlights of what makes business communication successful.
Form number one.
Business communication is emails.
I want to talk a little bit about this because there is the version of email that has become
a lot less professional over time.
It used to be that emails were really like letters.
There were headers, and detailed information, and guidances.
It was literally just writing a whole bunch of different stuff.
And with the emergence of things like Slack channels, and text messaging as a popular
form of communication, we are seeing emails used in different ways today.
First of all, an email always needs to have a takeaway at the beginning.
Why you’re writing the email and what the purpose is of what you’re writing.
If there is data that you need to support it, you need to bullet that data.
Make sure that it’s not the kind of email that somebody opens and thinks I’ll never
read this.
You need to bold specific information in order to highlight what action item someone needs
to do, and you need to ask people on the email for one thing, and one thing only.
I’m guilty of not doing this well, and so are other people.
But overall, if you can get this 80% right, or 90% right, you’re going to find that
the emails that you do write actually drive action, which is the whole point in investing
in them in the first place.
Second of all, you’ve got meetings.
What’s the biggest problem with meetings?
It’s when people show up expecting to figure out in the meeting what they’re going to
do in the meeting.
Meetings need to have clear agendas beforehand, and clear takeaways.
We recommend starting every meeting with next steps.
Here are the things that we want to cover after the meeting, and we want to be prepared
to do.
Then begin with what your assertion is.
This is what we think, this is where we are, this is what we see happening.
And then focus on the process that you either need approval, or input, or an update on.
If you are able to do that, you’re using the pyramid principle method of communication,
and you’re driving shorter, more effective meetings where you can get more done.
Finally, the third form of communication is discussion, or interpersonal when you are
having conversation with folks that are inside your organization.
It’s imperative that when you’re having conversation, just verbal, without any guidance,
like a meeting, no agenda or no presentation, you’re still guided by one key principle,
and that is structure.
Structure means that you are asking questions that have a purpose, that you are engaging
in a way that has a limited quantity of time to it so that you are able to keep your interactions
brief and more enjoyable.
And finally, that you are working with somebody to take their cues to figure out when the
conversation needs to end.
Interpersonal communication is a huge topic of study, and it’s something that is really
essential that folks need to know.
But ultimately, if you get these three types of communication right, clear, direct emails
with a specific singular action, great meeting agendas to drive shorter, more focused, more
action-oriented meetings, and business communication where you’re giving and taking in interactions
where you’re able to get exactly what you want and need, either information, or contact,
or relationship out of it, you’re going to find that business communication will be
more effective for you.
If you’re interested in corporate training on business communication, we would love to
come in and speak with your organization.
If you have specific issues or insights that you would like to hear more about, please
make sure that you write us.
Subscribe to our channel or get on our mailing list.
We’d love to share a lot of the insights and topics that we’ve got with you there.
Thanks for watching.
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