Communication For International Business. Rus Slater

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ plan

       7.2 Create and maintain a virtual presence

       7.3 Use the technology to replicate the communication of an F2F team

       7.4 Be a good host

       7.5 ‘Slow down to speed up!’

       7.6 Run good virtual team meetings

       7.7 Communicate with your people’s other (local) managers

       7.8 Think ‘Goose’!

       7.9 Look for the signs that it is all going wrong

       Footnotes

       Jargon buster

       About the Book

       About the Author

       About the Publisher

       Communication is critical, communicating intercontinentally is complex

      The world is getting smaller. Most of us will probably have clients, or suppliers, in another country at some time or other.

      And if we don’t we’ll probably belong to a business community of practice that is global. The way we communicate across these boundaries can make the difference between success and failure.

      With this book you should be able to communicate effectively with colleagues, suppliers and customers who come from different cultures, speak different native languages and live in different environments to your own. The chapters are:

1	Listen and look; seek first to understand: with international communication there are some extra critical elements to this;

2	Say and write: nine simple and straightforward ‘rules’ to help you to get your message across to others across the seas;

3	Technology and media: how to make contact in order to be as effective as possible;

4	Taking the environment into account: this helps you to consider the differences in the working environments that exist between where you are and where they are;

5	Netiquette: eight secrets to help you to master the mouse;

6	Intercontinental differences: this chapter aims to try to highlight some of the major cultural differences between people from different nations, without slipping into racial stereotypes;

7	Communicating with a remote team: this chapter aims to distil the best practice for managing a remote team.

      It is easy to cause offence if you don’t understand the people you are communicating with. But if you understand them, you can be as successful as if you were communicating with your own family.

      

      Communication is a two-way process. Many books on the topic, and many people, will start addressing the issue of communication by looking at the matter of transmitting information to another party. But receiving information, and understanding the environment in which your message is received, is critically important. This is particularly vital when you are trying to get a message across to someone who doesn’t speak the same language as you as their native tongue. Or someone who is in a completely different time zone or working environment. You may not be able to see each other so there may be no non-verbal cues to their real meaning. This chapter aims to help you to avoid some of the more common errors in international communication.

       1.1

       Listen to and for the ‘prepared speech’

      When people are communicating in a non-native language they often prepare far more, and are much less spontaneous, than if they were talking in their mother tongue. One common element of this is a prepared speech which they may actually read from a script or they may have rehearsed to the point of memory.

      There are several ways that you can tell when someone is reciting a prepared speech:

      ▪ They tend to plunge straight in with the minimum of ‘phatic’ communication.

      ▪ They tend to speak quite quickly with few pauses or hesitations.

      ▪ There is seldom any ‘um’ or ‘er’ in their speech.

      ▪ The delivery tends to be quite monotone with little modulation.

      ▪ If they are interrupted, they tend to lose the flow of what they were saying.

      Listening to prepared speeches can be quite annoying for many people; the characteristics listed above don’t make interesting listening and the delivery style prevents (or at least discourages) you from asking any questions. However …

      “To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well” John Marshall, Chief Justice US Supreme Court, 1801–35

      A prepared speech provides the speaker with a huge amount of psychological comfort that they are making their mark on the dialogue. It gives the speaker confidence that he or she is ‘present’ and contributing, when they may be struggling with unfamiliar words, phrases and sentence structure. If there are others involved in the dialogue who have the same concerns, it establishes a degree of camaraderie. So if you are on the receiving end of a clearly prepared speech and you find it annoying and are concerned that it is taking up time that could be spent on more pressing matters, tough it out!

      ▪ Listen.

      ▪ Thank the speaker.

      ▪ Summarize what you heard.

      ▪ Ask if others agree, or ask what parts they agree with.

      ▪ Offer you own opinions.

      This may make initial meetings a little slow but in the longer run it will pay dividends as people recognize that they can communicate with confidence in a language which to them may be foreign.

      Think about more than just the message people are giving you, be considerate of their need to be listened to.

       1.2

       ‘Look’ for the СКАЧАТЬ