Communication Excellence in the Work Place - Coursework Example

COMMUNICATION EXCELLENCE IN THE WORK PLACE SE2233 Assignment Introduction Effective communication in the workplace is a critical factor to the accomplishment of personal and organizational goals. It requires discretion with regards to the selection of the right terminologies that effectively pass the right message and concentrating on what is being said to grasp all information. These are skills that need to be continually developed. This paper assesses strategies of performing with communication excellence in the work place. It evaluates the role of communication in securing the right job, assimilating in the new job and performing with excellence in it. Securing the Right Job Securing the right job is a significant step towards fulfillment of a person’s career objective in a highly competitive job market. It helps a job seeker to avoid landing on uninteresting jobs that may lower his/her morale in future. Knowing oneself is core in the process of identifying the right job. A person needs to understand the nature of work as well as the expected remuneration. It is necessary for a person to analyze the desired work values and determine their significance to the individual. Such values include the possibility of working under little or no supervision, opportunity to serve others, reputation, recognition in the workplace and outside as well as job security. Self-perception is important in enhancing communication between the job seeker and the interviewing panel with regards to the job expectations. The foundation of problems in the workplace is lack of understanding in the job seeker with regards to what he/she wants in the available job. Understanding one-self enhances evaluation of a person’s strengths and weaknesses, which are necessary in developing a resume that capitalizes on the strengths that match the employer’s requirements. Formal search for available positions that march personal competences and interests consumes time but is an important aspect towards securing the right job. It allows the candidate to carefully analyze the professional background to understand the necessary information to be shared in the interview. It allows the job applicant to choose the right presentation matching the job. There are usually many job applicants for the same position and each person makes efforts to be the winner. Prior understanding of the nature of profession offers a competitive edge to a candidate over others. Attending an interview without this information lowers the chances of success. Effective communication is a key aspect for successful job applications. The manner in which the applicant presents himself in the cover letter and the resume when applying for the job determines whether the candidate will be shortlisted. The applicant needs to demonstrate in writing how his/her strengths will be useful to the organization if appointed. This does not require any prior connections with the organization. Rather, the candidate uses the knowledge gathered to demonstrate competence even though other candidates may possess greater skills for the job. Broad knowledge about the audience in the interview helps the candidate to avoid being caught off-guard with unexpected questions. He/she therefore answers the questions tactically increasing chances of success. Another important aspect in securing a new job is to step back and reflect on performance in the interview. Even with significant efforts to prepare for the interview, there is a possibility of candidates with greater competences getting the job. In case of failure, the job seeker needs to maintain the same approach of professional excellence when searching for a job in other companies until he/she secures the right job. Assimilating in the New Job Leveraging on diversity is a significant aspect that helps to highlight a person’s usefulness in the new job. An organization may be focused on hiring employees from different cultural backgrounds to demonstrate its non-discriminative human resource approach through offering equal opportunities. However, employees need to think beyond the equality aspect and demonstrate their cultural strengths. For example, rather than merely indicating in the application cover letter the various languages the applicant can speak, he/she can demonstrate in writing how the multilingual competence and understanding of different cultures can help the organization to venture in to unexploited markets. It is also necessary for the employee to mention this cultural competence at an opportune moment during the orientation in to the new workplace. Highlighting new growth opportunities that have not been discovered demonstrates strategic thinking that is necessary for the organization to accomplish its goals. It is important to understand the organizational culture and establish ways of assimilating the new ways of socialization and accomplishment of tasks. The new employee needs to adapt to the new job and become a team member. Quick adjustment to the workplace can be accomplished through understanding the organizational culture, which includes the manner in which the organization functions, employee commitment to the job and the manner in which the organization relates with stakeholders in the business. Information gathering can be accomplished through asking those involved in various tasks, questioning fellow employees, listening to customer complaints and observing the way their complaints are handled, general observation of behaviour and exploring inter-personal relationships in the workplace. Cultural competence is necessary to help the new employee to cope with others from diverse cultures. It is also important in the avoidance of conflicts in the workplace since the person checks the opinion of other employees on different issues and whether the understanding is correct. Apart from cultural diversity, other aspects such as gender balance and disability mainstreaming demonstrate workplace diversity that a new employee needs to understand soon after joining the organization. Using Interpersonal Skills to perform with Excellence in the Work Place Inter-personal skills are among the highly valued aspects by organizations in the workplace. They are useful in establishing good relations among employees, between employees and customers as well as management. They are important in developing working teams that are necessary in the accomplishment of organizational goals and overall business success. People who cannot be supportive or unable to understand other people’s feelings lack interpersonal skills that are necessary to work effectively to accomplish organizational goals. Deficiency of interpersonal skills puts the integrity of the workplace at risk and hampers organizational efficiency. Empathy is one of the interpersonal skills that are necessary in the accomplishment of workplace excellence. It is the capacity to recognize the emotions and the vantage point of other people. It helps a person to appreciate the difficulties encountered by other people in their day to day tasks rather than making a general assumption that their failure is a consequence of deficiency of skills or indolence. Such a person has the ability to understand the predicaments facing colleagues and can establish supportive strategies to help them cope with challenging situations. Excellence in the workplace is accomplished through a process that involves failures and successes in the learning curve. It can only be accomplished when an individual loses track and is assisted to regain the right footing. Employees who possess empathy are likely to develop in to charismatic team leaders. Employers highly appreciate cooperative employees due to the significant correlation between cooperativeness and productivity. They shelf their individual interests in favour of collective organizational goals and only claim tasks that match their abilities. Understanding the right function of an individual in a team is necessary to avoid causing conflicts by performing tasks meant for others. Cooperativeness promotes accomplishment of team goals since every person has a role to play to achieve a common objective. Individualistic tendencies are avoided in a team comprised of cooperative people. Respect is also significant in the workplace since it promotes an organization’s repute through customer satisfaction and maintenance of employee motivation. A disrespectful supervisor can hinder success in the organization even if employees are skilled and committed to their work. On the other hand, an ill-mannered employee can discourage loyal customers. Respect helps to avoid problems and promotes friendly working relations. It enhances consultation, which is necessary in the daily operations of an organization. Conclusion Securing the right job is an important step towards effective career progression and fulfilment. It can be accomplished through understanding oneself, formal searching of positions that match individual skills, effective communication and stepping back to reflect on the possibilities of interview outcomes. Effective assimilation in to the new job is important for an individual to develop commitment for the tasks. It can be accomplished through leveraging on diversity and proper understanding of organizational culture. Interpersonal skills are necessary in the accomplishment of overall organizational goals. Empathy, cooperativeness and respect are some interpersonal skills in employees that are highly valued by organizations. Read More