Skip to main content

Why business communication should be part of a strategic plan

Effective business communication should be part of a strategic plan and revised on an annual basis. A manager needs to constantly communicate with employees to inform them about their roles in the business and what their duties are.  Good business communication provides clear direction to employees on how their duties can contribute towards the success of the business.  A manager should never neglect to communicate with employees and assume that they know what their roles in the business are.

But what should this strategic communication plan entail?

Each business is different and has its own policies and structures.  Similarly the size, culture, mission and vision as well as managerial style of a business vary.

Depending on the above, the strategic communication plan should indicate all communication activities in the business and who should be responsible for these activities.  Clear communication channels should be identified to convey specific messages to employees on specific dates throughout the year.  Employees should be given the opportunity to provide feedback to the manager.  They should feel that the manager cares enough to act on the feedback and they are being listened to.  Apart from communicating their roles and tasks in the business, all employees should also be fully trained in the products of the business, not only the sales people, for example.

Communication in the business should be integrated.  This means that communication to external clients should be consistent and not confusing.  The receptionist, for instance, should convey the same brand message as the switch board operator.  Product training will assist in conveying unified messages.

Business communication should also be evaluated on a regular basis to ensure that the communication goals are met.  Managers should not be faceless and only communicate via electronic channels, but also meet with employees face-to-face to ensure that the business goals are understood and met.  Also read this article on how integrated communications can increase sales in a business.  See also my post on the importance of good business communication.

Go to Biz-commPulse homepage

Popular posts from this blog

The role of the manager in effective business communication

Business communication is no longer about how to write a letter, email or use effective writing skills.  It has also extended to other areas in the business, for example, excellent relationships within the business. A manager should not only concentrate on successful communication with its external clients, customers and stakeholders.  The employees of the business actually areinternal clientsand should also be treated with care.  Many scholars refer to this asinternal marketing, a very important feature of good business communication.  Employees’ well-being and work satisfaction play a large role in their productivity and how loyal they will be towards the business.  The role of the manager is to ensure good relationships with and among employees.   A healthy working environment is equally important.  Previous research has indicated that employees also have other career aspirations than only a salary.
Unhappy employees as a result of poor communication processes in the business can ne…

Obstacles in achieving efficient cross cultural communication

Effective cross cultural communication is increasingly becoming more important in a business. Employees usually consist of diverse cultures with different backgrounds.  Although all employees need to adhere to the corporate culture in a business (the way things are usually done), a manager needs to have good cross cultural communication skills when it comes to dealing with employees with different cultural backgrounds.  Many managers want to achieve better cultural communication, but still face many barriers.  The following are the most common cross cultural communication barriers many managers still have to overcome in their attempt to communicate better with diverse employees:
Values and attitudes: The manager may have different values than his or her employees or the employees may even have different values and attitudes. At the end of the day it is the task that has to be completed and having different values and attitudes can be overcome if all employees all share a common vision …

What is your managerial communication style?

As a manager you communicate in a specific manner to your employees.  Your communication style can fall within different managerial approaches but in this article I will focus on the two most common styles, namely the classical and humanistic managerial communication styles.  I will first explain the more formal classical style.
A manager who has a classical managerial (authoritarian) communication style:
communicates through formal communication media such as oral and/or written and visual communication and very little face to face discussions.creates but also uses opportunities to make the long and short term goals of the business clear using these formal communication media.changes 'unacceptable’ attitudes and opinions by shaping new ones through manipulation.diminishes fear and suspicion because of misinformation or misinterpretation of the right but unclear information.communicates numerous rules to employees.prevents or corrects misunderstanding from lack of information and pr…