Eight Rules for Proper Business Communication

It is essential to develop an awareness of how technology should best be used to avoid negative outcomes for employees and the workplace in general.

Here are some guidelines for communicating in an effective, respectful manner.

Technology

In today’s business environment, we rely more and more on technology to communicate with one another.

Our ability to communicate has been greatly enhanced, and our choices for communication media are ever-expanding.

From cellular telephones to Email, fax machines to Palm Pilots, communication devices are linked to the way we do business now more than ever before.

This new technology has had many positive benefits for the business world.

Best Practise

Unfortunately, since the range of options has expanded at such a quick rate, many people seem to be unaware of how best to use the devices they now have.

It is essential to develop an awareness of how technology should best be used to avoid negative outcomes for employees and the workplace in general.

In the last two decades, communications technology in the United States has developed at an extremely rapid rate.

Email

Twenty years ago, people did not even know what Email was.

Now, phrases like IM me or Google it are commonplace, household terms that seem inseparable from our personal or business lives.

But most people don’t know how to properly use these new advances.

Take Email, for example, misuse of this medium has led to the demise of executives such as Credit Suisse First Boston tech banker Frank Quattrone, Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Henry M. Blodgett, as well as senior executives from Enron.

Permanent Record

The problem with some individuals is that they don’t realise that electronic communications can be and often are permanent.

Even text messages can be stored and retrieved by the server processing them.

But for most people, it’s not a matter of not realising that sensitive, potentially career-ruining information should not be sent willy-nilly, it’s just that they don’t know how to use electronic communication in a polite way.

Just because we have these devices, does not grant us license to substitute rudeness for manners.

There is a new code of electronic manners in using telephones, PDAs, laptop computers, faxes, and so on.

Eight Guidelines For Communicating

Here are eight guidelines for communicating in an effective, respectful manner:

1. Appropriate Time And Place

Don’t use your cell phone at inappropriate times, in inappropriate places, or in an inappropriate way. This invades others privacy and disrupts their ability to concentrate.

2. Personal Space

Don’t encroach on others personal space when using your laptop computer. There are appropriate times/places to connect and use your laptop and there are times when it is not appropriate.