Business culture

Business communication skills are essential for a successful career in any field: success in corporate communication will largely depend on everyday communication skills, but the professional sphere has its own specifics. A culture of business communication is about the ways in which you interact with colleagues, bosses, subordinates and partners, as well as certain rules. It is very important to build communication depending on the situation, goals and objectives, as well as be able to quickly adapt to changing situations.

Communicative culture is a broader concept than a set of speech acts. It consists of many components. In the culture of business communication, appearance is of great importance: it must correspond to your field of activity and a specific situation.

There is usually a uniform to work with clients, a business suit to work in an office, people of creative professions dress in a certain way, and those who hold management positions need to emphasize their status with clothes and accessories. It may seem that appearance is not directly related to business communication. However, it is the first impression that you make that determines the interlocutor's attitude towards you. If this impression is negative, in the process of dialogue you will have to spend a lot of energy in order to rehabilitate yourself.

Non-verbal language is equally important in communication. Your postures, gestures and demeanor are very important from a psychological point of view. Try to keep your facial expressions discreet enough. Gesturing is very important, but it should be moderate, not overly intense.

If you are in the mood for a partner dialogue, it is best to choose an open pose.You can try to unobtrusively adjust to the pose of the interlocutor. To avoid being perceived with aggression, eye contact should only take a few seconds. Sitting at the negotiating table should not be directly opposite the interlocutor, but a little from the side.

What you say matters as much as how you say it. It is very important to have reliable information, be able to operate with facts and competently build the content of the discussion.

Choosing words, intonation, posture and gestures is important for a specific situation, because in different cases different behavior will be appropriate. The culture of business communication, depending on the situation and the goals pursued, can be divided into several types:

• The mentor type implies edification... This option is typical for the training process of trainees, for educational and scientific events, for explaining to subordinates of individual work moments, as well as when working in a team with colleagues, if you are a specialist in the field in which they are less versed. Very often, such communication is built in the form of a monologue, however, in modern business communication, dialogue is considered more preferable: even in the learning process, try to involve the interlocutors in the discussion and listen to their points of view.
• Motivational type aims to interest a person in a project, convince him of the expediency of this or that work, help employees believe in themselves and feel more confident in any new or simply difficult task. For success, try to avoid common phrases and clichés. The best thing is to set a personal example, tell your own story and explain in your own words what exactly attracts you to a particular project.
• Confrontational type a communicative culture provokes the interlocutor to object to you, to disagree with your point of view. This type includes a number of techniques used in the event of a conflict of interest. Most often, a confrontation situation is typical for negotiations, as well as for enhancing attention when working with a passive, inert audience.
• Information type the most neutral - within its framework, you can simply convey this or that information to the listener. Try to avoid confusing information type with others. If the goal is to inform the interlocutor, you do not need to try to lecture him, infect him with your enthusiasm or enter into conflict. In this case, it is necessary that the presentation was intelligible - for this, try to adapt to the interlocutor and explain everything using examples that he understands.

Most of the important issues related to professional activity are decided in the process of personal communication. For sociable and open people who know how to correctly present any information (through gestures, facial expressions and intonation), this is more a plus than a minus. In personal business communication, the content of the discussion does not play a key role, the main thing is to establish contact and correctly state your position.

Personal communication can consist of fairly long monologues or, on the contrary, of more or less short phrases. In either case, it is very important not just to present information, as if you were writing a synopsis, but to convey it to a specific interlocutor, adjusting to him. Before negotiating, write down the key points you want to discuss, but never memorize speech - it is necessary to change the nature of the narration, sequence, examples (depending on the reaction of the listeners).

In the same way, you need to work with intonation and gestures. If you lose the attention of the other person, make the speech more emotional. If you feel unwanted confrontation with your partner, try copying the person’s postures and gestures.It is very important not to be overly restrained, otherwise the presentation of information will be boring, and you will give the impression of an insecure person.

In the course of a personal conversation, you often have to make difficult decisions spontaneously. If the negotiation process does not bring up topics that you expected, it is very important to remain calm. Try not to overreact to problems, always respond calmly. If you cannot immediately determine which decision to make, you can always take some time to think and weigh the advantages and disadvantages in a relaxed environment.

Many issues are now being resolved by phone. Usually, these are minor clarifications of any information or organizational issues: for example, when a phone call, colleagues often specify names and exact numbers, make appointments, give or receive assignments. Long telephone conversations usually take place only in cases where there is no way to meet in person... At the same time, more and more often video calls are used for more complete communication, which have their own specifics.

For a successful telephone conversation affecting working moments, the following nuances must be taken into account:

• If you are calling someone, it is important to ask if the person is comfortable talking now. Calling outside of business hours is not a matter of etiquette in most corporations (unless there is a separate agreement).
• Be aware that there may be interference with communications - or that background noise may interfere with the conversation. When speaking on the phone, it is important to speak as clearly as possible and not too quickly.
• Build your speech so that it is as specific as possible and is perceived exactly as you intended. In the process of personal communication, facial expressions and gestures play a very important role - this allows you to better understand the interlocutor's hints, innuendo and ulterior motives. When talking on the phone, you are deprived of this opportunity.
• Try to discuss the necessary issues over the phone as briefly as possible. For difficult negotiations or ambiguous discussions, a telephone conversation is rarely suitable, so it is important to state only the most important. Details are best discussed in person or using video.

Video calls in modern corporate culture are now beginning to be used more and more often. First, they help maintain contact with partners from different countries and negotiate as efficiently as possible. Secondly, many people now work from home remotely, and video calls make it easy to resolve any issues.

If you are facing such business conversations, it is important to pay attention to the following:

• Your appearance will make a big difference. Even if you are at home, try to dress in a business-like manner.
• Find a place in the house where the background is more or less neutral. In the background there is a kitchen, a working TV, or children at play, this can interfere with the solution of business issues.
• Many people now use headphones, but it is worth remembering: they allow you to hear the interlocutor better, but they do not guarantee that the interlocutor hears you well if you are speaking through noise. If you are solving corporate issues from home, ask your family to be quiet or just sit in a separate room.
• In front of the camera, it is especially important to control your own gestures and facial expressions. Communication problems are common, images can load slowly, and any unfortunate facial expressions can be highlighted.
• If you are discussing serious issues that require records or documentation in front of your eyes, prepare all this in advance (before calling) and forward the necessary materials to your interlocutor.

Many issues in organizations are now being resolved by correspondence.One of the advantages of such business communication is the structured information. If in the process of live communication you can not pay attention to certain points that are important for the interlocutor (or simply forget the necessary information), in the written form it will be possible to take into account all the nuances.

If you communicate a lot with colleagues and penpals, it is very important to be able to write correctly. Text editors do not always correct grammatical errors correctly, so you should not rely on them entirely - if you are not sure how to spell a word, check yourself with a dictionary. Care should be taken when sending text messages from phones and tablets - with auto-typing, your words can be replaced by others, and your message is simply meaningless.

Many consider business correspondence to be a simpler occupation than live negotiations - indeed, there is always time to think about a message, and in the process of a real dialogue you have to respond spontaneously. However, the downside is that you do not get a spontaneous reaction from the interlocutor, and this is an important psychological aspect.

For more information on the culture of business communication, see below.