Every business action begins with communication. With up to 11 different and
distinct methods of staying in touch with team members and customers in today’s
work environment, the question becomes:
Has this array of communication tools
improved or hindered the quest for accurate
and timely information?
“Executives and industry are consistently
looking for audience-centered communication that delivers a clear and succinct message,” says Dr. Elke Leeds, assistant professor of IS, Kennesaw State University, Coles
College of Business, School of Accountancy.
“But ‘no-wait’ communication speeds up response times to the point where little thought
and organization goes into the message.”
Smart Business spoke with Leeds to learn
more about how businesses and learning
institutions are working to better align students’ communication skill sets with business requirements.
What factors are placing more emphasis on
improving communication skills?
Communication accounts for the majority
of time spent in the working environment.
Students have become proficient communicators in the academic community, but they
need help making the transition to the business community. In reality, a new graduate
will never get 30 minutes to deliver an uninterrupted presentation or rotate with a team
of five people, each delivering five slides in a
PowerPoint deck. If they get three sentences
out before they are interrupted, they’re lucky.
The learning institutions need to think about
preparing students for the reality of work-place communication, making clear the idea
that one spelling or grammatical error will
damage trust irreparably, and executives do
not want to take a tour of a spreadsheet or
want to know how an algorithm computes its
outcomes. Fundamentally, it comes down to
meeting the needs of the audience.
How has technology affected the quality of
business communication?
New and emerging technologies are
impacting the way we communicate and collaborate. Smartphone/BlackBerry e-mail,
text messaging and professional networking
sites like LinkedIn have increased the frequency of communication but dropped the
quality. Technology usage in communication
expands the business communication skill
set, but it doesn’t affect the underlying basic
need for quality. Communication has been
stressed as a critical business skill for the last
twenty years. The concern is that it is getting
worse, not better. Part of the problem is that
institutions are largely relying on textbooks
that are based on antiquated models of communication delivery. Our goal is to use technology to spotlight the changes and foster an
environment for practice and improvement.
How are learning institutions teaching new
communication skills to future managers?
Institutions are revisiting what they teach
by going to the industry and asking what
business leaders see as important communication skills and also encouraging future
graduates to take every presentation opportunity offered to them. From an educational
perspective, schools are bringing digital
video into the classroom to work on oral
communication delivery and communication
apprehension. Students that deliver project
results through video have more opportunity
for review and practice and are more gradually introduced to public speaking and apprehension-causing situations. We are working
with our students to get to ‘yes.’ I’m not talking about a hard sell — sometimes the ‘yes’ is
persuading your audience that you are credible and can be trusted to take the project to
the next step. Clarity is also a big focus.
MBA programs are embedding communication instruction throughout the curriculum. The programs are designed to create
exposure to multiple business communication contexts and to leverage the technology
available to create impact, looking carefully
at matching the capabilities of the technology
to the demands of the task.
How will these improved communicators
impact the businesses they join?
They will become the ‘go-to’ hires. Organizational trust and reliance will occur much
quicker. These individuals will represent the
business well to internal and external constituents. The bar is being raised — those that
can look someone in the eye, shake a firm
hand, write an error-free and organized brief,
speak from a knowledge center, and deliver
what was asked for will accelerate their own
and their organization’s success.
How can business leaders best work with
learning institutions to align communication
expectations?
Make expectations clear. Colleges of business have been fostering interaction between
students and executives for a long time.
Recent studies suggest business students’
interpersonal communication skills and ability to apply course concepts to real-world
scenarios are results of student-executive
interaction. Business leaders can offer
insight to the classroom through participating in an executive panel on communication,
granting an interview and providing a list of
their communication needs, or by attending a
university-sponsored event. The linkage
between academic and industry needs to be
made stronger. It starts with a phone call.
ELKE M. LEEDS, Ph.D., is assistant professor of IS, Kennesaw State University, Coles College of Business, School of Accountancy.
Reach her at (770) 423-6584 or [email protected].
Elke M. Leeds, Ph.D.
Assistant professor of IS,
Coles College of Business
Kennesaw State University
