Improving Business Communication Through Reflection

This assignment focuses on the critical role of effective business communication. It emphasizes self-reflection as a tool to identify areas for improvement and proposes an action plan involving knowledge acquisition from experts like Dr. Joun Kang. The plan includes practicing newly acquired skills in the workplace and daily interactions, highlighting the commitment to enhancing communication standards within an organization.

Running Head: EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 1
Effective Business Communication
(Name)
(Institutional Affiliation)
Diagnosis and Reflection

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Business communication is the process of sharing or relaying information about a
business or organization. The information is shared with the people in the organization such as
managers, leaders of departments, shareholders and other workers as well as people outside the
organization such as creditors, the government and aspiring investors. This passing of
information is done by people within the organization. (Newman, 2013)
Such information includes; marketing and branding strategies of an organization,
relations with; customers, the general public, people within the organization, employees’
performance and how to maximize it, corporate social responsibility and how to protect and
better the organization’s reputation. (McCroskey, 2013)
In my reflection of my business communication skills, I have used five diagnostic tools:
The first one is Self-perceived Communication Competence Questionnaire (McCroskey, 2010).
Here, I sought to understand how people handle their communication skills when they are faced
with the situation of passing of information across a group of receivers.
The second tool was a Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (McCroskey,
2013). The report helped me measure my feelings towards communication as an individual by
giving me various situations and scenarios where communication is needed and analyzing how I
would behave in each one of them. This helped me to come up with a couple of solutions as
discussed in the action plan.
Thirdly was a Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (McCroskey, 2010), which
estimated my anxiety levels towards speaking in public, presentations or during meetings.
The fourth was the Willingness to Listen Diagnostic tool, (Roebuck, 2014). It examined my
inclination towards listening to other people and their ideas.

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Lastly was the Tolerance for Disagreement Tool (Roebuck 2014) which informed me on
how most people handle disagreements and opposing ideas especially when they think they are
right and the other people are wrong. The results from the five diagnostic tools are very accurate
and reliable as they gave me the true outlook of my business communication skills, styles and
my preferences.
The Self-perceived Communication Competence Questionnaire made me realize that am
very good at speaking to friends and people am familiar with, compared to my relations to
strangers or people I barely know. Here I scored 46 meaning I have much to do in that area. I
also realized that I prefer speaking to a person on a face to face basis as opposed to presentations
before large groups of people or large meetings. This means that I am more comfortable with
connecting personally to an individual as opposed to groups. This is because my non-verbal
communication skills such as maintaining the right body posture and holding eye contact with a
person are more developed compared to my other skills such as verbal skills. (Jia, 2017) It also
gives me a chance to create rapport as well as easily notice an individual’s feelings through their
facial expressions and other forms of body language such as fidgeting.
It is also easier for a client to make a confident decision since they get a face to face clarity for
any issues they might be having.
The Personal Report of Communication Apprehension further confirmed my discomfort
and phobia of speaking in front of or to many people and my total inability to make presentations
before my bosses or any group of people. I tend to avoid public speaking scenarios by all means
and only speak when I have no other option. Here I scored 48, which shows a poor
communication skills level. (Marra, 2012)

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My willingness to listen score was 75, which means that am moderately open minded and
can give other people the chance to air their views whether they differ with mine or not. I can
comfortably accommodate other people’s opinions though I do not necessarily agree with them. I
comfortably handle issues such as being biased, prejudiced, impatience and assumptions. This
has greatly helped me as it enables me to work in teams and give optimum productivity as a
result. This is based on assertiveness perception and knowing when and where to talk or listen.
Ability to listen also prevents some conflicts from arising. This is explained by the fact that I
apply ‘LOTS’ idea, An acronym which stands for Listen, Observe, Think, Speak, In other
words, listen and think before speaking or discrediting other people’s ideas. (Bourdillon, 2017)
I have very low tolerance to disagreement and criticism especially if the opposing side is
just disagreeing without giving a better solution or ideas. I avoid communicating with people
who have the tendency to disagree with my ideas so as to reduce any possible arising conflicts,
but face them whenever I have to. In such cases, positive non- verbal communications are more
efficient as they send better signals compared to verbal aggressive communications (Jia, 2017).
My score here was 53.
With the above knowledge, I decided to re-evaluate my business communication skills. I
have discovered that I have two major business communication problems; inability to speak or
present in front of a group of people, and intolerance to disagreements and criticism; any form of
criticism, whether fair or unfair. After reflecting, I have come up with possible solutions on how
to handle the above problems. The solutions are well stated and clearly elaborated in the topic;
action plan.

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Through the diagnostic tools, I have come up with the conclusion that some things such
as disagreement, public speaking, criticism and team work are inevitable in business hence I
have to come up with ways of handling such cases as they are sure to arise. Such skills are
required to for success in the corporate world as they ensure credible, reliable and efficient
transactions hence enabling trustworthy relationships with clients and workmates, as per the
research of Angour (2012). Their research clearly showed the importance of proper
communication in the business world. It showed that managers and directors highly value the
skill of one having interpersonal communication skills. I thus decided to come up with solutions
under the action plan. (Donson, 2017)
Literature review
The two major issues I have pin pointed are inability of public speaking and intolerance
to disagreements and criticism. Beginning with inability of public speaking, I will start by
reviewing a certain incidence. I recall a certain scenario I had eight months back. I was interning
with a big and well established auditing firm as a junior accountant, when on that particular day
the duty of presenting and explaining financial statements and reports to investors and
shareholders fell on me. (Jia, 2017)
I was so nervous and could not concentrate during the presentation and I could not speak
and my hands became all sweaty soiling the papers I was carrying. My mind went blank and I
forgot everything I had prepared. Eventually I was unable to present and the embarrassment of
failure made me resign from my job. Fear of public speaking cost me something I had worked so
much for. The cause of the failure must have been lack of confidence and my underdeveloped
verbal skills such as low and unregulated voice tone and pitch. (McCroskey, 2013)

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The experience made me research on how to handle such a situation to prevent such an
occurrence in the future. I came across several possible solutions including: planning my
communications before presenting, being well and appropriately groomed for the presentation,
rehearsing for the presentation and arriving at the presentation site on time. (Eksner, 2017)
Communication planning enables an individual to pass the appropriate message to the
intended people in the right way, failure to which frustrations and misunderstandings occur
leading to loss of opportunities as was my case. (Richmond, 2011)
Communications can be planned in various ways such as: making an effort to know and
understand an audience its needs and expectations. For instance, it is not safe to assume that a
board of director’s will require the same information as a group of interns who just started
working. Such an assumption will bring about catastrophic results. (Corey, 2016) I have
discovered that the ability to speak well and sell ideas successfully is not in born but can be
learnt through five steps: effective public speaking: Capturing the attention of the audience
through various means such as beginning with a shocking statistic, establishing the need and
convincing the audience why you deserve their attention, for example by explaining to them how
a certain problem affects them individually, satisfying the need by giving them the possible
solutions you have and elaborating them, visualizing the future: here you explain to the audience
what will happen if they do nothing. It should be detailed and realistic. Finally is actualization.
This is whereby the individual leaves the audience with definite solutions or assignments to solve
a certain problem. (Monroe’s Motivated Sequence: Perfecting the act, Allan H. Monroe.) (Kaul,
2015)

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I have also discovered that it is necessary to ensure everything is in order before a
presentation including the room or site and equipment needed such as microphones and visual
aids as an unexpected technical issue can ruin one’s concentration and disrupt them. It is also
necessary to involve the audience in a dialogue as this ensures clarity in all issues. The
conclusion of the presentation should be strong and related to the introduction. (Rodriques, 2012)
The other issue is intolerance to criticism and disagreements. I have discovered that to
handle this one requires a high level of assertiveness and properly developed negotiation skills.
This reminds me of a scenario where one of my bosses in a certain company had a tendency of
giving his juniors his tasks to do for him and still be reprimanded if they did not do their other
jobs. The manager would then give a negative review of the work and make one repeat the whole
task again. Being fed up and not in support of what he was doing, I decided to speak up for my
colleagues and I but did so in a fit of anger and rude disrespectful words due to my frustration.
This was perceived as insubordination so I was fired. I always wonder if there was a way I could
have raised up the concern without it costing me my job. I learnt that there should be different
ways of disagreeing depending on the person involved and their position in the organization.
(Corey, 2014)
In the above given situation, I should have approached the situation on a negotiation
basis, instead of directly confronting my senior. I should have politely requested him to do his
job “saying yes to the person and no to the task” by giving a reasonable justification such as lack
of enough time or lack of knowledge for the job. Due to the fact that disagreements are bound to
occur, I researched of ways to handle them and negotiating with the person to see my point of
view, being open minded to the fact that I am not always right or offering alternatives. (Jia,
2017)

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Sometimes disagreements and conflicts occur due to some people being close minded
which is quite frustrating. To handle such, one needs to be patient and understanding. It is also
necessary to listen to speakers whether they are boring or our ideas are opposing. To be more
specific, let me give the example of a discrimination conflict. This is a situation where the
employee may be prejudiced towards an employers or the employer mistreating the employee, as
in the case I gave above. Instead of me resenting the boss or losing my job, I should have asked
for a meeting between that director and I where we could have solved such conflicts peacefully.
(Al-Maskari, 2013)
In the same job the management was quiet annoying as it gave no incentives to its
employees, there were no promotions, pay rises or paid holidays. This was the other reason I had
considered in my decision to leave the organization. I now know that such conflicts can be
solved through requesting the management to tie attractive incentives to set goals such that there
is a reward for any goal achieved. This would in turn increase productivity hence benefiting both
the organization and the employees simultaneously. (Al-Maskari, 2013)
Action Plan
Having identified those two major communication issues, I have come up with an action
plan to which I will adhere to for the next six months to ensure improvement. First, I will keep a
personal work journal, in which I will note down all the things I aim to achieve in the6 months
and keep track of my progress. The journal will help ensure that nothing is forgotten (Marra,
2012). I will also attend workshops concerning business presentations, so as to become more
equipped in the area and perfect the act.

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Thirdly, I will do a diploma in business management and administration, to help me in
my pursuit for corporate leadership. Consequently, I will undertake a post graduate degree in
corporate communication course at CQU. The course will enable me to improve my
interpersonal communication at my workplace hence enhanced professionalism and efficiency. It
will also help me have various and diverse communication skills, a skill really needed in the
corporate world. (Corey, 2013)
I will also read self help books such as Monroe’s Motivated Sequence by Allan Monroe,
“A Complete Guide to Public Speaking” by O'Loghlin (Kaul, 2015) and “Managing
Interpersonal Conflict (Interpersonal Communication Texts.”
Lastly, I will also hire Dr. Joun Kang (Kang corporate experts and Consultants), an
expert in business mentorship and corporate coaching to guide and mentor me. On acquiring the
knowledge, I will practice use my newly acquired skills at my work place and in my day to day
activities and transactions.
Ideally, the action plan will be executed in regard to the communication standards that
have been established. This is a value that should be embraced in any organization. The business
environment is quite dynamic and the importance of communication should be given priority.
The self reflection discussed above has highlighted such importance and if executed diligently,
massive success is inevitable. It is therefore true to assert that the nature in which the reflection
has been handled depicts the future of an organization. It is always prudent when indications
from the staff show the goodwill to improve an organization.
Communication is a virtue which was embraced since antiquity. In this discussion, the
value of effective business communication has come out clearly as a tool for progress. In the self

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reflection, the notable incidences were based on the capacity of an individual to use the aspect of
communication to improve the status of a business. The diagnostic tools that were discussed
brought out the deficiencies in the daily performances of any business. Fortunately, they have
recommended several ideologies that can foster the welfare of a business that may be at the brink
of collapsing. An analogy of a doctor and patient can be sought to demystify this scenario; where
a diagnosis is done upon a patient who is ailing yet they deserve attention from the doctor.

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References
Al-Maskari, K. M. (2013). A practical guide to business writing. Chichester, West Sussex, UK:
Wiley.
Angour, J. (2012). Managing disagreement in problem solving meeting talk. Problems and
solutions . New York
Bourdillon, M. F. (2017). Communication Apprehension, Avoidance, and Effectiveness
Corey, D. (2016). Effective HR communication: A framework for communicating HR
programmes with Impact.
Donson, A. (2017). Umm . . .: A Complete Guide to Public Speaking.
Eksner, H. J. (2017). Effective People and Communication Skills.
Corey, D. (2016). Effective HR communication: A framework for communicating HR
programmes with Impact.
Jia, M. L. (2017) Workplace emotion and communication: Supervisor nonverbal immediacy,
employees’ emotion experience, and their communication motives. Management
Communication Quarterly
Kaul, A. S. H. A. (2015). Effective Business Communication. Place of publication not identified:
PRENTICE-HALL OF INDIA.
Marra, M. (2012). Disagreeing without being disagreeable: Negotiating workplace communities
as an outsider.
McCroskey, J. C. (2013). Identifying compulsive communicators: The talkaholic scale.
Communication Research Reports
McCroskey, J. C. (2013). Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale (SPCC).
Measurement Instrument Database for the Social Science

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Newman, A.S (2013) Business Communication: In Person, In Print, Online. 8th ed. Mason:
South-Western
Roebuck, C. (2014). Effective communication. New York: AMACOM.
Rodriques, M. V. (2012). Effective business communication. New Delhi: Concept Pub. Co.

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