Business culture

Business communication skills are necessary for a successful career in any field: success in corporate communication will largely depend on the skills of everyday communication, but there is a specificity in the professional field. Business culture is the way to 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 a culture of business communication, appearance is of great importance: it must correspond to the sphere of your activity and the specific situation.

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

In communication, the non-verbal language is equally important. Your poses, gestures and behaviors are very important from the point of view of psychology. Try to ensure that the facial expression was quite restrained. Gesturing is very important, but it should be moderate, and not too intense.

If you are configured to partner dialogue, it is better to choose an open pose. You can try to unobtrusively adjust to the position of the interlocutor. To not be perceived with aggression, eye contact should take only a few seconds. Sit at the negotiating table is not directly opposite the interlocutor, but a little to the side.

What you say and how you say it is equally important. It is very important to possess reliable information, to be able to operate with facts and correctly build the content of the discussion.

It is important to choose words, intonation, postures and gestures for a specific situation, because in different cases different behaviors will be appropriate. Culture of business communication, depending on the situation and the goals pursued, can be divided into several types:

• Mentor type implies edification. This option is typical for the training process of interns, for educational and scientific activities, for explaining individual work moments to subordinates, as well as for team work with colleagues, if you are an expert in the field in which they understand worse. Very often, such communication is built in the form of a monologue, but 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 the goal is to get the person interested in the project, convince him of the feasibility of this or that job, help the employees to believe in themselves and feel more confident in any new or just difficult job. For success, try to avoid common phrases and cliches.Best of all is to set a personal example, tell your own story and explain in your own words what appeals to you in a particular project.
• Confrontational type communicative culture provokes the interlocutor to object to you, disagree with your point of view. This type includes a number of techniques used in the event of a conflict of interest. Most often, the situation of confrontation is typical for negotiations, as well as for enhancing attention when working with a passive, inert audience.
• Information type most neutral - within its framework, you can simply bring this or that information to the listener. Try to avoid mixing the information type with others. If the goal is to inform the interlocutor, no need to try to teach him, infect with his 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 are clear to him.

Most of the important issues relating to professional activity are decided in the process of personal communication. For sociable and open people who know how to properly 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 our position.

Personal communication may consist of fairly long monologues or, conversely, of more or less short phrases. And in fact, and in another case, it is very important not only to present the information, as if you were writing a synopsis, but to convey it to a specific interlocutor, adjusting to it. Before negotiation, write down the key points you want to discuss. but never memorize speech - it is necessary to change the character of the narration, the sequence, the examples (depending on the reaction of the listeners).

Similarly, you need to work with intonation and gestures. If you lose the interlocutor's attention, make it more emotional. If you feel an unwanted confrontation with a partner, try copying the postures and gestures of this person. It is very important not to act unduly restrained, otherwise the presentation of information will be boring, and you will give the impression of an uncertain person.

In the course of a personal conversation, one often has to make difficult decisions spontaneously. If in the process of negotiations not the topics that you expected are touched upon, it is very important to remain calm. Try not to respond to problems with excessive anxiety, always respond calmly. If you cannot immediately determine which decision to make, you can always take some time to think and weigh all the advantages and disadvantages in a relaxed atmosphere.

Many issues are now resolved by phone. Usually these are minor clarifications of any information or organizational issues: for example, when making 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 it is not possible to meet in person.. At the same time, video calls that have their own specifics are increasingly used for more complete communication.

For a successful telephone conversation, affecting the working moments, you must consider the following nuances:

• If you are calling someone, it is important to ask if it is convenient for a person to talk now. Calling after hours in most corporations is not accepted for etiquette (unless there was a separate agreement).
• Keep in mind that there may be interference with the connection - or extraneous noise may interfere with the conversation. During a telephone conversation 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 was perceived exactly as you intended. In the process of personal communication, facial expressions and gestures play a very important role - this allows a better understanding of the interlocutor’s hints, understatement and ulterior motives. When talking on the phone, you are deprived of this opportunity.
• Try to discuss the necessary problems on the phone as briefly as possible. For complex negotiations or ambiguous discussions, a telephone conversation is rarely suitable, so it is important to present only the most important. Details are better discussed in person or using video.

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

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

• Your appearance will make a big difference. Even if you are at home, try to dress in a businesslike manner.
• Find a place in the house where the background will be more or less neutral. If in the background there is a kitchen, a working TV or playing children, this can interfere with business issues.
• Many now use headphones, but it is worth remembering: they allow you to better hear the interlocutor, but do not guarantee that the other person hears you well if you speak through the noise. If you solve corporate problems from home, ask your family for silence or just sit in a separate room.
• Before the camera it is especially important to control your own gestures and facial expressions. Often there are problems with the connection, the image may slowly load, and attention may be focused on all unsuccessful facial expressions.
• If you are discussing serious issues that require the presence of records or documentation before your eyes, prepare all of this in advance (before calling) and send the necessary materials to your interlocutor.

Many issues in organizations are now 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 to the interlocutor (or just forget the necessary information), in the recorded form you can take into account all the nuances.

If you communicate with colleagues and correspondents a lot, it is very important to be able to write correctly. Text editors do not always correct grammatical errors correctly, so you shouldn’t rely entirely on them - if you are not sure of the word, check your vocabulary. Be wary of sending text messages from phones and tablets - With the automatic input feature, your words may be replaced by others, and the message will simply turn out to be meaningless.

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

For more information about business culture, see below.