Business culture

Entering the world of business people, having no idea about the culture of business communication - means to condemn yourself to annoying blunders and major setbacks. At best, it will end with your embarrassment and perplexity of those around you; at worst, your career will end without starting, and your reputation will be ruined.

To avoid trouble is simple, you need to understand that the business world is the realm of regulations and certain etiquette. If you don’t dream of an image of an “office madman”, “mice under a broom” or “cracked down”.

Consider all the pitfalls, and learn how to culturally and gracefully avoid them - for this you need to formulate a few rules that will help to communicate in a business style.

People mistakenly believe that communication is a word that they exchange with others. Of course, but this is only part of the message that you send to others. You have facial expressions, gestures, general plastic. Your appearance also tells people something about you.

And one should not be surprised if you are immaculately polite and correct, but for some reason colleagues hide smiles when you enter the office, and the boss looks at you as if you were the one who gave him a foot back half an hour ago (piece of furniture; horror; substitute your own version).

See how you are dressed. In many serious companies there is a dress code, more or less strict. It is advisable to choose clothes according to him.. If not, expect punishment or just not serious attitude to you. And decide in advance whether you came here to work or rebel against the system. If the first - dress accordingly. A man in leaky jeans looks wildly among people in strict suits, but an employee of an IT company, strangled with a shirt and tie, is no less ridiculous if it is customary to wear casual style.

Let your clothes be appropriate!

You are properly dressed and polite in communication, but you still feel an unserious attitude towards you colleagues and bosses, and you truly don’t understand the reason.

Look at yourself from the side. Is your behavior cultural, which you simply don’t notice out of habit - namely, the “habits” of your body? Perhaps in a state of excitement, a passion for work, a little stress, you are doing something strange.

Even if you know that you are chewing glasses, chewing a tie, waving your hands, as if driving away an aspen swarm, twist something in your fingers, eat noisily and drink or, conversely, pose a statue of a stone sphinx from being squeezed - do not be embarrassed, you just need to fix it this.

A person who does not control his body gives the impression of an insecure, twitchy neurotic - and this is clearly out of business style, which implies calm self-confidence, readiness to make contact, ability to hear and understand tasks and make decisions. In addition, many such unconscious habits really look ugly and uncivilized - and not only in the office. A business partner picking his nose thoughtfully is unlikely to make anyone want to cooperate.

Give yourself an easy task, put a quiet reminder on your gadget - every ten, say, minutes check what your body is busy with. And if you caught him on some nonsense - just relax, so that his stormy activity has come to naught. If necessary, apologize to your colleagues if they notice this.Do not be embarrassed: "Yes, this is my bad habit, I will be very grateful if you tell me that I am doing it again." Control yourself - and let your gestures become restrained, and small neurotic habits will gradually disappear.

Watch how you stand - if you are in the pose of a jackal of Tabaka, stand straight. How do you go - do you burst into the office, as if escaping from the chamber for violent ones, stammering about other people's chairs, things and legs?

Behave as if you had a mirror in front of you, and you want to like yourself in it!

Your clothes and manners are in order - but the attitude of colleagues and the chief nonetheless leaves much to be desired. Do not forget: non-verbal communication includes your actions towards them.

Answer yourself the question whether you are punctual, whether you are saving your and other people's working time. If you are chronically late for work or delve when you are waited, you can hardly expect a good attitude. No one needs such a business partner. A frivolous attitude towards you is guaranteed.

And remember, not every boss will agree to obediently pretend to be Zhdun's sculpture, obedient to fate: in really serious companies for being late, delays, delays are fined or even fired. And colleagues rarely like chronic "opozdunov." After all, your behavior is also a message. And it is read unequivocally: “I don't care about you.”

Try to do everything on time!

Not everyone who can speak speaks fluent speech. And this is not a paradox. If you do not know how to communicate in such a way as certain conditions and regulations require - you speak rather poorly in speech. The culture of verbal communication in the business style is a useful skill, it can be acquired, and you should work on it. Otherwise, you simply will not achieve what you want, do not solve the tasks. But the ability to communicate culturally gives you an advantage, regardless of the position.

We will discuss further how to communicate according to the norms of business communication culture.

Even an ideal appearance and manners will not save if a person does not have a communicative culture: literally with the first words, you can “kill” a good impression of yourself.

How to avoid it in any of the above situations:

• speak clearly and legibly, so that every word spoken is clear - the interlocutor has come to solve business issues with you, and not to play a spoiled telephone;
• try not to make it sound monotonous - it sleeps the bubble, and the moderate emotional tint of speech indicates that you are really interested in the subject under discussion;
• follow the volume - in business communication are irrelevant as to anyone except you, do not hear mutterings under his breath, and screams like football;

• the tempo of speech is better to take moderate - slow speech annoys the listener, and the patter will not allow others to keep up with the course of your thoughts or make a frivolous impression on the interlocutor;
• alternate long phrases with short phrases;
• learn to ask questions - literate and to the point, empty questions talk about the empty head of the questioner;
• listen to the interlocutor with interest, and not formally - because his opinion is important for you;
• never interrupt;
• Do not give advice, even if required - try to make the advice sound like a sentence, not an arrogant lesson.

What can help you feel more confident in situations of direct communication?

1. Work on vocabulary expansion. A harsh statement can be mitigated by replacing a too expressive word with a synonym, the problem can be described both as an “elephant” and as a “fly” using other expressions - a large active dictionary allows you to achieve any goals!
2. Keep track of your vocabulary. The three enemies of cultural business communication are common language (“put your contract syudy!”), Jargon not related to the activity under discussion (“nice project!”), Parasitic words (“well, there, in short ...”).
3. Pronunciation. The Old Moscow dialect is desirable - you know perfectly well what it is, and you have heard it many times. If your speech is significantly different from it - the accent, speaking - at least try to soften them.
4. Stylistics. If you communicate in the style of Master Yoda from Star Wars, this is not funny, but very sad.

Well, about the grammar and even not worth it. It is unlikely that you say "the head went into production" ...

Take the culture of telephone conversations seriously: the fact is that this is a direct form of communication, but without a non-verbal component. The interviewee does not see the expression of your eyes, facial expressions, gestures, postures - he is guided only by his voice.

And because all the rules listed for normal communication, should be observed more strictly! And even more so do not violate the conventional telephone etiquette - do not be silent, sniffing mysteriously into the phone, do not throw it, interrupting the interlocutor in mid-word, do not misinterpret his name and surname, if he identified himself - didn’t hear, ask him again.

Business correspondence of educational and scientific style is also a very responsible type of verbal business communication. Remember: sending a letter, you represent the company, according to your text and the method of its filing there will be a certain impression about your company. And if you are illiterate or cheeky in written communication, like the Cossacks who wrote the letter to the Turkish Sultan ...

Usually business correspondence is carried out according to certain templates - read them.

If you are not sure of your own literacy - do not be lazy to check written in a text editor that highlights errors. The person who received the letter does not see you, he does not know what a wonderful pro you are and how much you are appreciated at work. And if he sees a “filing letter” instead of a correct business letter, he will never believe it. Speaking is a little easier. Types of speech communication is easy to remember.

For the most important business communication skills you need to know, see the next video.