by MarcPickren on July 28, 2010
Listening is an important element in communication that most businesses can improve to their benefit. For various reasons, many people do not listen as well as they should whether at business or in most other social situations.
Not listening causes breakdowns in communication and thus leads to problems like errors, delays and bad relationships among coworkers, employees and clients.
Why people do not listen
In many cases, people fail to properly listen because they feel overloaded with tasks, problems and responsibilities. They view listening as a distraction rather than as something that can actually help solve many of their problems and reduce their workload.
Many people believe they listen when they are actually only hearing. The difference between listening and hearing has to do with comprehension. Some studies have shown that most people only comprehend about 50 percent of what they have heard even when they think they are listening.
In many cases, the difficulty in listening involves problems with concentration.
How to become a better listener
The first step in becoming a good listener is to learn how to concentrate. Proper concentration requires the right balance of focus because it is possible to concentrate too hard. When one is focuses too much on every detail of the speaker, they often miss the big picture that the person is trying to convey.
Listening requires a type of relaxed concentration that is very natural. Obviously you must avoid distraction, but should not strain at comprehending in any way. Also, controlling one’s emotions and not forming conclusions too quickly is important. Oftentimes, speakers may say something that rubs you the wrong way, but is important to hear everything out before deciding to shut out that person. Try to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Avoid getting distracted on attributes of the speaker rather than on what they are saying. In some cases, listeners will take note of the personal appearance, the race or ethnicity, the language accent or speaking patterns, rather than concentrating on what actually is said. Do not let these common distractions get in your way of listening, or you will may quickly find that you have missed many important points.
Become an active listener
One easy way to improve your listening skills, is to become more responsive to what the speaker is saying. Think about each important point made and ask yourself whether you have any questions on any of these points.
Always be alert to any information that you need further clarified. Also, try to discern what the speaker considers important by observing cues such as body language and voice intonation. Sometimes gauging the emotion of the speaker allows you to better understand the message they are trying to get across.
Ask good questions as this further stimulates both you and the speaker toward better communication. Make sure your question does not betray the fact that you have not been listening though! With some thoughtfulness, everyone can become a better listener and help improve the business environment.
by MarcPickren on July 19, 2010
Business Management simply means a system of managing the business activities of an organization in order to achieve set goals and objectives. And yet the concept of business management has been exhaustively expounded and redefined in the past centuries with many thought-provoking theories invented by influential management gurus such as Mary Parker Follett, Peter Drucker, Adam Smith, Max Weber, Ken Blanchard, Warren Bennis, Philip Kotler and Gary Hamel, to name just a few.
Models and theories of business management have greatly evolved through time – mainly to keep up with the rapid changes in the economic landscape and the way businesses operate today. As globalization propels many companies to grow larger and become more global, business management concepts have also changed dramatically. Today, it is a norm to apply business management models to different branches of the organization such as human resources management, operations or production management, marketing management, financial management and information technology management.
Marketing Management
When applying business management concepts to a marketing environment, a well-structured marketing management system can be established with clearly defined processes in the following framework:
• Marketing analysis and research;
• Marketing Strategy;
• Marketing Plan;
• Project Implementation;
• Measurement and Evaluation.
Marketing Analysis and Research
As the most crucial phase of marketing management, this information-gathering stage assists an organization understand the complex market in order to form an effective strategy and plan to reach out to target markets. A marketing analysis normally comprise of an analysis of the 5Cs, which are customer analysis, company analysis, collaborator analysis, competitor analysis and industry context analysis.
Marketing Strategy
Without a strategy, a company will be shooting in the dark and wasting resources. A company’s marketing strategy helps companies define direction towards increasing revenue and profits and expanding market share based on target segments and the positioning of one’s products and services.
Marketing Plan
Once a strategy has been defined, a marketing plan will map out how the strategy will be implemented. The marketing plan lists down the 5Ps of marketing, which refers to product management, pricing, place, people and politics. In summary, a marketing plan outlines ways to strengthen the company’s chosen positioning, build customer loyalty and brand equity in order to achieve the business objectives.
Project Implementation
The actual implementation of the marketing plan calls for an efficient management of human resources and skills where expertise in advertising and promotion, project management techniques, project schedule and budget, brand management, product development and marketing communications are required.
Measurement and Evaluation
The success of a marketing campaign cannot be evaluated without progress charts and continuous evaluation of a particular marketing plan to gauge its success rate. Therefore, mechanisms such as sales forecasts, incentive programs, customer relationship management tools and brand valuations are utilized to measure whether the campaign has achieved the goals as defined in a marketing strategy.
Marketing management system provides companies a structured framework in which to strategize, plan, execute and measure their performances. However, as markets become more dynamic and pace of change begins to accelerate than ever before, marketing management needs to evolve with new strategies in order to capitalize on market opportunities in a global environment.
The Future of Business Management
The 21st century has created two major challenges for companies. Firstly, as companies become global there is a dire need to subscribe to workplace democracy where employee’s innovation and potential should be the main drive in a company’s success. Secondly, as technology grows at a rapid pace, companies are challenged to be resilient and innovative, and must be continuously ready to change to market conditions and industry developments.
Gary Hamel the well-known American management guru who has been referred to as “the world’s most influential business thinker” by Wall Street Journal in 2008 wrote in his latest book “Future of Management” that companies should prevent themselves from “strategy decay”. They must ensure that innovation and constant change are weaved into every management process and practice.
