COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE - BASIC CVQ SKILLS

Effective
Communication
in the
Workplace

About your facilitators
Brenda Watkins, Trainer, Special Projects
HCC and IT3 were fortunate to lure Brenda away from USF, where she
was a full-time Visiting Instructor in the College of Education since 1996.
Brenda’s work experience also includes a human resource background for
several major companies in the Tampa area. She has a BS in Finance; an
M.A. in Business and Office Education; and is a Ph.D. student in Higher
Ed at USF. She has been a contributor in many conference presentations,
and was an editor for Learning Disabilities 101: A Primer for Parents.
Celeste Fenton, Director IT3
Holding a BA in Psychology, an M.Ed., and a Ph.D. in Education from the
University of South Florida. Celeste has over 16 years experience as an
educator in K-12 and higher-ed; and spent 10 years at Anheuser-Busch in
HR management. In addition to directing the IT3 department, she also
teaches as an adjunct for HCC. Active in the community, she has served
as a board member for the Hillsborough County Children’s Services since
being appointed by the Hillsborough County Commissioners in 2000.
Also in 2000, Celeste was selected as a consultant to the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID) for international
educational and workforce development.

Training Agenda
• Learning Objectives
• Introduction
• Awareness of Your Personal Style
• Skillful Listening
• Expressing Yourself
• Impact of Emotions
Effective Communication in the Workplace
Click to advance to next slide

Learning Objectives
After completing this workshop
presentation, you will be able to:
1. Develop an awareness of your personality and
communication tendencies
2. Learn how to listen more effectively to others
3. Express yourself in a more clear and specific way
4. Appreciate the power of emotions

Introduction
•The ability to effectively communicate with others is one of the most
powerful tools for personal and/or professional success.
•Most people are challenged by the many day-to-day interactions with
co-workers, family, and friends.
•Emotion, communication and conflict are present in all human
interactions and affects each of us in different ways.
•Everyone manages emotion, communication and conflict from habit –
patterns and styles developed early in life and over time.
•80% of problems in the workplace are communication related

• One of the quickest ways to alienate yourself from other people is to
communicate unsuccessfully.
• Effective communication empowers you to influence others.
• Your capacity to communicate is often seen as an indicator of your ability and
intelligence.
In this presentation, you will learn a variety of strategies to improve your
communication skills, and break the cycle of destructive habits of personal
interaction.
Introduction

Unit One – Awareness of Your
Personal Style

Past Experiences Shape Communication Style
•Communication doesn’t just happen; your style is based on your experiences that
over time have developed into a pattern of attitudes and actions.
•It is a continuous cycle. Your experiences influence your thoughts. Your
thoughts, over time, become your attitudes. These attitudes become the blueprint
for new experiences, which develop into patterns of behavior.
•An awareness of your personal style is critical to begin to transform negative
attitudes and behaviors into positive ones.
•It is key to empowering you to establish personal responsibility and accountability
in the midst of changing your behavior. Remember, the only person you can
ever really control or change is yourself.
Awareness of Your Personal Style
Unit One

Awareness of Your Personal Style
Communication Skills Test
Discover your own level of interpersonal communication skills.
Activity: Click on the link below and read the statements carefully, then indicate
the degree to which they apply to you. After finishing the Communication Skills
Test, you will receive a free basic report.
NOTE: Do not feel pressured to purchase the detailed report for a fee.
Access the link below, and click on “Non-members take the test – GO”
http://www.queendom.com/tests/relationships/communication_skills_r_access.html
Unit One

Take the Kiersey Temperment Sorter
Temperament is an arrangement of preferences or pre-dispositions towards
developing certain attitudes and behaviors.
Activity:
Access the link below. Complete the questions.
http://www.advisorteam.com/temperament_sorter/register.asp?partid=1
For more information on the Kiersey Temperment Sorter and your type, access the
following link and click on your type (SJ, SP, NF, NT)
http://keirsey.com/pumII/temperdef.html
Unit One Awareness of Your Personal Style

Activity: What have you learned about yourself? Based on what you know
about yourself and how you have handled similar situations in the past,
how do you think you would handle the following scenario:
You have been asked to supervise a project. The success of the project is also dependent
upon the contributions and feedback of other department groups. The deadline is
approaching. The other managers/department groups have largely ignored requests for
information, but complained in group meetings that the project is in danger of non-
completion. During manager meetings, this non-response has been raised as an issue, but
your manager has not addressed it, stating that all of the managers are busy and that they
will respond as soon as they can. However when the documentation is not provided to you,
it is identified as your deficiency and has been designated as a risk to project completion.
The end result is that you (your project) has been identified by senior management as being
at risk for completion and as your deficiency. At one meeting, a manager who had ignored
requests for information for several weeks, complained that you were harassing him. You
felt frustrated and close to tears.
Unit One Awareness of Your Personal Style

Unit Two – Skillful Listening

Nine Steps to Effective Listening
1. Face the speaker and maintain eye contact.
2. Be attentive, yet relaxed.
3. Keep an open mind to the speaker’s message – try to feel what the speaker
is feeling.
4. Listen to the words and try to picture what the speaker is saying.
5. Do not interrupt and do not impose your "solutions."
6. Wait for the speaker to pause to ask clarifying questions - ask questions only
to ensure understanding of something that has been said (avoiding questions
that disrupt the speaker's train of thought).
7. Give the speaker regular feedback, e.g., summarize, reflect feelings, or
simply say "uh huh."
8. Pay attention to nonverbal cues -- to feelings, tone of voice, inflection, facial
expressions, gestures, posture.
9. Be aware of potential barriers that impact your ability to listen effectively.
Skillful Listening
Unit Two

Barriers to Listening
Sometimes people have a barrier that impedes their listening skills. Awareness of
a barrier is the first step in being able to overcome it.
Barriers to listening include:
•past experiences that influence our reaction to the speaker or the message
•worry, fear, anger, grief and depression
•individual bias and prejudice
•semantics and language differences
•noise and verbal "clutter"
•preoccupation, boredom and shrinking attention spans
Activity:
Awareness of a barrier is the first step in being able to overcome it and
improve your listening skills. Look at the above list of barriers. Can you
identify one or more barriers that may/does impact your ability to listen?
Skillful Listening
Unit Two

Active Listening
Stay active by asking mental questions.
Some questions you can ask yourself as
you listen are:
1. What key point is the speaker
making?
2. How does this fit with what I know
from experience?
3. How can this information benefit
me?
Unit Two
Skillful Listening

Looking and Acting Like a Good Listener
Non-Verbal Communication
• Turn your body and tilt your face toward the speaker.
• Use other parts of your body besides your ears to receive the message:
1. Look at the speaker to pick up nonverbal signals or cues
2. Your eyes will also send signals to the speaker
3. When the speaker sees a receptive audience they are motivated to work
harder to communicate their message
• React to the speaker by nodding your head.
Unit Two Skillful Listening

•Listen and acknowledge what you hear the speaker
saying, even if you don't agree with it. At this point do not
express your point of view.
•Acknowledging the speakers thoughts and feelings does
not mean that you approve of or agree with the speaker’s
opinions or actions.
•Your ability to listen and then acknowledge what the
speaker said allows the speaker to feel a sense of
satisfaction of being understood
Unit Two Skillful Listening
Acknowledgement

Skillful Listening
Reflecting back
Unit Two
•When making a statement, paraphrase and reflect back what you've heard
the speaker say.
•Reflecting is affirming to the speaker and encourages the speaker to
elaborate further or delve more deeply into the topic.
•Meaningful exchanges between you and the speaker are built on feedback.
•In order to accurately feedback a person's thoughts and feelings, you have to
be consciously, actively engaged in the process of listening.
•Try to experience what the speaker is describing, feeling the speaker’s
feelings through the lens of your own experience.

Unit Three –
Expressing Yourself

Expressing Yourself
.
Communicating Long or Emotional Messages
•Briefly explain the intention of your conversation.
•The other person(s) will attend better if they have a basic
understanding of the time and effort they will be bringing to the
conversation.
•Use “I” statements to communicate your feelings, and what you
have personally seen, heard, need, or expect.
•Do not engage in verbal attacks on the other person. if you need
to criticize, describe the behavior or actions of the other person
that bother you.
•State what you need or expect in positive terms.
Unit Three

Utilizing “I” Statements
Activity:
Consider the following statements you might make. How would you change
them into “I” statements?
1. You make me so mad when you don’t complete your work on time.
2. My supervisor frustrates me when she doesn’t communicate her expectations.
3. My employee aggravates me when she comes in late.
4. My boss made me happy when he complimented my financial report.
5. Those students make me sad when they don’t study and fail their tests.
Unit Three Expressing Yourself
.
•Accept responsibility for your emotions
•Use “I” statements. Say “I feel angry when…” rather than “You make me mad…”

Five Components of Your Message
Your communication should include these five important
components:
1. What you are seeing – have seen
2. What you are hearing – have heard
3. What you are feeling – have felt about the issue
4. What you need or want
5. What the positive result will be from receiving/acting on your request

Activity: For the three situations listed below, think how you would
communicate:
• What you are seeing – have seen
• What you are hearing – have heard
• What you are feeling – have felt about the issue
• What you need or want
• What the positive result will be from receiving/acting on your request
1. Your boss marked you low on your performance review. This was the first
indication you had of how you were performing in your job.
2. An employee you supervise has been frequently absent causing lost
production and a hardship for the rest of the employees in your unit.
3. Your coworker has been opening your mail and going through your desk
drawers, as well as saying negative things to others behind your back.
Five Components of Your Message

Unit Four –
Impact of Emotions

Unit Four – Impact of Emotions
Unit Four
Emotional Obstacles
Emotional obstacles to effective communication include:
Vulnerability – people may not express their true feelings
because they do not want to expose themselves to others
Protecting – people may not want to express their true
thoughts because they don’t want to hurt or upset the other
person
Expectations - social, professional, or cultural “rules” may
inhibit expression of some feelings
Fear – people seek approval and acceptance so they are often
reluctant to say what they really mean for fear of rejection

Manage your emotions
•Recognize what you are feeling. Are you angry,
embarrassed, or hurt?
•Simplify your feelings. Select one or two words to describe
how you feel. Be specific.
•Do not act on your feelings right away. Don’t make a
decision, enter into a discussion, or send an email in anger or
frustration.
•Choose an appropriate time and place to communicate.
•Accept that you are responsible for your emotions; Use “I”
statements. Say “I feel angry when…” rather than “You make
me mad…”
Impact of Emotions
Unit Four

Impact of Emotions
Unit Four
Managing a conflict
•Keep yourself calm by breathing slowly and deeply. Remember that this is only
one temporary moment in your life.
•Concentrate on what you need to move forward rather than dwell on the other
person’s mistakes.
•Summarize the other person’s feelings to make sure that you understand what
they are communicating.
•Give affirmation to the other person about what they may be feeling.
•Acknowledge and apologize for any mistakes you may have made.
•Focus on positive results and make specific requests that will enable the
achievement of those goals.

Impact of Emotions
Unit Four
Activity:
Reflect on the following situations.
1. Your boss reprimanded you at a department meeting for emailing a joke to others in
the workplace. Personal emails and jokes are routine at the office.
2. Recently you shared your idea with a coworker on how to improve departmental
operating procedure that could result in greater efficiency and increased revenue for
the college. You scheduled a meeting with your supervisor to introduce the concept,
but your coworker beat you to it, and has claimed your idea for their own.
3. You have learned that one of the employees you supervise frequently criticizes you
harshly to others in and outside of your department.
What pointers from Managing Conflict and Managing Your Emotions would be
helpful to you in the above situations?

Check Your Knowledge
Following are a series of
questions for you to complete.
These questions are designed to
check your understanding of the
information you just reviewed.

Question 1
1. Past experiences
A. have little or no effect on your communication
B. influence your thoughts which in turn become
your attitudes over time
C. are key to empowering you to establish personal
responsibility
D. All of the above
(Click the answer you think is correct.)

You have answered
This answer is incorrect.
Back to Question 1
Click Back to Question 1 (above) to review the question,
then click “B” for further explanation.
A. “have little or no effect on your communication”

You have answered
Back to Question 1
C. “Is key to empowering you to establish personal responsibility”

You have answered
Back to Question 1
D. “All of the above”

You have answered
B. “Influence your thoughts which in turn become your attitudes over time”
This answer is correct.
Communication doesn’t just happen; your style is based on your experiences that, over
time, develop into a pattern of attitudes and actions.
It is a continuous cycle. Your experiences influence your thoughts. Your thoughts, over
time, become your attitudes. These attitudes become the blueprint for new experiences,
which develop into patterns of behavior.
An awareness of your personal style is critical to begin to transform negative attitudes
and behaviors into positive ones.
It is key to empowering you to establish personal responsibility and accountability in the
midst of changing your behavior. Remember, the only person you can ever really control
or change is yourself.
Continue

2. Acknowledging what the speaker is saying is valuable because
A. It does not mean that you approve or agree with the
speaker
B. It allows the speaker to feel understood
C. It is a defensive posture
D. All of the above
E. Only A and B
Question 2

You have answered
Back to Question 2
then click “E” for further explanation.
A. “It does not mean that you approve or agree with the speaker“

You have answered
Back to Question 2
B. “It allows the speaker to feel understood“

You have answered
Back to Question 2
C. “It is a defensive posture“

You have answered
Back to Question 2
D. “All of the above“

You have answered
E. “Only A and B”
Continue
Briefly explain the intention of your conversation.
The other person(s) will attend better if they have a basic understanding of the
time and effort they will be bringing to the conversation.
Use “I” statements to communicate your feelings, and what you have
personally seen, heard, need, or expect.
Do not engage in verbal attacks on the other person; if you need to criticize,
describe the behavior or actions of the other person that bother you.
State what you need or expect in positive terms

3. Consider the following scenario
You and your office coworkers have worked well together for approximately one year.
Another person has joined the work team and trouble has started. This person appears
very sensitive and frequently complains about being ignored. You and the staff have tried
to include this person in conversation and activities, but the employee went to the
supervisor after two weeks on the job and reported on a long list of office infractions.
Several of the complaints were exaggerated or totally false. The supervisor held a
meeting and firmly stated that department rules must be followed, that the office was too
busy for pettiness, and that future complaints or issues should be settled between the
staff. A preferred way to handle the situation would be which of the following?
A. Tell the coworker how mad they make you.
B. Demand to “have it out” with the coworker while it’s all fresh in your mind
C. Listen not as a critic, and desire to understand your coworker rather than to achieve either
agreement from or change in them
D. Concentrate on what you need to move forward rather than dwell on the other person’s mistakes.
E. B and C
F. C and D
Question 3

You have answered
Back to Question 3
then click “F” for further explanation.
A. “Tell the coworker how mad they make you”

You have answered
Back to Question 3
B. “Demand to “have it out” with the coworker while
it’s all fresh in your mind”

You have answered
Back to Question 3
C.“Listen not as a critic, and desire to understand
your coworker rather than to achieve either
agreement from or change in them”

You have answered
Back to Question 3
D. “Concentrate on what you need to move
forward rather than dwell on the other person’s
mistakes.”

You have answered
Back to Question 3
E. “B and C”

In managing a conflict you should:
1. Concentrate on what you need to move forward rather than dwell on the other person’s
mistakes. Focus on positive results.
2. Summarize the other person’s feelings to make sure that you understand what they are
communicating. Give affirmation to the other person about what they may be feeling.
3. Acknowledge and apologize for any mistakes you may have made.
4. Focus on positive results and make specific requests that will enable the achievement
of those goals.
To manage your emotions:
1. Recognize what you are feeling. Are you angry, embarrassed, or hurt?
2. Do not act on your feelings right away. Don’t make a decision, enter into a
discussion,
or send an email in anger or frustration.
3. Choose an appropriate time and place to communicate.
4. Accept that you are responsible for your emotions; Use “I” statements. Say “I feel angry
when…” rather than “You make me mad…”
You have answered
F. “C and D”
Continue

4. When you want to communicate a long or complex
message, you should
A. Let the other person know this may be a long
conversation
B. Briefly explain the intent of the conversation
C. Use “I” statements to specifically state your
feelings
D. Not engage in blame or verbal attacks
E. All of the above
Question 4

You have answered
Back to Question 4
A. “Let the other person know this may be a long conversation ”

You have answered
Back to Question 4
B. “Briefly explain the intent of the conversation”

You have answered
Back to Question 4
C. “Use “I” statements to specifically state your feelings”

You have answered
Back to Question 4
D. “Not engage in blame or verbal attacks”

You have answered
E. “All of the above”
Continue
When communicating long or emotional messages, you should
Briefly explain the intention of your conversation.
The other person(s) will attend better if they have a basic understanding of the
time and effort they will be bringing to the conversation
Use “I” statements to communicate your feelings, and what you have
personally seen, heard, need, or expect.
Do not engage in verbal attacks on the other person; if you need to criticize,
describe the behavior or actions of the other person that bother you.
State what you need or expect in positive terms

Congratulations – you have completed the pre-workshop
on Effective Communication in the Workplace
You will receive verification via email or phone that you are registered for the
instructor led workshop on Effective Communication in the Workplace.
Your supervisor will receive an email notifying them that you have completed the
pre-workshop activity.
Thank you for your participation. If you have any questions, please do not
hesitate to contact the IT3 office at
253-7338 or at it3@hccfl.edu
Conclusion

COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE - BASIC CVQ SKILLS

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