The document provides information on effective business communication. It discusses communication training objectives like verbal and non-verbal communication, listening skills, and clear respectful communication. It defines communication, explains why communication skills are important, and outlines the communication cycle and types of communication. It also discusses passive, aggressive, and assertive communication styles and listening techniques.

1. Effective Business Communication
Pratim Banerjee

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Training Objective
Communication Training
• To consider verbal and non-verbal communication methods
• To understand and practice effective listening skills
• To communicate in clear, respectful and non-judgmental ways
• To know when to seek advice
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What is Communication?
• The process of communication is what allows us to interact with other
people; without it, we would be unable to share knowledge and
experiences with anything outside of ourselves. Common forms of
communication include speaking, writing, gestures, touch and
broadcasting.
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Why Communication Skills Are Important?
• To get your message across to others clearly and
unambiguously.
• Successful when both the sender and the receiver understand
the same information.
• To convey your thoughts and ideas effectively.
• Unsuccessful communication results in
– Communication Breakdown
– Ideas that do not reflect your own
– Roadblocks, personally and professionally
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Communication Cycle
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Communication Cycle
•Step 1. Aim
•Step 2. Compose
•Step 3. Transmit
•Step 4. Feedback
•Step 5. Analyze/Learn/Change
•Step 6. Improve

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Types of Communication
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 Verbal Communication
sounds, words, language and speaking.
 Non-verbal Communication
Physical ways of communication, like, tone of the voice, touch, smell and
body motion.
 Written Communication
Writing the words which you want to communicate.
 Visual Communication
Visual display of information, like, topography, photography, signs, symbols
and designs. Television and video clips are the electronic form of visual
communication.

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The Three Basic Styles of Communication
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 Passive Communication
 Aggressive Communication
 Assertive Communication

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The Four Behavior Types
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• Dove: The compassionate and peaceful dove. The dove is people-
orientated, loyal, friendly, hard working and a great team player but tends
to avoid change, confrontation, risk-taking and assertiveness.
• Owl: The wise owl. The owl is logical, mathematically minded, methodical
and sometimes seen as a perfectionist. The owl can be slow to make
decisions and inflexible if rules and logic says otherwise. Owls are not big
risk takers but love detail.
• Peacock: The showy peacock. The peacock loves talking, being the center
of attention, has passion/ enthusiasm and is happy/ optimistic. Peacocks
can be accused of talking too much, and aren’t good with detail or time-
control.
• Eagle: The bold eagle. Eagles are dominant, stimulated by challenge,
decisive and direct. Eagles can be blunt/ stubborn, can lose sight of the big-
picture and can be insensitive to other people’s needs. Eagles are natural
achievers

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Passive Communication
• Passive communicators :
• - fail to assert for themselves
- allow others to deliberately or inadvertently infringe on their rights
- fail to express their feelings, needs, or opinions
- tend to speak softly or apologetically
- exhibit poor eye contact and slumped body posture
• The impact on passive communicators is that these individuals:
• - often feel anxious
- often feel resentful (but are unaware of it)
• - often feel confused
• - are unable to mature
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Aggressive Communication
• Aggressive communicators will often:
• - try to dominate others
- speak in a loud, demanding, and overbearing voice
- act threateningly and rudely
- not listen well
- interrupt frequently
- have piercing eye contact and an overbearing posture
• The impact on aggressive communicators is that these individuals:
• - become alienated from others
- alienate others
- generate fear and hatred in others
- always blame others instead of owning their issues
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Assertive Communication
• Assertive communicators will:
• - state feelings, needs and wants clearly, appropriately, and respectfully
- listen well without interrupting
- speak in a calm and clear tone of voice
- have a relaxed body posture
- feel competent and in control
- not allow others to abuse or manipulate them
- stand up for their rights
• The impact on assertive communicators is that these individuals:
• - feel connected to others and in control of their lives
- are able to mature
- create a respectful environment for others to grow and mature
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General Rules of Communication
• Rule #1. Find angles or hooks that interest you. Ask yourself "What's in this
for me? How can I benefit from this?“
• Rule #2. Focus on their content.
• Rule #3. Hold your fire until the speaker is finished.
• Rule #4. Listen for ideas, not facts.
• Rule #5. Use an appropriate form of note-taking.
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General Rules of Communication
• Rule #6. Practice and work at listening.
• Rule #7. Resist distractions.
• Rule #8. Keep your mind open.
• Rule #9. Be an active listener.
• Rule #10. Exercise your mind.
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Grammar
• Articles
• Preposition
• Tenses
• Subject-Verb Agreement
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Articles
• An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference
being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun.
The articles in the English language are the and a/an.
• Articles are usually characterized as either definite or indefinite.
• Definite article
• A definite article indicates that its noun is a particular one (or ones) identifiable to
the listener.
• Example :- “The children know the fastest way home.”
• Indefinite article
• An indefinite article indicates that its noun is not a particular one (or ones)
identifiable to the listener.
• The form an is used before words that begin with a vowel sound (even if spelled
with an initial consonant, as in an hour), and a before words that begin with a
consonant sound (even if spelled with a vowel, as in a European).
• Example :- “She had a house so large that an elephant would get lost without a
map.”
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Prepositions
• Prepositions are the words that indicate location. Usually, prepositions
show this location in the physical world.
• Examples :-
• “At midnight, Jill craved mashed potatoes with grape jelly.”
• “In the spring, I always vow to plant tomatoes but end up buying them at
the supermarket.”
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Tenses
• A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to
indicate when the situation takes place. Some typical tenses are present,
past, and future.
• Tenses are broadly classified as present, past, or future. In absolute-tense
systems, these indicate the temporal distance from the time of utterance.
In relative tense systems, they indicate temporal distance from a point of
time established in the discourse.
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Subject-Verb Agreement
• Present tense verbs in English should agree with the subject of the
sentence
• Singular subjects use singular verbs
– Jack robs liquor stores (s on the verb)
• Plural subjects use plural verbs
– Bonnie and Clyde rob banks (no s on the verb)
• Ignore words that come between the subject and the verb
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Sounds
• It is important to know Vowel and Consonant sounds as:-
1. To minimise MTI/FLI
2. To eradicate generalization of sounds
• Examples:-
• “Sleep in heavenly peace.” – Generalise with short vowel sound.
• “You are correct.” – Generalise with harsh consonant sound.
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Vowel Sounds
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Long Vowel Sounds Short Vowel Sounds Diphthongs

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Consonant Sounds
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Unvoiced /Voiceless
Consonant Sounds
Voiced/Glottal
Consonant Sounds
Nasal/Other Sounds

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Syllable Stress
• Syllable:
• “A syllable is unit of sound made from a single vowel, or single
vowel/consonant combination.”
• Syllable Stress:
“Syllables break our words up into sections which can be stressed, or
unstressed. Which syllable is stressed, alters the pronunciation of the word.”
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Rules of Syllable Stress
• One word has only one stress.
• We can break a word into syllables, by counting the number of vowel
sounds or the number of jaw drops.
• For disyllabic nouns and adjectives, the stress is on the first syllable.
• For disyllabic verbs, the stress is on the second syllable.
• Pen-ultimate Rule: Words ending with {-ic, -tion, -sion,-cian} , will have the
stress on the second last syllable.
• Ante- penultimate Rule: Words ending with {-cy, -ty, -phy, -gy, -al}, will have
the stress on the third last syllable.
• For compound nouns, the stress is on the first part.
• For compound adjectives and verbs, the stress is on the second part.
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Attributes of Good Verbal Communication
• Pronunciation
• Enunciation
• Stress
• Rhythm
• Intonation
• Rate of Speech
• Pause Management
• Voice Modulation
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Active Listening
• “It’s a communication skill that involves both the speaker and the receiver.
The receiver tries to understand what feelings, thoughts, & beliefs are being
communicated and accepts it.”
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In active listening you will:
•Listen for the content of the message.
•Listen for the feelings of the speaker.
•Listen without making any judgment.
•Respond to the feelings of the speakers.
•Note the speakers cues, both verbal and nonverbal.
•Ask open questions.

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Listening Techniques
• Encouraging:
• The purpose is to convey interest and to keep the person talking.
• Restating:
• The purpose is to show that you are listening and understanding.
• Reflecting:
• The purpose is to show that you are listening and understand what they are
feeling.
• Summarizing:
The purpose is to pull important ideas, facts, etc. together, to establish a
basis for further discussion and to review progress
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Barriers to Listening
• Physiological Barriers
• Physical Barriers
• Attitudinal Barriers
• Wrong Assumptions
• Cultural Barriers
• Gender Barriers
• Lack of Training
• Bad Listening Skills
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Questions??
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Thank you…
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