communication skills

1. Unit 5.1 – Courtesy

2. Key points
02 Word choice and Sentence Structure
01 What is Courtesy?

3. Courtesy
Courtesy involves being aware not only of others’ perspective but
also about their feelings

4. Courtesy
– Be sincerely tactful, thoughtful, and appreciative
– Use expressions that show respect
– Choose non-discriminatory expressions

5. Being Tactful
– Some people are intentionally abrupt or blunt – these are negative
traits causing discourtesy in communication.
– Negative personal attitude, mistaken idea of conciseness, not
knowing the culture of organization/country/group of people are
characteristics of tactless communication.
– Writing to external customers requires additional consideration
compared to internal customers.

6. Being Thoughtful & Appreciative
– Communicators who send cordial and courteous messages of
deserved congratulations and appreciations to both external and
internal customers help build goodwill.
– Goodwill built in this way helps in achieving personal and
organizational level goals.

7. Being Thoughtful & Appreciative
– Goodwill can not be quantified in rupees/money, but it is worth
millions of rupees.
– Be specially thoughtful and courteous with Asians, who like soft
language and a polite approach (in both written and oral
communication)

8. Avoiding Disrespectful Expressions
– Remove irritating expressions from your communication,
especially when used with You/Your.
Examples:
I do not agree with you, If you care, I am sure you must realize now, Irresponsible, Obnoxious, Obviously
overlooked, Owing to your questionable credit we are unable to, simply nonsense, we are amazed you cannot,
We find it difficult to believe that, Why have you ignored, You are probably ignorant of the fact that, Your forgot
to, You failed to . . .

9. Respectful Expressions
Use expressions that show respect:
Remove Questionable Humor
– Your laugh can become disgusting for other person
– Individuals’ sense of humor differs
– When in doubt - use formal communication
– Example:
• Oh boy, where is the attachment
• Kindly resend the email with the attachment

10. Non-Discriminatory Expressions
Choose non-discriminatory expressions to reflect equal treatment of
persons, regardless of gender, race, ethnic origin, and physical
features
– Examples:
• Freshman / First year students
• Manpower / workers, employees, work force
• Man made / built, manufactured, constructed
• Best man for this position/the best person, suitable person,
best candidate for this position

11. Checklist of Courtesy
– Ask yourself: Does the communication have a sincere ‘You’
attitude
– Have someone else look at your statement if you have doubts
about whether it is tactful. Another opinion may cause you to
reconsider making a statement.
– Be cautious in using humor in communication. Here too it pays to
have someone else review your words
– Be careful in using discriminatory language, this means being
aware of gender, race, age, color, creed, sexual preferences, or
ethnic origin.