Communication in a Die-versity Workplace Won’t Kill You!

October 3, 2019 at 4:17 pm (Business Conflicts, career, communication, Communication Problems, Cultures, Diversity in the Workplace, Effective Communication, Working Well with Teams)

Image result for diverse workforce

When you google what diversity means it defines it as a range of different things, which is correct, but in the way that we are using it, it needs to be more specific. The way that I would define diversity is understanding that everyone is unique and recognizing our differences. Some examples of our differences are economic status, age, religious beliefs, political beliefs, and physical abilities.

 Working in a place where there are many diverse individuals makes for an inclusive workplace. When you have an inclusive workplace with many diverse employees the flow of communication will strengthen. Communication is described as the exchanging of information from one to another, when communicating you must always remember to be clear and concise between, your co-workers and managers so that the message isn’t decoded wrongly.

The benefits of working in a diverse workplace and having strong communication skills with one another are tremendously effective for your personal business. Here are some listed benefits:

  • Diverse employees can inspire creativity and innovation
  • Diverse teams are more productive and perform better
  • A diverse skill set in your business will offer a range of different products and services
  • Diverse employees can bring different ideas to the table

While there are benefits, there are also challenges that come with communication in a diverse workplace some of which are:

  • Co-workers from some cultures or economic status may be less likely to get their voices heard
  • When working with a diverse group it is likely to face prejudice
  • The language barrier might be hard to overcome

Although there are only a few benefits and challenges listed, communication in a diverse place can excel if those are remembering the basic communication process, which is:

  1. Having an idea
  2. Converting ideas in heads to convey a message
  3. Message travels channels
    1. For example, sending the message through an email
  4. Receiver translates the message
  5. Feedback travels to the sender of message
  6. Then possible feedback to the receiver

I hope in your place of work you excel in communication and use these simple steps in the communication process.

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JOCKO PODCAST “GOOD”

October 3, 2019 at 12:28 pm (Business Conflicts, career, Conflict, podcast, Uncategorized)

Everyday thousands of tech savvy people with a message attempt to dabble in the art of Podcasting. Their messages and purpose vary from giving a drunk history lesson with a little humor to the no non-sense investing and personal finance gurus hellbent on securing your financial future. Successful Podcasters have an almost disciple-like following comparable to that of a sports franchise. Anymore, it seems as though we are often judged by others based on what and who we are listening to. While I don’t consider myself a disciple to any particular Podcast, I do have my favorites. Of the various genres that I listen to, one that I find myself continually revisiting is leadership. One of my favorites is JOCKO PODCAST.

JOCKO PODCAST is hosted by none other than Jocko Willink. Jocko served as a Navy SEAL for 20 years before retiring in 2010. He started his career as an enlisted SEAL and worked his way into a command role during the Iraq war. Jocko is a decorated veteran who has been awarded both the Silver Star and Bronze Star, to name a few of his military accomplishments. Jocko also served as the Officer-In-Charge for all West-Coast SEAL operations following his last deployment to Iraq.

I first heard about Jocko through a friend of mine whom I myself served with. I won’t lie, I was a little skeptical at first. “Another SEAL writing books and claiming to be a subject matter expert” I thought, but I listened. To my surprise, he was pretty good. I liked his message, and while he may be a little over the top with his alpha-male, tough-guy persona at times, I agreed with most or all of what he had to say. Then I downloaded his book Discipline Equals Freedom Field Manual. It was a quick read with a basic message; stop making excuses and get off your ass and start doing. I could get on board with that.

The appeal of Jocko to me, is that he reminds us (veterans) that a lot more of the skills you acquired in the military are applicable to everyday life. Many of the guests of the Podcast are also veterans whom he discusses a variety of topics such as PTSD and veteran suicide, adjusting to civilian life, leadership principles, training principles, and overcoming adversity. While much of his audience are veterans, all of what Jocko preaches can be applied to any aspect of your life. As a high school football coach and small business owner, I find myself applying many of these principles to both myself and the team I coach. It’s not that it’s anything ground-breaking, but more of a reminder of things that we have already learned. This is what makes Jocko appealing to a wide audience, the fact that all of what he talks about can be applied to bettering yourself at just about anything.

Anyone who is looking for a motivator to get behind, Jocko is for you. Whether it be his near daily photos of his watch at 4:32 AM (one of his rules to live by, 0430 wake-up), or his to the point advice and perspective for dealing with stress and adversity, Jocko is relentless. Jocko stresses the warrior mindset in a way that is applicable to not only military operators and veterans, but anyone that is seeking personal growth. While his message may be simple, focusing on the positive in every situation, no matter how bad, is something that everyone should get on board with and to that we say, “GOOD.”



By: Ed Bohman, Former Green Beret and Business Finance Major @ IUPUC

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Analysis of the Trump/Pelosi/Schumer Border Wall Argument

September 26, 2019 at 5:00 pm (Business Conflicts, Business Ethics)
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President Trump (with Vice President Pence present, unspeaking) opens his border wall discussion with Majority Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi by praising the job that the border patrol and military are doing in handling the situation there.  As the first person to speak, he sets the tone of the rest of the conversation. Pelosi responds by placing an emphasis on what the American people want, which, as far as she is concerned, is not a shutdown of the border. Trump interrupts her in a typically self-aggrandizing fashion less than a minute into her response.  If he had not done this right off the bat, she may have been more compliant to his demands. On the other hand, Trump historically seems to respond most compliantly to aggression. So, their mannerisms make a compromise between them difficult. Schumer, for a major part of the discussion, fails to contribute much at all until telling Trump about his dishonest framing of this national conversation. He states firmly to Trump that he feels there is a way to come to an agreement without shutting down the government. Trump is rigid, unwilling to come to a compromise, which is a bad way to resolve a conflict. He goes on to say that the border patrol is very effective and that it is ineffective without a wall. He ignores Pelosi and Schumer when they point this out.  He introduces non-sequitur into the discussion, bragging about what he feels he has accomplished as president while Pelosi and Schumer fail miserably to keep him on point. Both sides decided to stubbornly stick to their talking points instead of letting the conversation flow organically, and that is why they were unable to reach a consensus.

By Tori Wooten, Communications Major at IUPUC

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Do You Hear What I Hear???

September 27, 2018 at 10:09 am (Add Value to Business, Business Conflicts, Business Ethics, career, Coming Out LGBTQ, communication, Communication Problems, Conflict, Diversity in the Workplace, Effective Communication, frame of reference, Job Interviews, Listening skills, Motivation, Overseas Business Conflicts, Social Media in the workplace, Social Media/Technology, Telecommuting, Uncategorized, Working Well with Teams)
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woman wearing headphones standing beside man

Photo by Nicholas Githiri on Pexels.com

Listening to me and Hearing me are two different things. How well do you listen? According to PR Daily, less than two percent of the country’s population, have had formal education on how to listen. Did that not just blow your mind, because mine is flabbergasted. We communicate everyday with people from around the world, only to realize what we are saying to each other is only being heard, and not comprehended. I have three quick points on how we can enhance our communication skills, by simply improving our listening abilities.

  1. Pay Attention
  2. Open Your Mind
  3. Interact

These tips do not have to be completed in order, but it is much easier to understand the conversation if you do. Let’s break these tips down into a simpler form.

  • Paying attention is the key to any conversation. This allows the sender and receiver the opportunity to feel each other out. It is also needed to retain pertinent information.
  • Open your mind to all ideas whether you feel like they are good or bad. You never know what someone else can bring to the table, not to mention we all fall short of knowing everything, so always be willing to learn something new.
  • Both the sender and the receiver should interact with each other. By doing this the other knows if the message sent is clear. Interaction could be as simple as eye contact or a nod of the head. The point is you are letting the other know you get it!

I have found in relationships with others in my life, communicating effectively is so important. Not understanding what someone is trying to tell you after they have said it over and over and you have heard it over and over is beyond frustrating. That is why during the communicating process, we must openly listen to each other and pay attention to the details in the message so that we can respond to effectively. Considering there are so many cultures that make up our country, some ways of getting a message across will vary. These steps might not work for every situation, but they can assist with the process.

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Hot Chicks, Guns and “Bad Words” Sell Merchandise!

April 19, 2017 at 8:14 pm (Advertising, Business Conflicts, Business Ethics, Conflict, Effective Communication, Internet Consensus, Marketing, Motivation, Social Media in the workplace, Social Media/Technology, Uncategorized, Working Well with Teams)
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By: Cody J. Giordano

Gary Vaynerchuk is a media expert. Vaynerchuk recently said in a Facebook video that he does not want to make a conventional video. He would rather make something people enjoy watching with cues, such as logos and objects or merchandise within those commercials. All forms of advertising have a place, but newspapers and inkblots, alone, will not cut it in our technology-driven society. Advertising styles have changed dramatically.

Black Rifle Coffee Company does an amazing job at selling products without directly advertising them. The veteran-owned and operated company makes funny and outrageous videos on YouTube and Facebook. The videos depict attractive women (hot chicks), guns, extreme sports, nice cars and everything else guys, like me, can’t get enough of. Below are three videos from BRCC.

John Willis, the owner of Special Operations Equipment (SOE) and James Yeager, the “MFCEO” of Tactical Response, have gotten famous by being unapologetic business owners. SOE makes gear like gun belts, chest rigs, rifle slings, etc. Tactical Response is a firearms-fighting school. Both Yeager and Willis speak their mind. When someone doesn’t agree with them, they will fan the flames. This gets the customer fired up. That customer then runs to forums and social media outlets to complain about either businessman. This draws supporters, like myself, to defend Willis and/or Yeager. Willis says that this model works because it is like a traffic jam. Everyone stops to look at the car with a flat tire. This slows down traffic, and more people see the flat tire (his name). The people then flock to his page by the hundreds to buy products. Yeager uses this model to get new students to sign up for classes at Tactical Response. They call this firing customers. By not wasting time on one bad customer, they can help two or three good ones. Both can be seen on YouTube and Facebook doing this very well.

Times have changes, and so have advertising styles. Rather than try to convince you why their product is better or tell you all about their products/services, they give you entertaining content that has subtle hints towards their business.

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A Good Way to Deliver Bad News?

March 30, 2017 at 1:17 pm (Business Conflicts, Business Ethics, Communication Problems, Uncategorized)

Is there a right way for a company to announce bad news? The answer is yes, even though bad news is never good, there is a good way of announcing it.

An example of someone delivering bad news the wrong way would be BP’s CEO Tony Hayward. When the BP oil spill that happened in the Gulf of Mexico. Hayward said in his speech how the oil spill was relatively tiny and that the environmental effects would be modest. This was a lie, the BP oil spill spilt billions of gallons of oil into the ocean and cost 11 people their lives.

Tony Hayward made the mistake of saying that a huge incident with massive environmental effects. This was a way for him to feel better about delivering such bad news to so many people, but it also undermined just how big the incident was.

There are many wrong ways to deliver bad news but there are also some guidelines to help deliver it properly. You always need to speak up and deliver the news as soon as possible. This means that there’s no hiding it or setting it aside for later. Secondly you need to make your statement accurate, don’t try to make it seem like a smaller deal than it is. Lastly, you need to say what your plan to do next is. You should never deliver bad news with no attempt at a solution. This causes people to panic a bit more trying to think of something to do.

Through all the horrible examples of people deliver bad news like Tony Howard, there is a proper way to deliver bad news. All you have to do is follow the steps.

Sources:

Andersen, Erika. “How Great Leaders Deliver Bad News.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 07 Mar. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.

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Good Ways to Deliver Bad News

October 22, 2015 at 5:03 pm (Business Conflicts, Business Ethics, communication, Conflict)
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Delivering bad news is never fun for any of us, but if you are a CEO of a company it definitely adds to the difficulty. Not only is your reputation on the line but you represent the company and how your employees and the public view you, they also view the company in the same way.  You have the whole company’s reputation at stake when speaking on its behalf. What you say should be something that you would want anyone to hear.

Leaking Information

IBM CEO, Ginni Rometty, is an example of this. After the disappointing earnings report on April 18, Rometty released a video to all 434,000 employees in which she admitted that IBM hadn’t “transformed rapidly enough.” She called out the sales staff for missing out on several big deals. “We were too slow,” she said. “The result? It didn’t get done.” The press got wind of her message, and Rometty’s now accused of the corporate equivalent of yelling at her children in public. (Suddath) Always keep in mind that internal information can be leaked to outside sources. Being clear and direct is a positive but being degrading and placing blame is not acceptable. Keep in mind that what you are communicating to your employees should be something that you don’t mind your stakeholders hearing.

Focus on the Issue

When there is a big crisis, you must be ready to own the mistakes, express regret, and show that actions are being made to correct them and move forward. One of the most egregious in recent history was former BP CEO’s Tony Hayward’s handling of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in which 11 people lost their lives and billions of gallons of oil ended up in the Gulf of Mexico. (Andersen) His infamous words “I want my life back” remind us that when you have to deliver bad news, you should put your self-pity to the side. Stakeholders would have much rather heard that he understands the extremity of the spill as well as the relentless efforts that were being made to clean the water and rescue wildlife, as well as what actions are in place to keep this from happening again. (Owen) His words made the public feel that he was being insensitive about the concerns of the oil spill in 2010 and thinking of only himself instead of focusing on how he was going to assist in the efforts to make this bad situation better. This reminds us that even though you are being impacted by this, make it about them not you. Always keep in mind that you need your stakeholder’s support and that they are depending on your to be a strong leader that takes ownership when something bad happens.

Handling Bad News

Here are some ways that you can better handle delivering bad news:

  • First speak up and be credible by giving accurate information.
  • Come up with a plan right away and communicate it.
  • Don’t put it off because it is always better that the accurate information comes directly from you. Take responsibility for what has happened and show empathy.
  • Listen with courtesy and respect to the response.
  • Communicate the next steps of the plan.
  • Do what you said you were going to do. Repeat as needed. (Andersen)

Good News

To end on a good note…the founder of one of Turkey’s most successful brands, the food delivery company Yemeksepeti, in May sold his 15-year-old company to Germany’s Delivery Hero for $589 million. $27 million is going to 114 of the company’s 370 employees. With the typical employee earning between $1,000 and $2,000 a month, the average $237,000 bonus works out to roughly 150 months of wages, per CNN Money. (CEO gives employees “life changing” bonus) This bad news of the company being sold, turned out to be the best news to 114 of its employees. The news of the bonus would be easy to deliver, however, telling the 256 employees that they will not be receiving the bonus because they have not been with the company longer than two years would be more difficult.

Works Cited

Andersen, Erica. “How Great Leaders Deliver Bad News.” 6 March 2013. Forbes. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2013/03/06/how-great-leaders-deliver-bad-news/&gt;.

Beam, Christopher. “Oil Slick: How BP is handling its P.R. Disaster.” 21 October 2015. Slate. <http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2010/05/oil_slick.html&gt;.

Bies, Robert. “The 10 Commandments for Delivering Bad News.” 30 May 2012. Wiki How. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2012/05/30/10-commandments-for-delivering-bad-news/&gt;.

“CEO gives employees “life changing” bonus.” 30 July 2015. USA Today. <http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/07/30/ceo-sells-company-gives-employees-life-changing-bonus/30878901/&gt;.

Mullane, Denise Lenci and John. “COMMENT: Communicating with the public: how BP told the Macondo story.” 6 December 2010. Oil and Gas Journal. <http://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-108/issue-46/general-interest/comment-communicating-with-the-public.html&gt;.

Owen, Jo. “BP Oil Spill Crisis Management: How Not to Do it.” 11 June 2010. CBS News. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bp-oil-spill-crisis-management-how-not-to-do-it/&gt;.

Suddath, Claire. “The Right Way for a CEO to Deliver Bad News.” 9 May 2013. Bloomberg Business. <http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-05-09/the-right-way-for-a-ceo-to-deliver-bad-news&gt;.

Team, Mind Tools Editorial. “Delivering Bad News.” n.d. Mind Tools. <https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/bad-news.htm&gt;.

Weber, Erin McClam and Harry R. “BP’s Failures made worse by P.R. mistakes.” 11 June 2010 . NBC News. <http://www.nbcnews.com/id/37647218/ns/business-world_business/t/bps-failures-made-worse-pr-mistakes/#.Vikx1418OUk&gt;.

Witt, Chris. “How Good Leaders Can Deliver Bad News.” 21 October 2015. Reliable Plant. <http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/17101/how-good-leaders-can-deliver-bad-news&gt;.

 

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Ad Web Audience Targeting

October 5, 2015 at 7:42 pm (Advertising, Business Conflicts, Business Ethics, communication, Communication Problems, Comparison and contrast, Conflict, Education, Effective Communication, Forbes, Internet Consensus)
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Defining and targeting an audience are vital steps in great communication.  In publications, the ads are an excellent representation of who the targeted audience is.  Websites of these publications also target an audience but with an added dimension, the ability to individually target the viewer (audience.)  The ads vary by the choices selected within the publication website thus, redefining the audience.

Forbes website was the chosen publication to illustrate this changing targeted audience.  On the homepage of Forbes, the ads are geared toward a well-defined target group.  The initial ads were for Wall Street Journal; government tax programs; CD bank rates; oil dividends; filmmaking courses; and senior cell phone plans.  Together, these ads are for older wealthy businessmen. These are representative of the homepage initial ads.  The target audience is towards one who is interested in financial issues of taxes, CD notes, dividends, and business news from the WSJ…a businessman of diverse monetary concerns.  Definitely, the “senior plan” refers to an older generation.  The filmmaking courses also reinforce the older target group with an advertisement for a new hobby or starting a new business.  This is an extremely focused target audience.

Having the advantage of real-time viewing, websites can narrow the target audience.  When a viewer chooses a selection, a story or an article, the site chooses ads focusing on the audience’s interests.  If the chosen article deals with businesses with negative issues then the ads may change to customer service aids for businesses, insurance ads, or company improvement ads.  Relating the ads to the different types of articles narrows the targeted audience.

Another audience-targeting dimension of websites is third party advertising, directly targeting the individual viewer.  Third party advertising is advertisers which monitor viewers’ web surfing on their computers.  Directing ads of the real-time viewer’s interests allows the publication to broaden its audience.  These viewer-interest ads frame the articles with familiar and personal target ads.  Even though these ads may not have any connection with the article or the publication, the audience is familiar with these ads.  This frame may keep them reading the articles.  This allows for various changes so the targeted audience is the viewer even if the viewers do not fit the original targeted audience.  A young want-to-be businesswoman planning to start her own business would now be a targeted audience.  This real-time changing redefines the target audience as the current viewer to keep them interested in the publication even if they may not initially seem to be the audience targeted.

Concluding, this publication’s ads were aimed at a senior population of wealthy businessmen.  In general, this is the overall targeted audience but with websites drawing in different audiences with a specific article, the website uses ads to include the new audience in real-time viewing.  This advantage allows websites to reframe the site to include the viewer.  This is the magic of website ads – framing articles with advertising content this viewer is interested in seeing.

By Kentrina Freeman, Liberal Arts Major – IUPUC

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Mama Drama

November 13, 2014 at 5:34 pm (Business Conflicts)
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Only on Dance Moms would adult women try to claw their way through other people so their daughter could possibly be a star. While the daughters of these women are practicing the moms are bickering over whose daughter is dancing a solo, and who is being treated unfairly. Though I am not a parent, growing up I was told there is no I in team. The moms don’t often congratulate another girl for doing well. If they acknowledge another girls talent it often is followed with a steamy remark against the coach Abbie Lee Miller. Abbie doesn’t hide that she favors one of the girls. She often speaks highly of Maddie who many people have watched dance in a recent music video. In this episode of Dance Moms Maddie’s mom was asked if it would be okay for Abbie to pull her daughter Mckenzie from being the lead in a dance and replacing her with Maddie. Maddie’s mom then agreed. When alone with the other moms while the girls rehearsed Maddie’s mom was verbally attacked. The other moms called her a bad mother; they said she wasn’t thinking about Mckenzie and the group, that she was only worried about Maddie. This led to Maddie’s mom walking into rehearsal (which is not tolerated) and telling Abbie (in front of all the girls) that Maddie will not be doing the dance. At that moment I felt so bad for Maddie and Mckenzie. These girls put all that they could into learning the dance and it pirouetted right out of their sight with America and their peers to witness. As a business professional Abbie should have rehearsals private, team members only. Goodbye observation room! Abbie has to stand by her decision, if a mom feels disgruntled she should have them meet with her privately. They came to Abbie so their daughters could have opportunities at stardom. Abbie made no promises that this would be the case for all of the girls, or that the road would be fair. She pushes each girl to reach their full potential so the team will thrive. While I feel she cares about each girl it is clear that she sees more potential in some than others.

Judy Plath

IUPUC PSYCHOLGY MAJOR

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Water Cooler Worries

November 6, 2014 at 10:04 am (Business Conflicts, Communication Problems, Effective Communication, Working Well with Teams)
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What is a water cooler conversation? Dictionary.com states that a water cooler conversation is an “informal conversation among office staff.” I believe that the word office is not needed in this definition because informal conversations take place in retail and factory work the same way that they would in an office setting.

What drew me to this topic was that this was brought up as an issue in a recent review of my company’s policies. We may have misused the definition of the topic, our problem was hallway conversations. Two employees would see each other in the hallway and they would talk about a current conversation and move on, but everyone else on that project would be left out.

This is not the typical issue with water cooler conversation. Most of the places that I looked, water cooler conversations were viewed positively. Talking to other employees allows people to recharge their batteries, build relationships and if used correctly can raise work place morale.  When the conversations are negative about other employees or if major negative news about the company is delivered with this method, the workplace morale can be drastically brought down.  Overall in general I believe that water cooler conversations are good for companies and can be beneficial for employees.

By Zach Walker, Mechanical Engineering Technology- Purdue College of Technology

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