Successful Time Management For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 14

Communicating Strategically to Get Results — Fast

In This Chapter

• Deciding which medium to use to deliver your message
• Delivering the goods when it's time to speak
• Using communication tools effectively
• Gaining the upper hand through questions

When communication goes awry, the impact is often subtle, though no less time-consuming and expensive. For instance, in a recent survey by a temporary agency, employees estimated that 14 percent of their work week was wasted by poor communication. That's more than 5.5 hours per week — and more than 290 hours per year! Studies also show that managers spend 80 percent of their time communicating, and that 80 percent of work mistakes are due to miscommunication.

Communication is as important today than it ever has been. And we have so many different ways to contact and communicate with each other — from text messages and email; to social media and group chats; to online meeting options such as Skype, GoToMeeting, and more. The ways we can reach out and touch someone seem endless today.

Everyone makes real efforts to get messages across to family, friends, colleagues, business associates, and supervisors. But as these figures illustrate, many of those messages fail because they're unclear, inaccurate, or too long. And for every message that doesn't succeed, you waste time: repeating, redoing, reworking, and reorganizing. In this chapter, you discover how to head off those problems by choosing your medium and using it effectively, ...