As marketers, communicating effectively is vital to so many of the things we do and detrimental for success in the business world besides effectively, efficiently and successfully managing teams.
Professional business communication may be internal and external. Managers and team members can channel it through a wide variety of mediums including print, oral, and electronic.
In my humble opinion, “Good communication is effective communication” and as responsible managers you should follow the Principles and ethics of Professional business communication.
The principles of Professional business communication are the principle of clarity, principle of conciseness, principle of objectivity, principle of attention, principle of feedback, principle of completeness, principle of relevance, principle of consistency, principle of timeliness, principle of adequacy and principle of customer(audience) knowledge.
The ethics of communication should envisage the following;
You should communicate fact-based messages truthfully, honestly, accurately and completely, to the point, in brief, specific, segmented and with reason. These are essential to the integrity of communication. You should respect the individual or group with whom you communicate and give freedom to express their ideas and opinions. You should also respect diverse perspectives and dissenting opinions. You should also tolerate others.
At no time you should offend, humiliate or provoke others. You should be able to achieve decision making. You need to be concise, considered, continuous, concrete and courteous. Finally make the facts and resources on which the communication relies accessible to others.
Ethical communication enhances human worth and dignity
Communication is the cornerstone of our Profession. To be effective at it; whether selling a Product or Service, trying to motivate, convince or persuade a group to act favorably to your communication objectives; getting your team aligned, these communication principles should help focus your thoughts into something powerful and useful.