Good Business Communication

• What happened? Is the question to ask when something’s gone wrong. Don’t try blame someone for the mistake right at the start. Asking What happened? Focuses on the mistake itself, not on the person who did it and is much more likely to lead to useful information. Contrast: Who did it? Is a phrase that can turn off information flow.

• Oral orders are usually that's needed to correct a basic mistake. If the oral order changes an existing policy, though, confirm it in writing as soon as possible to prevent future confusion.

• Tuesday is the best day for having a serious heart-to-heart discussion with an employee concerning job performance . Friday risk: Person broods all weekend about the conversation and comes back embitted on Monday after the Tuesday talk, find a way by Wednesday to indicate that there’s no ill will.

• Discuss serious problems with a subordinate in you office where your authority is evident. Minor matters can be handled in the subordinate’s office as long as there’s privacy and quite

• Value of a dumb question or a simple and honest I don’t know is that you’ll probably learn something you don’t know now… and that you couldn’t find out any other way. “It’s what you learn after you know it all that really counts,” said President Harry S Truman, an expert at turning seeming modesty into great strength.

Source : James Van Fleet, former US Army officer, manager with Sears, Roebuck & Co. and US Gypsum, and consultant on the psychology of management, writing in lifetime Conversation Guide, Prentice hall Inc, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.