Guide to managerial communication

Mary Munter

• Managerial communication is different from other kinds of communication because a brilliant message alone is not sufficient: you are successful only if your message results in your desired response from your audience.

Communicator’s strategies

• Communication objectives: Define the general objective and the expected action to follow: the audience will learn something, sign, give me info, engage in defining a strategy, approve a plan

• Style: (content control vs. audience involvement)– Tell/Sell– Consult/join

• What is your credibility?

Factors and techniques that increase credibility (persuasiveness)

Factor Based on . . . Stress initial credibility Increased acquired credibility

Rank Hierarchical power

Emphasizing your title or rank

Associating yourself with or citing a high-ranking person

Goodwill Personal relationship or “track record”

Referring to relationship or “track record”

Building your goodwill by emphasizing audience benefits “what’s in it for them”

Trustworthiness Offering balanced evaluations; acknowledging conflicts of interest

Expertise Knowledge, competence

Sharing your expert understanding

Explaining how you gained your expertise

Associating yourself with or citing authoritative sources

Image Attractiveness, audience desire to be like you

Emphasizing attributes audience finds attractive

Building your image by identifying yourself with your audience’s benefits; using nonverbals and language your audience considers dynamic

Common Ground

Common values, ideas, problems, or needs

Establishing your shared values or ideas

Acknowledging similarities with audience

Tying the message to your common ground

Audience strategy

• Who are they?

• What do they know?

• What do they feel?

• How can you persuade them?– Using audience benefits– Using credibility (check table previous page)– Using message structure

Using message structure• Opening and closing: emphasize benefits• Problem/solution structure: First convince them that there is a problem so

you can then convince them that there is a solution• One-sided or two-sided: Two-sided for controversial topics. Helps

establishing common ground• Pro/con or con/pro. Pro/con for noncontroversial• Ascending or descending order. Informed audience ascending, uninformed

descending• Foot in the door technique: break down your request• Door in the face technique: Follow an outregous request with a reasonable

one.

Wrong structure for your papers: Answering questions like if the paper was an exam

Message strategyTHOUGHT PROCESS (drafting)

ends with conclusionSTRATEGIC PROCESS (writing)

emphasizes the conclusion

TIME

Bad ideas

Assumptions

Good ideas

Facts

Data

Reach conclusion

last

State conclusion first (usually)

Organized ideas

Organized ideas

Organized ideas

Organized ideas

Message strategy

• How can you emphasize? – Do not bury things in the middle– Direct approach: front loading or bottom-

lining.– Using the indirect approach: back loading or

mystery story approach (by enlarge not appropriate in business writing and thus not appropriate in your assignments)

Macrowriting

Design document for “high skim value”

Signposts to show connection

Effective paragraphs or sections

Goal: To increase readability, show organization

To show logical progression

To organize paragraphs or sections

Methods: “Headings”

White space

Typography

Throughout the document

Openings

closings

Generalization and support

Paragraph signposts

Macrowriting

• Introduction: What exists, why write, how organized.

• Closing: closure– Ineffective:

• Introducing new topic or information• Apologizing• Ending abruptly.

• Paragraphs: – (1) heading and when no heading topic sentence – (2) Signposts to clearly connect ideas within each

paragraph or section.

Microwriting

Editing for brevity Choosing a style

Goal: To make writing concise To make tone appropriate

Methods: Avoiding wordiness

Avoiding overlong sentences and paragraphs

Businesslike or bureaucratic?

Active or passive?

Jargon or no jargon? Jargon only as short hand not to show that you know the word

Microwriting

• Avoid wordiness: See table Munter’s book p. 73• Overlong sentences

– Clues:• (1) Too many main ideas in a sentence, usually signaled

by using the word “and” more than once.• (2) Hard to find main idea, usually signaled by using too

many piled-up phrases, parenthetical ideas, and qualifiers.

• Business like or bureaucratic (see p. 77)• Active or passive?

Active Passive

to avoid wordiness

to avoid formality

to place responsibility

to save readers time

to de-emphasize writer

To avoid responsibility

For transition

Writing Exercise: Writing guidelines

Audience: Chair of the Board of Directors (me).

Introduction: A couple of lines which state your progression in the practice rounds and outlines the arguments you are going to use in the rest of the document.

Body of the document: 2 or 3 headings (titles for sections – you do not need to write the sections). These headings are stand alone sentences that in a nutshell summarize the message the section would discuss if written (see Munter’s book). They must summarize the content of the section that you might have written if you had the time. Remember the document should follow a logical structure so use headings that present parallel structures (headings that look alike in terms of writing)

Closing: A couple of sentences that summarize the reasons for your progression during the CAPSIM practice rounds.

The whole memo should use white space and indentation to make it pleasing to the eye and easy to read.

The purpose of this exercise is to review and practice how to write the assignments due on Friday (meaning easy to skim assignments). It can also serve as outline for your group presentation to the board of directors.