You communicate using technology every day to get your work done. Sometimes, while your message gets across the intention is missed. Maybe you feel some team members are committed, or you worry about the prospective outcomes of a poorly run teleconference. Technology helps us extend our reach, but often at the cost of losing the traditional body language we’ve relied upon.
Do you ever wonder:
- How your electronic communications are being interpreted?
- What assumptions others are making about you based on your electronic habits?
- What judgments you make about the competence and credibility of others?
- How to accurately interpret silence during a teleconference call?
We’ve learned, or been trained to interpret non-verbal cues. We are pretty comfortable interpreting cues such as when someone sits back in their chair with their arms folded across their chest. Or rolls their eyes upward. Or shifts away from making eye contact. Or glares.
But, to thrive in our use of electronic communications, we must understand the electronic equivalent to the body language we know. What are the signs that someone is not engaged? Bored? Not interested? Overwhelmed? Angry? What is crossing your arms like? What habits and behaviors do we exhibit that may be interpreted by another in a way other than how we intended?
What are the Benefits?
- Increase the chances your communications will be accurately interpreted
- Be savvy about electronic habits that reflect the image you want to project
- Prevent or correct negative assumptions about you, eliminating unseen and unknown roadblocks to achieving your success
- Mitigate the possibility your habits are undermining your work
- Challenge and manage your assumptions of the habits of others
- Learn how communication agreements can help alleviate some pitfalls virtual team work
What’s Involved?
Each workshop follows a similar approach. Through our pre-workshop assessment, we customize each one based on participant goals, political and cultural considerations, technologies leveraged and other factors.