Business

Communication
Skills

By: Aisha Conolly

Business Communication

Communicating Effectively in Teams

By pooling the experience of several individuals,

a team has access to more information
Team members can bring a variety of
perspectives to the decision-making process.
Those who participate in making a decision are
more likely to support it and encourage others
to accept it.
Working in teams can unleash new levels of
creativity and energy in workers who share a
sense of purpose and mutual accountability.

Writing Business
Messages

Avoid words and phrases that unfairly and even

unethically categorize or stigmatize people in ways related
to gender, race, ethnicity, age, disability or other personal
characteristics.
Avoid sexist language by using the same labels for
everyone, regardless of gender.
Avoid identifying people by race or ethnic origin unless
such a label is relevant to the matter at hand.
Mention the age of a person only when it is relevant.
Physical, mental, sensory, or emotional impairments
should never be mentioned in business messages unless
those conditions are directly relevant to the subject.

Completing Business Messages

Use page setup to control margins, orientation

and the location of headers and footers.
Most business documents use a single column
of text per page, but multiple columns can be
attractive format for documents such as
newsletters.
Take advantage of paragraph formatting
controls to enhance the look of your
documents.

Social Media

Understand what information you really need

in order to excel in your current projects and
along your intended career path.
Face the fact that you cannot possibly handle
every update from potentially interesting and
helpful source.
Add new information sources slowly.
Prune your sources vigorously and frequently.
Remember that information is an enabler, a
means to an end.

Writing Negative Messages

Avoid an uncertain conclusion.

Manage future
correspondence.
Express optimism, if
appropriate.
Be sincere.