Getting the most out of Gen Zs

The widening gap between the expectations and realities of working with employees who were born between the late 90s and early 2000s has stimulated studies into the dynamics of working with these young and talented employees who now constitute a third of the world’s population. I call them the bearer of a new order. Studies have shown that these digital natives prefer influencers to actors, skits to full-length movies, emojis to written words and video calls to audio ones (Zebra IQ, 2020). Moreso, this group of employees are inquisitive, nonconforming, and creative – qualities that employers always look for in employees. Although for some employers, nonconformity will not make the list.

As much as Gen Zs are a great asset to any organisation, their nature is not fit for the rigour of the physical and mental demands of an average working environment, today. What then is the way out? How do we harness the wealth of human resources that Gen Zs represent without burning them out. Here are three ideas that can help to get the best out of Gen Zs.

Prioritise Mental Health

Gen Zs are not as stoic as other generations before them; they walk on the precinct of mental breakdown. According to a 2020 consumer survey in the United State by McKinsey, “one in four Gen Z respondents reported feeling more emotionally distressed (25%), almost double the levels reported by millennial and Gen X respondents (13% each), and more than triple the levels reported by baby boomer respondents (8%).” It may be difficult to pin this result on a single factor. However, to get the best out of these digital natives, it is fundamental to pay attention to policies and practices that impact their emotional, psychological, and social well-being. For instance, a corporate culture of mental health would require that employees’ pay commiserate with their levels and the socio-economic realities of the moment (e.g., inflation).

Also, employees should be mandated to take their paid leave as and when due; comprehensive health care support should be provided for all employees; work from home should be encouraged when appropriate. The ambience within the organisation should be friendly so that employees are free to express themselves and give feedback on company policies. All these will reassure employees that their organisation has their best interest at heart, and as such, they will always go the extra mile to deliver their quota.

Emphasise Emotional Intelligence

Employees with high EQ are easy to work with and they help create a healthy working environment. They can identify stress-related emotions both in themselves and in others. Employees who have an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses seldom burn out –their limitations and strength inform their goals and action. As a manager, helping your Gen zs understand their emotions will impact your organisation’s productivity to a very great extent.

Encourage Peer Coaching

Creating an environment where employees can learn from one another in a more relaxed and informal setting will help your Gen zs perform maximally. In such an atmosphere, employees can freely seek guidance and exchange performance feedback without feeling awkward. Moreover, by working together to improve their skills and performance, employees feel more connected to one another and more invested in the success of the team.

It cannot be overemphasised that Gen z is a special and valuable generation of employees who bring new perspectives and fresh ideas to the workplace. However, to get the best out of them, managers should endeavour to understand their makeup – their strengths, preferences, and motivations. Also, managers should provide opportunities for growth and creativity to improve their skills and confidence.

Psychological Safety, Communication and Employee Performance

Employees’ performances are hinged on many factors of which an enabling environment which allows employees to freely provide feedback without being shut down or victimised is pivotal. Organisations that have psychological safety as a part of their core values will always get the best out of their employees. When employees feel safe at work, they find it easier to share their opinions about policies and express personal reservations or approval for the organisation’s operational strategies.

Communication in the workplace transcends the use of the appropriate linguistic resources to express thoughts and opinions. It includes many unwritten sociocultural rules that limit employees’ choices of words; dampen or heighten motivation to ask questions and regulate the enthusiasm to proffer genuine answers. When these sociocultural rules are pragmatic and people-centric, it sets the stage for effective communication within the workplace otherwise, employees will find it hard to express themselves and performance will suffer.

Psychological safety is neither a carte blanche for unprofessional behaviours nor being unnecessarily nice and agreeable to subordinates. It is a culture of respect, trust, and openness which fosters participation and inclusivity in the workplace. Managers need not compromise high professional standards in the process of providing a safe space for their employees to thrive.

Writing Powerful Sentences

Writing Powerful Sentences

In the business world, correspondence pitch ideas, accept or decline proposals, make offers, introduce products, advertise services, communicate core values, goals and quotas – this list is endless. However, the effectiveness of these correspondence principally depends on the quality of the sentences with which they are prepared.

Whatever the goal is, everyone writes with the hope of capturing the attention of their audience. And like never before, the 21st-century audience has a short attention span – they are easily distracted. Therefore, it is fundamental that every writer deploys effective strategies to engage their audience. Writing powerful sentences is one major way of capturing and keeping your audience’s attention. The following tips will guide you in curating powerful sentences.

Rely more on Active Voice: always deploy active sentences in your business messages. This way, your audience will understand the message easily. Passive sentences are faceless, boring, and most importantly, do not conform to one of the 7cs of communication – conciseness.

  1. The Operation Manager will chair the next board meeting.
  2. The next board meeting will be chaired by the Operation Manager.

Sentence 1 is more succinct than sentence 2.

Choose your words carefully: Words determine the meanings and the effects that a sentence generates. The kinds of words you use in preparing your business message will determine whether your document is crisp or soggy.

  1. We have agreed to give you the loan. Please, visit the bank to discuss how the money will be paid into your account.
  2. Your loan application was approved last week. Kindly visit the bank to commence the disbursement procedure.

Sentence 2 is a better version of 1.
Composing your business messages with the right words will evoke the right effects on your audience.

Avoid redundancy: many of the words that are commonly used in emails and other business correspondence these days are overused and have lost their savour. Overused or redundant expressions will make your text drab and lifeless. Examples include:

Redundant Expressions Preferred Option
brief summary summary
future plans plans
revert back revert
sworn affidavit affidavit

 

Overused Words Preferred Option
important fundamental, principal, chief
interesting exciting, engaging
new fresh, original
very highly, especially

 

 Use positive statements: in linguistics, negative sentences are marked and are believed to carry some kind of ideology. To this end, business messages should not be open to various interpretations – be as direct as possible. Moreover, negative statements are colourless and hesitant, and should not characterise a business correspondence.
a. They are not very diligent.
Sentence a is better written as
b. They are Lazy.

The tips mentioned above will help improve the quality of your sentences. As you continue to write with these nuggets in mind, your document will evoke the right effects and get the appropriate responses.

Write in Plain Terms: Avoid Canned Expressions

Writing for business requires lots of skills and practice. It’s a fast-paced world, and business executives have everything to spare, but time.  Everyone that would write for business should be plain-spoken and avoid expressions that have been overused within the business sphere. They are commonly described as bizspeak.  Here are some of them and the preferred alternatives.

NOT THESE: BUT THESE:
at your earliest convenience as soon as you can
In light of the fact that because
We are in receipt of we’ve received
as per our telephone conversation earlier today as we discussed this morning
Pursuant to your instructions, I met with the David Phelps today regarding the above-mentioned as you asked, I met with David Phelps today.
Please be advised that the deadline for the above-mentioned transaction is Monday, April 2, 2021. The deadline is April 2, 2021.
Thank you for your courtesy and cooperation regarding this matter. Thank you
Thank you in advance for your courtesy and cooperation in this regard. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions concerning this request. Thank you. If you have any questions, please call.

These expressions may be readily available shorthand for business letters and emails; however, using them suggests to readers that you’re on autopilot, thoughtlessly using canned expressions that people have heard time after time. When you write, endeavour to write like a person, and not a corporation. The goal is to communicate your idea to your audience, not to impress them with your ability to use overused business terms.

Writing in plain terms increases the readability of your text. Bryan Garner, a foremost American lawyer and lexicographer describes writing plainly as “the ability to express ideas as strait-forwardly as you can without sacrificing meaning or tone”. Expressing your ideas directly when you write, will help you connect with your audience and increase the readability of your texts.

Three Factors of Effective Communication

Communicating is not just about sharing information; it is about getting through to your audience. Whether you are communicating online or in a face-to-face situation, the following factors are fundamental to reaching your audience, whether they are potential clients in the business world, or a group of professors from Harvard.

Motivation: the first and the most important of these factors is your underlying intent of communicating. What is the objective of your communication? Understanding what you want to achieve with your communication goes a long way in helping you to design an effective communication be it a one-to-one or a group communication. This factor feeds into other variables such as the channel of communication and the level of formality that is created during the communication process.

Content: the second factor deals with what you have to say. How prepared are you? Do you have facts and data to support your ‘argument’? Making sure that what you have to say are supported with facts and data, and not just mere opinions and assumptions would help you persuade your audience and achieve your objectives.

Presentation: the third factor has to do with how you deliver your message. What is your demeanour? Do you have the right body language? Research has shown that more than 70% of communication is nonverbal. With this in mind, it is important to make eye contact and gesticulate appropriately as we communicate. Avoiding eye contact with your audience may be construed as timidity, or they may take it that you are lying or not sure of yourself. You must endeavour to pace intentionally; your movement on the stage must corroborate what you are saying. Moving up and down arbitrarily can be a huge distraction.

Communication is the life of every human endeavour. It is the fluid that lubricates professional and interpersonal relationships among men and women.

Interpersonal Intelligence and Effective Workplace Communication

Communication is pivotal to the success of any organisation; a breakdown in communication in any organisation is a harbinger of failure. Everything revolves around effective communication. For a smooth running of any organisation, leaders must be able to accurately communicate the organisation’s visions and goals, individual roles, core values, deliverables etc. In the same vein, employee must also possess the ability to effectively exchange information and meaning within the workplace.

Carol Lehman defined Communication as the process of exchanging information and meaning between or among individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, and behaviour. Going by this definition, an effective communication is hinged on individuals’ interpersonal intelligence (people smart skills).

Interpersonal intelligence is the ability to read, empathise, and understand others. People with interpersonal intelligence are good with people and thrive in social interaction. Rather than being a quality that some are born with while others are not, interpersonal intelligence can be improved by broadening your understanding of human behaviour and motivation and practicing certain behaviours when in interpersonal situations. The following tips can help improve your PeopleSmart skills:

Understand people: In order to improve your interpersonal intelligence, you must be intentional and strategic about understanding people. Mel Silberman Suggested three broad ways through which this can be done:

  • Listening and Observing: To understand people, you must make a conscious effort to listen to their ideas and points of view, and observe their body language.
  • Clarify Meaning: The core level of understanding is recognising the significance of what the other person tells us. Delve beyond facts and figures to access the underlying meaning being communicated. To achieve this, ask open ended questions, paraphrase and respond to feelings.
  • Interpret Behaviours: Attempting to understanding actions of individuals with whom you share the same values and world view may be easier than trying to understand the actions of people of different culture. You can interpret co-workers/colleagues’ behaviours by evaluating their personal goals, assessing their personal styles, and recognising their differences.

Express yourself Clearly:  If your goal is to improve your interpersonal intelligence, you must strive to always communicate clearly. Good verbal communication means saying just enough – do not talk too much or too little. Try to convey your message in as few words as possible. To improve on your clarity, endeavour to always talk straight and include the listener in the communication process.

Assert your Needs: Your listeners and co-workers cannot read your mind, therefore, tell them what you want. “Besides having healthy limits, you need to speak up so others know what they are. Holding back what you need from others only leads to frustration.” You should make sure to understand what you stand for and you should communicate that clearly to others. Improve your assertiveness by being decisive, remaining calm and confident, and being persistent.

Feedback: Feedback is important to effective communication – Effective communication is only possible if communicators at all organizational levels seek out feedback and take appropriate actions to ensure that the intended meaning is passed on to the relevant audience. Feedback is something we give as well as receive. Whether the gift is welcome or not depends on knowing when and how to share our reflections so that others accept, value, and seek out our point of view. When we exchange feedback in a caring and skilful way, we open a window on the world. We like to think we know ourselves, and most of us do in many important respects. We know our likes and dislikes, our feelings and beliefs, what makes us laugh and cry. But others have a vantage point we can never hold. They are our mirrors. If we hide from or deny their perspectives, we miss out on vital information.

People with high interpersonal intelligence easily empathise with others and are gifted in dealing with other people. Your ability to communicate effectively will improve considerably if you follow the steps highlighted above.

[HDquiz quiz = “30”]

  • PeopleSmart: Developing your Interpersonal Intelligence by Mel Silberman
  • Business communication by Carol M. Lehman & Debbie D. Dufrene

Practical Steps to Dealing with the H-Factor

Get rid of the h-factor

One of the linguistic problems plaguing speakers of English in Nigeria is the H-factor. It is more common in the Southwestern part of the country. It is a situation in which a speaker pronounces a word without the phoneme /h/ as though it has it, and removes the phoneme /h/ when pronouncing words that obviously have it.One important thing about the H-factor is that those struggling with it cannot tell the difference between a word said with the phoneme /h/ and another one said without the phoneme /h/. To such people, ‘anger’ and ‘hanger’ are pronounced the same way.

Although, many people struggling with the H-factor do not know what they are doing wrongly when they speak, a speech that is riddled with indiscriminate realisation of the phoneme /h/ can be a deal breaker. Therefore, the following steps will come in handy in your journey to eradicating the H-factor from your speech.

Practice with Chants and Tongue Twisters:Like most issues in English pronunciation, there is no elixir that can help cure the H-factor. However, a strategic and consistent learning and practicing would rid your speech of every form of the H-factor. H dropping and wrong insertion of H in English pronunciation can be corrected with chants and tongue twisters.To do this, carefully select words that have the phoneme /h/ in them and alternate them with words that do not have /h/. Make use of words that are most likely to take H insertion. For instance,

  1. Happy apple, heavy eggs, Eight hay sack.
  2. Henry has a bottle of holy olive oil in his house.
  3. Honest Hannah has a bottle of honey in her house.

Practice saying the lines making sure to pronounce the phoneme /h/ in words that have them and try not to insert /h/ into words that do not require it.  You can start slowly and increase your pace gradually to get optimum result.

Singing: This is another potent way of dealing with the H-factor. Deliberately collect songs that have the phoneme /h/ in them and sing. While singing, take care to pronounce the words of the songs appropriately, paying attention to each sound. Also, listen to songs that are rendered in standard English and sing along. Make conscious effort to accurately repeat what you hear.

Go Slowly: If you are a fast speaker, you may need to reduce the pace of your speech until you can confidently speak without falling into the embarrassing traps of the H-factor. Taking your time to pronounce your words carefully can help here; Don’t rush.

Repetition: Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-Hour Ruleholds that deliberate practice is the key to becoming world-class in any field. In the same vein, repeating the steps giving above will help achieve your goal of clear and ‘clean’ speech. 

H-factor is one of the most embarrassing pronunciation challenges. And worse, most people who have it do not know. However, if you can strategically plan your learning with the information given above, your speech will be free of H-factor in due course.

More sample sentences:

  1. The half-hearted climber fell down the high hill.
  2. He took hot tea and hamburger in the afternoon.
  3. I hope she took the whole family on holidays.
  4. Henry’s horse rides on a high onyx hill.

Email Right! (2)

Some business contacts will know you only through your email communication. The tone you convey in your online messages should be respectful, friendly, and approachable. In this article, I’m going to discuss email etiquette.

  • Check mail promptly. Generally, a response to email is expected within 24 hours. Ignoring messages from co-workers can erode efforts to create an open, honest, and cooperative work environment. On the other hand, responding every second may indicate that you are paying more attention to your email than your job.
  • Do not send messages when you are angry. Email containing sensitive, highly emotional messages may be easily misinterpreted because of the absence of nonverbal communication (facial expressions, voice tone, and body language). Sending a flame, the online term used to describe a heated, sarcastic, sometimes abusive message or posting, may prompt a receiver to send a retaliatory response.
  • Use a professional email address. If you work for a company, you should use your company email address. But if you use a personal email account-whether you are self-employed or just like using it occasionally for work-related correspondences, you should pick an email address that presents as a professional.
  • Be cautious with humour. Humour can easily get lost in translation without the right tone or body language. In a professional exchange, it’s better to leave humour out of emails unless you know the recipient well. Also, something that you think is funny might not be funny to someone else.
  • Keep your fonts classic. For business correspondence, keep your fonts, colours, and sizes classic. Your emails should be easy for other people to read.
  • Nothing is confidential. Always remember that all electronic communication may be stored and rebroadcast, so, don’t write anything you wouldn’t want everyone to see.
  • Be certain individuals need a copy of the email, and forward an email from another person only with the original writer’s permission.
  • Never address an email requesting general action to more than one person if you want to receive individual response. Sharing responsibility will lead to no one taking responsibility.
  • Follow company policy for personal use of email, and obtain a private email account if you are job hunting or sending many private messages to friends and relatives.

Source: Carol, M. Lehman Business Communication, Cengage Learning

Email Right! (1)

Business writing can impact on the whole business cycle; it can win business; it can lose business and it can communicate the framework by which results can be achieved. The evolution of technology has increased the options of written communication in business sphere, email instant messaging and web communication are some of the written communication options brought by technology. Many organisations now rely on email as the sole form of official correspondence. Therefore, understand how to use email communication effectively is important to success in almost every career. In the following line we shall examine some of the best practices of sending an email.

  • Send to single or multiple addressees. The same message can be sent to one or many recipients simultaneously. Sending an email message to multiple recipients simply involves keying the email address of each recipient into a distribution list and selecting the distribution list as the recipient.
  • Provide a useful subject line. A descriptive subject line assists the receiver’s understanding of the message and serves as a reference point for future reference to it. Additionally, a well-written subject line in an email message will help the receiver sort through an overloaded mailbox and read messages in priority order. When writing a subject line, think of the five W’s—Who, What, When, Where, and Why—to give you some clues for wording. For instance, “Credit Committee Meeting on Monday” is a more meaningful subject line than “important Meeting.”
  • Restate the subject in the body of the message. The body of the message should be a complete thought and should not rely on the subject line for elaboration. A good opening sentence might be a repetition of most of the subject line. Even if the reader skipped the subject line, the message would still be clear, logical, and complete.
  • Sequence your ideas based on anticipated reader reaction. Endeavour to organise your ideas deductively when a message contains good news or neutral information; and inductively when the message contains bad news or is intended to persuade. Email messages may be organised according to the sequence of ideas, for example, time order, order of importance, or geography. As a general rule, present the information in the order it is likely to be needed. For example, describe the nature and purpose of an upcoming meeting before giving the specifics (date, place, time).
  • Make careful use of jargon, technical words, and shortened terms. The use of jargon and technical terms is more common in email messages than in business letters. Such shortcuts save time with audiences who will understand the intent. In practicing empathy, however, consider whether the receiver will likely understand the terms used. And you may want to stick to universally acceptable shortened terms.
  • Use graphic highlighting to add emphasis. Enumerated or bulleted lists, tables, graphs, pictures, or other images may be either integrated into the content of the email or attached as supporting material.
  • Revise your email before clicking to send. Even the average email requires at least one pass to ensure that the intended message is clear, concise, and error-free. The number of passes increases depending on the number of people receiving the email and the complexity of the issue. Revising for brevity, accuracy, correctness, completeness and conciseness is a primary goal for messages read often on the run and on mobile devices.

Adhering to the important keys mentioned above will set you on the right path to using email effectively. I shall discuss some email etiquette in the part-two of this article.

The 4Cs of Etiquette

Good manners are requisite to being accepted into different social groups in a society. Since manners have been described as a sensitive awareness to the feelings of others, it is important to strive to retain this awareness at all times in other to maintain good manners. One way to retain this sensitivity is to consider etiquette as a system based on four major categories- courtesy, consideration, camaraderie, and class.

Courtesy concerns listening rather than talking; not interrupting someone, being particularly sensitive to the needs of the elderly, standing when someone enters a room or your workspace, if possible, and using phrases such as ‘Please,’ ‘Thank you,’ and ‘excuse me.’

Consideration acknowledges that there are many other people sharing a limited amount of space on the planet. This facet of etiquette involves keeping your voice down, not cutting people off in lines or on highways, e.t.c.

Camaraderie means thinking of yourself as a team player and not always trying to promote your own achievement. Try not to keep a meticulous record of every favour you are ever owed, else, you will feel miserable. Know that when you feel like you are part of a team, everyone will enjoy working with you.

Class concerns your demeanour: this should aim at being cordial rather than dour (unfriendly). Be pleasant and do your best to please; even when others are unpleasant or direct foul moods at you.

Etiquette is based on a system. Over time, the system will work for you – if you can only get out of your way long enough to allow it to.