A520.3.5.RB_MedinaM.

There are various ways I can integrate the supportive communication guidelines provided in Developing Management Skills, to my current workplace. There are 10 guidelines in total. The first guideline, coaching vs. counseling, is something I have seen my boss struggle with. I can integrate coaching into my workplace by providing more guidance on new tasks, provide the information needed to complete tasks, advice subordinates on the problems they might encounter if a certain alternative is chosen, and give directions when needed. Counseling in the other hand, can be used to help others recognize the problem. Sometimes our emotions tend to take over our reasoning and logic. Therefore, counseling others to help them identify, see, define, and even recognize the problem is an effective way of managing the situation.

The second guideline is congruency meaning be honest. I tend to be pretty honest with my subordinates about the problems and situations we encounter. For example, my supervisor wanted me to manage the hours before her manager begins to cut hours. I had personally found this difficult to accomplish without making the other shift short staffed. When I approached everyone with honesty about the situation, they actually volunteered to come in later in order to provide the night shift the extra help they needed without going into overtime or going over the budgeted hours while others volunteered to take a longer lunch break. The third guideline is descriptive communication. The steps to descriptive communication are: describing objectively your observation of the event that occurred or the behavior that you think needs to be modified, describe your reactions to the behavior or describe the consequences of the behavior, and suggest a more acceptable alternative (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). This guideline is something I believe I would need to practice more. I have seen my boss blame a person more than recall objectively the event or situation. This has resulted on subordinates becoming defensive and in turn nothing gets done or fixed. I can use this guideline as a way to describe more objectively the occurrence of the events, describe the consequences of the action taken, and suggest more alternatives in case the situation arises again.

The fourth guideline kind of relates to the third guideline meaning focus on the problem and the solution rather than the personal traits (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). This can be integrated by asking the person their perspective of the problem, what was the problem, how can I help to fix it and so on. Make the issue the problem and not the person involved. The fifth guideline is validating communication. Validating communication helps people feel recognized, understood, accepted, and valued (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). I have integrated this by asking employees for their help when problems arise, asking for their feedback/inputs on situations, just have a regular conversation with them to get to know them better, reward them for their hard work, and so on.

The sixth guideline is using specific and not global statements. This means to provide specific instructions/statements rather than either-or statements. I have integrated this to my workplace by providing specific instructions about what needs to be done throughout the day and what has a priority. Avoiding the “either-or” statement helps subordinates focus and dedicate more time to priority tasks rather than be distracted by routine tasks. The seventh guideline is conjunctive communication. I have integrated this guideline when conducting meetings with team members. I allow them to take turns speaking and voicing their concerns while also providing feedback, keeping track of the time spent on each topic as well as keeping control of the topic. Keeping control of the topic has been the biggest issue I have encountered because we begin to remember something we had initially wanted to ask a person so the conversation typically begins to veer off to a different topic.

The 8^th guideline is owning the communication. This is something that I have struggled with. Rather than taking ownership of my decisions, I would say, “That’s what the boss told me to do”. I must integrate this to my daily decisions by saying “I”, “me”, “mine” decision, choice, and so on. This will help create some credibility to my abilities of guiding people to the correct course of action. The 9^th guideline is providing supportive listening. I have integrated this guideline by actively listening to subordinates concerns, struggles, opinions, ideas, beliefs, and so on. Lastly, the 10^th guideline is implementing a personal management interview program. Such program does not exist with my company but I have taken the initiative to at least once a week ask everyone to sit down for a few minutes and share their concerns as well as provide feedback.

Since majority of these guidelines I have already begun to implement them on my own, I can say that they have been quite rewarding. It has helped me figure what do they look for in a leader, what changes they would like to see, what struggles they may be facing, how to coach them better, and so on. There are many advantages to using these guidelines for supportive communication and the results are great.

Source:

Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing Self-Awareness. Developing management skills (8th ed., p. 265). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall/Pearson.