In your responses to at least two of your classmates, compare and contrast your respective thoughts on effective (and less than effective) communication and offer constructive criticism of the critical analysis offered by your peers. Additionally, identify any insights you have gained as a result of reading the responses of others. I need 150 words for each peer’s response

Forum 1: In the short article entitled A Call For Leaders: What Employees Really Want by Peter F. Drucker, we understand that while they are several books, quotes, and articles that speak of characteristics of leaders, none of these readings actually help us to understand what leaders should be doing. Many individuals can agree that their leaders are lacking key characteristics when it comes to leadership and that is: communication. Peter asserts that ‘less than one-third of employees can agree that their work environment has the potential to use their voices positively but no one is doing anything about it’ (Drucker, 2012). In the article, we were provided with 6 genuine natural categories that can help our leaders practice communication better. The first advice was for them to share more information. This is to say that leaders should always have a vision and be able to articulate such vision. The next piece of advice is for them to keep it real. We can encourage them to watch their tones, demeanors, and or body language when conveying information to us. Another terrific piece of advice is for them to listen to us, the employees. This goes without saying that leaders who listen attentively to their employees are more successful because there is open-communication. The next advice given is for them to walk the walk. We don’t want lazy employees. We judge our leaders based on how well they can do their job. We want to learn from them. Also, a leader who knows the organization and its employees show us that they are accessible and genuine. And finally, employees want trust from their leaders.

There are numerous times when I have tried to carry on a conversation when no one was listening. Being an introvert, this is a daily activity in my life. I am often asked to speak and provide my input but when I do, it always seems as if people either talk over me or people don’t really listen. A few weeks ago, my family wanted to plan a vacation for next year’s summer, we always plan a big family vacation where everyone gets together and unwind for a week or so. We were all inputting our own ideas, I was sitting in the kitchen listening to everyone’s marvelous and grand ideas. Then my dear mum asked me to pick and contribute since, after all, I am part of the family. The moment I started to speak, my other siblings who were also watching a rugby match, all shifted their focuses to the match and it was only my mum listening to me and nodding. I don’t think it was anything personal, since I usually don’t say much, they probably didn’t even hear me talking. I knew they were not listening because after talking for what seems like an eternity, my mum then shouted at everyone and I was asked to repeat myself again for another couple of minutes or so.

My supervisors are terrible at communicating with one another. Most days you will ask one lead a question, they will give you an answer, the next day you ask another and they give you a completely different answer. I cannot remember one time where I had a positive outcome speaking to my supervisors. An example of when my supervisors did not communicate well was just yesterday. At the law firm, I received a recording/robotic message asking for the parent of a child to contact a number provided as soon as possible. I bought it up to the attorney who was my lead attorney for the day, he told me since it was a recording/robotic message to delete and discard the message. I advised him that it did not make sense to discard the message since one of our employees at the firm has the same last name as the child the recording mentioned in the message. He told me again to discard the message. Today, I got to work only to find out that the child the recording was regarding is a minor, he got into a severe car accident yesterday, and the police called to speak to his guardian, one of our counselors that works at the Law Firm. Unfortunately, the counselor advised us that her cell phone is not working and she has forwarded all her messages to the law firm.

References

Bates Communication Inc. (2012). A call for leaders: What employees really want. Retrieved from http://www.bates-communications.com/Portals/25382/docs/art-whatemployeeswant.pd