rudy,
I really respect the concept of helping student make an educated decision vs. "selling" them. Thanks for sharing, Rudy!
Dr. Jean Norris
I think that I need to improve my face to face communication skills because I am a very expressive person and even blinking the person can tell if I am angry or if anything make feel excited. Working with students if a little bit hard because they have their valid requests but sometimes they do not ask for things appropriately. As organization members we need to keep a professional attitude and do not react inappropriately in certain situations.
ROSAIDA,
Great awareness, and very good point. What are some ways you can improve your communication?
Dr. Jean Norris
Whenever possible, I like to use email and telephone communications to setup face-to-face. Granted, it is a challenge to strike the right tone over an email or phone conversation. Mixing the three mediums appropriately gives me an advantage when providing a singular and positive thought process.
An admonishment is never accomplished well across email or by phone. Control is absent in these types of cases and is very subject to human nature, secret recordings, third party hindrances, etc. Though well intended, certain communications invite total confusion.
Juan,
Great point. It can be very difficult to strike the right tone over email or phone, but what are some tools you have learned to help bridge that gap?
Dr. Jean Norris
I will work to develop my telecommunication skills because it is more challenging to bring prospective students, and other people to the institution over the phone. The level of exposure, and experience a person has to any institution is usually dominated by phone communication or the internet. However, with the internet there is only so much you can do. Eventually people are going to want to talk to an actual person over the phone. You need to cover all of your bases and know what it is they are asking in order to be able to answer back quickly and with confidence. If a person senses any hesitation over the phone it is usually discouraging for them to continue the conversation, which leads to the institution losing a potential student. Therefore, I find that telecommunication skills are very important for the companies further growth and development.
Kudos to you Lauren for recognizing the importance of responding to and working with the prospective student using the method that's best for them. We need to have the tools and the skills to be able to work with our students using different modes of communication. Thank you for your post!
Dr. Jean Norris
In my areas, my method is face to face with my staff. The way I communicate with them on a constant basis has to be very prepared and focused on my part since I provide a lot of mentoring, coaching and training.
Laura,
It sounds like you really care about how you communicate with your staff. Great job! Do you have any suggestions on how you can improve this communication method?
Dr. Jean Norris
I will strive to improve my written communications in the business environment. The average age of my adult learners is 25-30 years of age and their communication method of choice is "written" communication. I always given them the option to phone, email, text, or set up an face-to-face appointment. Seldom does a student choose to phone, or meet face-to-face. Their preferred method is texting and then they will email. That being said, I need to keep working to improve on written communication in both texting and emailing. I will say that texting tends to get more informal and, therefore, I believe miscommunication can be a hazzard while testing.
Sandra,
Miscommunication in texting is common--great awareness! It sounds like you are trying to meet the student where they are. If they prefer to text, start there, then try to lead them to email or phone where more clarification can be given more easily. Great job!
Dr. Jean Norris
I will be working to better my phone presence in my new position. I feel fairley confident in my face to face interactions and my written could use some grammatical work but spell check is a life saver there.
But overall the area that I feel that I need the most work in the phone to phone interaction so that I am not sounding scripted.
Britton,
Great awareness! What are you going to do specifically, to improve in this area?
Dr. Jean Norris
Telephone commmunication making sure that my tone always stays upbeat and exciting throughout the call
Portia,
Great! How do you feel your students respond to your upbeat an excited tone?
Dr. Jean Norris
I prefer face to face, I think I am a great active listener and if I am on the phone all they hear is silence from me when I'm listening whereas in person they can tell by my body language that I am engaged in the conversation and want to hear all that they have to tell me.
Rachael,
Great awareness. How will enhance your phone conversations?
Dr. Jean Norris
The best communication skills that I use are emails, text messages, and phone. Since I am an online professor I never see my students face to face. So developing these skills are the most important areas that I can work on to get better communications between myself and my students.
Kevin,
It's great that you have so much variety though - even if you don't see your students face-to-face. What communication methods do you prefer outside of work?
Dr. Jean Norris
I enjoy face to face communications because you can easily read the other persons facial expressions
