Crafting Communications Intended for Senior Executives

Name: Crafting Communications Intended for Senior Executives
Author: Katharine Hansen

Discover how to optimize communications with executives by choosing the best delivery mode.

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Course: On-Demand

(bright music) Welcome to Crafting Communications Intended for Senior Executives. In these lessons, you'll learn how to choose modes of communication most appropriate for your message and situation, and learn best practices for using each communication mode. The most important factor in choosing how to communicate with senior executives, email, phone, video conference, or in person, is the executive's preference. The best way to learn that preference is to contact the executive's assistant or secretary, and ask. If you plan to talk to multiple executives, adhere to the preference of the executive who's most likely to decide on your requested action. Here are additional factors to consider in choosing the most appropriate communication mode. How urgent is the nature of the communication? Does an executive need to know about a pressing issue? You can send an email right away or at least soon after you've researched and planned it. An in-person meeting, and even a phone or video conference, will likely require an appointment. If you determine the executive's preference is in person, but the need to communicate is urgent, introduce a topic in an email and ask to meet in person, or by phone or video conference. Is an immediate response needed? This criterion is similar to urgency, but the ideal communication mode isn't email since recipients are under no pressure to respond right away. Phone or video conference are the best choices when you need a quick response. The topic of your communication may be especially sensitive involving controversial issues or your organization's security. It also may involve people whose identities shouldn't be revealed. In these situations, phone or face-to-face communication is again, typically the wisest choice. If you need a written record of the communication to say, track the issue's history, email is a logical choice. While it's true that phone, video conference, and in-person meetings can be recorded, transcribing audio files is time consuming. Does your message involve bad news? A personal approach is best in this case, so a face-to-face meeting is optimal. But sometimes meeting face-to-face isn't a realistic option, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, with large numbers of employees working remotely, you may be geographically removed from the executive you need to communicate with. The same is true of large organizations in which your targeted executive works in corporate headquarters far from your location. You may be in a situation where it's important to build trust and rapport. If you don't know your targeted executive well, or haven't had the opportunity to build rapport before the planned communication, it might be a good idea to meet face-to-face. Perhaps you need to build trust with the executive before they can decide how to handle the issue. That trust will be easier to generate with you in the same room with the executive. Video conferencing is an acceptable second choice in these situations. Your pre-communication research should determine how much the executive already knows about your planned message. Since you won't want to weigh down a phone call or in-person meeting with excessive explanations, email is a solid choice. Ideally, the email's body will be concise with background material available as an attachment. When it comes to a complex message that you won't have time to explain, choose a brief email with clarifying attachments. Occasionally, you might find it more effective to explain complexities in person, especially if visual aids will play an important role in the communication. But be aware that you may have limited time to convey your message. Keep in mind that it's always smart to anticipate what the executive might ask after your communication, and even smarter to speculate on the level of questioning your message will spark. Phone, video conference, or face-to-face will be the best choices for anything that begs questions. It's worth considering, however, whether the likelihood of multiple questions means the message is too vague or isn't detailed enough.

Intermediate Provider : Katharine Hansen 6 Lessons · 23m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Urdu, Chinese

Course Description

To motivate the desired action from an executive, you’ll want to choose a communication delivery mode that has the greatest impact and opportunity for persuasion. How do you go about choosing the optimal mode of communication for your persuasive communication? Should you choose email, phone, videoconference, or in-person? Which mode will bring you closer to your goals, and help you facilitate helpful dialogue with your company’s senior management?

In these lessons on Crafting Communications Intended for Senior Executives, you will learn how to choose modes of communication that are most appropriate for your message and situation and the criteria, such as urgency and recordkeeping, that go into that selection. You’ll learn best practices for using each communication mode, which will help you to use email, phone, videoconferencing, and face-to-face communication with greater know-how and efficiency, and discover how to make the most of each communication mode, as well as the strengths and limitations of each.

What You'll Learn

Compare communication modes based on suitability and effectiveness for reaching senior executives
Explain the strengths and limitations of email, phone, videoconference, and in-person communication
Apply best practices to email and electronic communication
Apply best practices to phone and videoconference communication
Apply best practices to effective face-to-face communication
Choose the appropriate communication mode using criteria such as urgency and recordkeeping

Key Takeaways

Choosing a communication delivery mode with the greatest impact and opportunity for persuasion helps motivate the desired action from an executive.
Criteria such as urgency and recordkeeping inform which mode of communication is most appropriate for a given message and situation.
Each communication mode (email, phone, videoconference, and face-to-face) has its own strengths and limitations to weigh.
Applying best practices to each mode helps you communicate with greater know-how and efficiency.
Selecting the optimal mode can bring you closer to your goals and facilitate helpful dialogue with senior management.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is this course for?

It is for people who need to craft persuasive communications intended for senior executives and want to choose the most effective delivery mode for their message and situation.

What communication modes does the course cover?

It covers email and electronic communication, phone and videoconference communication, and face-to-face communication, along with how to choose the appropriate mode.

What will I be able to do after this course?

You will be able to compare communication modes based on suitability and effectiveness, explain the strengths and limitations of each mode, and apply best practices to email, phone, videoconference, and in-person communication.

How is the course structured?

It is organized into lessons covering choosing the appropriate communication mode, knowing the strengths and limitations of communication, effective email and electronic communication, effective phone and videoconference communication, and effective face-to-face communication, followed by a Test Your Knowledge section.

What criteria does the course use for selecting a communication mode?

The course discusses criteria such as urgency and recordkeeping that go into selecting the most appropriate communication mode.

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