Business Etiquette for International Gift Giving

It's hard to know sometimes what would be an appropriate gift for a business contact in a foreign country. If you are an American business professional, should you give your colleague in Beijing a gift that represents something valued in the U.S.? If you are an Irish entrepreneur, should you send a Celtic knot work design to a business executive in South Africa? Here are some guidelines to help you choose what to give and when.

Click here to continue.

[from soyouwanna.com]

Effects of Negative Communication in the Workplace

Common elements of negative communication include rumors, misinformation, misinterpretation, incomplete information and employee slander. While many of the elements are purposely initiated -- for example, employee slander -- other elements occur without any intent of malice, such as unknowingly relaying incomplete information. Communication is essential for maintaining a productive workplace. By understanding the effects of negative communication in the workplace, you can develop policies that help to decrease the problem and encourage positive communication.

click here to continue.

[from smallbusiness.chron.com]

Global Business and Ethics

Global Business and Ethics
By Jed A. Reay
With the advent of the Internet, everything from personal relationships to business has become 'global' for all intents and purposes. Today, you can talk to people across the world just as easily as if you were talking to your next door neighbor. Businesses can exchange documents of all sorts with the push of a button - without having to wait days, and often weeks, for those documents to be delivered by hand. We are global, and this has had a profound effect in the area of business ethics.
What we must realize is that what may be deemed ethical in our own country is not necessarily deemed as ethical in another country. This often makes conducting global business quite hard. At one time, because we did not have the Internet, it was more of a question of not accidentally disrespecting on another's customs and traditions. However, today, there is much more at stake. You must also not trample all over another businesses - or countries - ethical code, while you remain true to your own businesses or country's ethical code.
The first step is to understand business traditions and customs in the country that the business you are dealing with resides in. Hopefully, they will do the same for you, making an effort to learn about your business traditions and customs. Next, you need a way to clearly communicate. In this area of the global marketplace, hiring the services of a talented translator is essential. You need to clearly know what they are saying, and they need to know what you are saying as well. Don't rely on your one semester of a foreign language from high school to get you through this.
Global business also has a profound effect on your employees. For example, if you do business with a foreign country that only keeps regular business hours - in their time zone - one or more of your employees will need to be available for telephone calls and such, when it is convenient for the foreign company. Are you expecting your employees to be in the office to field those calls or to conduct those teleconferences at midnight, and expecting them to clock in bright an early the following morning? That is not very ethical.
Another area that has become a growing concern when it comes to global business and ethics is reporting income from foreign countries. If your company makes a sale to a company in Canada, for example, that sale will not be reported to the IRS in the United States by the company that you made the sale to or Canada's government. It is not, by anyone's standards, ethical not to report that income to the IRS yourself.
In many countries, bribing officials is a part of doing business. However, this does not make the practice ethical, and experts advise business owners to instruct all of their employees that such practices will not be tolerated when conducting global business - or even when conducting business in your own country.
Global business is seemingly easy with the use of the Internet, but in the grand scheme of things, when you start looking at what is and is not acceptable or expected in foreign country, in terms of ethical business practices, one must use a great deal of caution.
This and other topics that deal with corporate communications, business to customer relationships, and sales training through Collective Vision are just some of the topics discussed.
And now I would like to offer you one of my book chapters absolutely free. You can get instant access at http://www.jedreay.com/freechapters
From Jed A. Reay - The Communicator/Connector and Visionary Master Sales Trainer.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jed_A._Reay
http://EzineArticles.com/?Global-Business-and-Ethics&id=1102046

Communication Faults

100 Communication Mistake People Make.

Click here to read the PDF file.

12 Things to Never Say to Younger and Older Coworkers - Excelle

12 Things to Never Say to Younger and Older Coworkers - Excelle

12 Secrets Of Effective Business Communication

The ability to communicate, and communicate well, is one of the biggest factors in business success. You could be an excellent designer, but if you’re unable to promote your services and communicate effectively with clients and colleagues, your potential is limited. The principal areas where communication is essential include:

• Pitching potential clients,
• Client meetings,
• Customer service,
• Face-to-face networking,
• Marketing your business

Click here to read.

[from noupe.com]

About the author

Alyssa Gregory is the owner of avertua, LLC, a full-service virtual assistant firm. She has a passion for supporting small businesses, and provides business tips, advice and news through her business blog, the Small Business Idea Generator, and as a regular contributor on SitePoint.com. You can follow her on Twitter at @alyssagregory.

The Dos and Don'ts of Effective Communication

The Dos and Don'ts of Effective communication

by Jeff Meyers, Nationwide and Have The Talk

Sure, life would be easier if we avoided conflicts and dodged difficult talks. However, according to research, avoiding arguments, or "negative" interactions, isn't a good thing. Couples with higher ratios (fewer fights) were LESS satisfied in their relationships three years later than couples who hovered around the 5/1 ratio (of positive to negative interactions), presumably because they were avoiding important conversations or conflicts.

Keeping that in mind, below are a few dos and don’ts for effective communication as developed in coordination with Harvard communication expert Sheila Heen. Read them over and let me know what you think. What are your dos and don’ts for effective communication? What have you learned through your life experiences?
DO

• Prepare for difficult conversations — It will help you organize your thoughts and feelings, and may reduce anxiety.
• Choose your purpose — Not all problems need to be solved; sometimes you first need to discuss what happened or how everyone is feeling.
• Move from certainty to curiosity — Be curious about why someone feels the way they do or interprets a situation the way they did.
• Acknowledge that different things influence our perceptions — We each have different histories with money, family and decision-making in relationships, all of which influence our current views. Even the amount of information available today is overwhelming and impacts what we observe in contrast to others.
• Share your purpose — Express when you just need someone to listen or, on the contrary, when an issue needs resolution.
• Take responsibility — Be accountable for your part in the problem.
• Choose your words carefully — Use "and," not "but."
• Listen and be open to persuasion — Take an active listening role. See if you can figure out why you see it so differently and ultimately consider whether your original view may need adjustment based on what you’ve learned.
• Be open to changing roles — Don't get pigeonholed as the bystander, opposer or even initiator in your family; you need to take on different roles at different times.
  Shift from delivering a message — Approach the conversation from a perspective of sharing information.
• Know when to use humor — Humor can be very helpful when it’s self-deprecating, helps keep perspective or is used to engage someone.
• Invite the conversation — Make sure you’re approachable.

DON’T

• Hit and run — Don't start a conversation with an offhand comment on the way out the door, or risk an outburst of pent-up feelings by delaying too long.
• Try to persuade — Try to understand the other person's point of view.
• Disregard the other person's perspective and come prepared only to share your proposed solution or answer to a problem.
• Use humor as a weapon — When it's about someone else's personality traits or their family members, or used as a vehicle for the real message, you’ll damage your cause.
• Fall victim to an identity quake — Your feelings about your own identity are impacting your point of view.
• Assume you know the other person's intentions.
• Resort to name calling, character casting or typecasting.
• Place blame — It's the shortest route to defensiveness and denial.
• Let your nonverbal signals override your words — Sometimes gestures, such as eye rolling, can have a bigger impact on the conversation than what you actually say.
• Use words such as "always," "never" or "I feel like you..."
• Push for a particular outcome.
• Take it personally.

This article is provided for general, informational purposes only and is not intended as advice specific to your situation.

[originally published on http://www.gather.com/]

The Importance Of Communication Skills

The Importance Of Communication Skills
By Carl Formby
Communication skills simply do not refer to the way in which we communicate with another person. It encompasses many other things - the way in which we respond to the person we are speaking, body gestures including the facial ones, pitch and tone of our voice and a lot of other things. And the importance of communication skills is not just limited to the management world, since effective communication skills are now required in each and every aspect of our life. However, in this article we will discuss the importance of communication skills in two areas namely business and relationships.
First, let us concentrate on the importance of communication in business. We can measure the importance of communication skills in the business sector when we take a look at job advertisements. There is little chance that you will come across an advertisement which does not mention that candidates should have good communication skills. Perhaps this is the only criteria which creates a positive impact when a person goes for a job interview. This is because technical qualifications are likely to be more or less the same for the candidates.
Without effective communication skills, a person may find it impossible to climb up the corporate ladder. Promotions come to those who can communicate effectively at all levels, from senior management level to the lowest employee. The use of communication skills in business is covered in more detail at http://www.communicationskillsworld.com
As for communication within relationships, it should be remembered that maintaining good relationships is a way to a healthy lifestyle, and a good relationship can only be maintained by maintaining healthy communication with our near and dear ones. They are the ones we stay with on a regular basis. They are also the ones who see us at our best as well as our worst.
Good communication skills help the relationships to develop along good lines, and ensure that arguments and disagreements are kept to a minimum. Good communication will avoid arguments and insults
Another important part of communication in relationships is taking the initiative yourself. Do not wait for your best friend to call you after a long break. Instead take the phone and also take initiative to start the conversation. Often people have this problem while communicating, which comes from fear. They always think a thousand times whether to approach a person or not. But a person with good communication skills is always the first to start a conversation.
Given the importance of communication skills in both the personal and the corporate world, any individual who want to make progress with their life should develop this important skill.
Carl Formby owns and operates http://www.communicationskillsworld.com a website dedicated to information on Communication Skills
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carl_Formby
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Importance-Of-Communication-Skills&id=780635

Nonverbal Communication

IMPROVING YOUR NONVERBAL SKILLS AND READING BODY LANGUAGE

Good communication is the foundation of successful relationships, both personal and professional. But we communicate with much more than words. Most of the messages we send other people are nonverbal. Nonverbal communication includes our facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, posture, and tone of voice. The ability to understand and use nonverbal communication, or body language, is a powerful tool that can help you connect with others, express what you really mean, navigate challenging situations, and build better relationships.

Click here to continue.

[from helpguide.org]

Doing Business In Hong Kong

A common phrase suggests that the world is "getting smaller". Although this may be true in that it is easier to travel to and communicate with the rest if the world, it is hard to argue that this has led to greater synergy in how to do business globally. Cross cultural differences in the way we meet, greet, communicate, negotiate and build relationships still exist.

This guide to doing business in Hong Kong presents some useful tips on some salient points relating to etiquette, protocol and cross cultural communication.

The major influence on the business (and social) environment is the fact that Hong Kong is overwhelmingly populated by Chinese. The Chinese population are primarily drawn upon the five major groups of Southern China: 1) The Cantonese, 2) The Fukkien, 3) Hainan, 4) The Chui Chow and 5) The Hakka. Cantonese and English are the two languages of use on the island.

Click here to read the rest.

[from www.kwintessential.co.uk]