7 essential skills for operators: Three communication skills to improve your operational efficiency (Part 4)

Without adequate communication, even the best operational strategies will be useless. As someone who has been through this, the author of this article will tell you: the correct approach for operators to communicate efficiently with colleagues and provide some tips on improving communication. Let’s read it together.

1. Communication plays an important role when we operate

Within the company, you need to communicate horizontally with your peers in product, R&D, marketing, and design; vertically, you need to communicate with your superiors or your subordinates, and externally, you need to communicate with partners or the third party. This position is operations .

Communication is a process of transmitting and feedback of thoughts and feelings between people and between groups, in order to achieve consensus of thoughts and smooth flow of feelings. The purpose of communication is to make information equal. As an operator, if you can better understand the ideas and concepts of products and designs, it will be very beneficial for daily cooperation.

Let’s take an example first.

For example, if the operation department raises a need for product improvement based on feedback from the user group, but the product manager is unaware of it, the product manager’s role will not be fully utilized; nor will the product manager be able to appreciate the operation department’s good intentions. Operations must communicate effectively to gain product managers' recognition of needs, and this requires careful attention. At the same time, you need to learn to think from the perspective of others and understand the starting point and purpose of the product manager's needs in order to form a good interaction.

In addition, try to avoid simple verbal communication. Conclusions should be documented, and the responsibilities of both parties should be clarified when necessary. In fact, conflicts in the workplace are inevitable, and only with a positive attitude can conflicts be properly resolved. There is an unnecessary and simple saying: we are all just doing a job.

2. As an operator, how should you communicate with your colleagues efficiently?

1. Mutual trust is the prerequisite for effective communication between the two parties

For example, today the operation needs to hold an online event and needs to design a high-end poster. In most cases, a designer who has undergone professional training will definitely have a better aesthetic sense than us. If you ask a designer to design a poster but still doubt the designer's aesthetic sense, this means you are doubting his professionalism, which certainly cannot form the basis for equal communication. Unless the designer's basic level cannot be guaranteed, then it is a problem of the company's recruitment .

Take me and our designer for example. Every time we do an event, such as designing banners or posters, I put forward a requirement and then tell him the copy and give him a direction for the effect I want. Then I will trust him and hand it over to him. If any problems arise in the process, we will communicate and resolve them in a timely manner. So you have to trust the other person, and the other person will do his or her best to do what you want.

2. Oral explanation is important, but written expression is more logical and convincing

Operations is the position that is closest to users, so operations knows what users need. This is when operations will put forward requirements for products or technologies, such as adding a sharing button to our APP. However, many operators will simply take a screenshot and mark it and ask to add a button. They want to "get rid of" our product technology with just a screenshot. If you know the product very well and can understand it, it's fine, but most of them don't have such a good thing. This is because the product or technology does not understand what you mean and does not understand why you made such changes. The product says that I think this is better, and then you will enter into an endless debate with the product.

If, in addition to verbal explanations, we also attach a requirements document when we make a request, explaining what is required and why the change is required, it will greatly reduce our subsequent communication costs.

3. We need equal communication, not imperative communication

Communication is an art as well as a technology. For example, if you were communicating with such a person, how long would you communicate with him?

"What do you want?"

"Atmospheric"

“Is this okay?”

"no"

"What's wrong with that?"

“It just won’t work.”

After reading this conversation, do you feel that both parties dislike each other? Such conversations may have occurred in most companies. Why do such conversations occur?

Let’s think about it. At work, when we proactively seek out people to communicate, whether it’s with superiors or subordinates, cross-departmental collaboration, or with users, external partners, or third parties, we must “have something to find the other party about,” right?

Since "something happens" necessarily means that both parties need to "pay", the communication between the two parties is one of equality, rather than one in which one asks whom or who owes whom. If this is not the case, then communication is meaningless.

4. Think about the problem from the other person’s perspective and then think about the communication method

For example, when we communicate with a designer, we say "please help me make a logo", but the designer is a newcomer. Although he is good at hard design skills, things may not go so smoothly when we ask him to give you advice. Because there are not many good works and the design thinking awareness is not that professional, you have to stand from the designer's perspective to talk about the effect you want. At this point you can guide the designer to describe the requirements in a concrete way.

For example, I could use “I feel this logo could be made more anime-like” or “I feel the current version you made lacks a youthful feel in terms of colors and fonts” and so on. Let the other party understand that your needs can be more lively, and this liveliness can be described through a little bit of concreteness, so that the designer can continue to work to achieve the effect you want.

3. Tips on improving communication

1. Try to communicate with your mouth

Try to give up those online communication channels , such as WeChat text chats. Those cold texts, even interspersed with emoticons, may not necessarily express your true thoughts. Coupled with the profoundness of Chinese writing art and the differences in each person's ability to understand words, it is very likely that your original meaning will be misinterpreted into a hundred different answers.

Therefore, when communicating with your boss about work, it is best to do so by phone or in person. You can also use WeChat voice to communicate the interview time. When giving feedback to colleagues on work content, if you must use email, you can also use phone feedback as an auxiliary: the email has been sent, please check it when you are free.

If you still don't know when to choose voice mode, choose this mode as much as possible. Because when you meet in person, you can express more and more comprehensive real thoughts through facial expressions, voice and body language. This is also the reason why many friends who have heard my voice feel that the real me and the me in writing are completely different people.

2. Understand your colleagues’ communication styles and recognize and accept them

For example, if your leader likes to think more clearly, more meticulously, and in a more secure style, then when you communicate with him, you should have time nodes, data, a comprehensive plan, and attention to details. This is a different way of communicating with different people, so you must understand it clearly before communicating with them.

My colleagues all have their own communication style. For example, for our product, they like to give directions, point out key points, grant authority, and like to communicate and exchange ideas regularly. When criticizing her, we must state the key points and comfort her in time. Our technical quality is strong, so we don’t need to think too much when communicating with her. We need to guide her to highlight the key points, etc.

3. Don’t always talk, learn to listen to others’ opinions

When you are not very good at communication, it is better to say nothing than to say more mistakes. But you cannot say nothing at all because that would appear disrespectful to others. The best way to respond is to listen carefully to what the other person is saying, use your gestures and eyes to show your attention and curiosity about what he is saying, and then keep asking: Anything else? Then what? What's next?

For example, if you make a request to the technical staff, you are actually the one talking all the time, and the technical staff is just in the role of a listener. This is unhealthy communication and harmful communication. If you make a modification request to the technical staff, but the technical staff thinks that this is not conducive to product development, and you are still confident and believe in your own feelings, this will also be a bad thing for the relationship between the team and colleagues, and may even harm the interests of the company.

Previously, a fellow operations person added me and started complaining directly, saying that he was now working in operations in the company, but his leader did not support him, resources were insufficient, and he had to be cautious in doing everything... He said a lot of things, but the real problem was that he did not communicate enough with his leader, and his leader did not understand whether all his efforts were useful.

In fact, for many young people today, their leaders do not understand the essential role of operations well enough. At this time, you are a bridge of communication. You should take on this responsibility and communicate with your leader on an equal footing. Even after communication, I didn't get much understanding and support. I believe that if you communicate sincerely and express your problems and suggestions, I believe wise leaders will have some ideas. If not, such a boss is not worth your hard work!

In short, communication plays a large part in our operations, and operators who cannot communicate are doomed to be eliminated.

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The author of this article @艺林小宇 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!