Providing information

As an private household professional, you need accurate information from the client, and you must provide other household staff  or collaborating services with accurate facts. The consequences of giving or receiving incorrect information can be very serious, so make sure you source the information from reliable sources such as your supervisor, government websites, or information kept in your workplace's client files.

If you are unclear about anything, you must ask your supervisor questions to clarify and confirm your understanding.

You may need to provide information about:

• details of routine and health services
• appointment & playdate  times
• what to bring to activities or travel
• names of people, family at your workplace or other healthcare providers

Industry language

You will be expected to understand and use industry-specific language, terms and acronyms. This is known as jargon. Jargon is a useful and effective tool for communicating information quickly and efficiently in a defined industry. Therefore, it is important to know when it is appropriate and when it is inappropriate to use jargon.

It is important to use appropriate terminology when communicating with different people and groups. For example, you may use professional terminology with your workplace colleagues and other  professionals, but use more commonly understood language with your clients.

Establishing rapport with clients

The first step in any communication is to establish rapport with the client or colleague. They need to feel that they can trust and feel a certain level of comfort with their household staffing professionals to offer information about themselves. 

It is important to:

• be aware of Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds
• use a translation service if necessary
• use media other than print (e.g. video) to convey information, if necessary.
• Seek feedback and clarification
• reflect on the instructions and anticipate needs

What is the Importance of Negotiation?

The importance of negotiation can’t be overstated. Negotiation holds the key to getting ahead in the workplace, resolving conflicts, and creating value in contracts. 

When disputes arise in business and personal relationships, it’s easy to avoid conflict in an effort to save the relationship. Nonetheless, it is possible to turn tense disputes into productive negotiations and maintain strong relationships. The importance of negotiation skills in these instances is paramount. 

It’s not just dispute resolution that highlights the importance of negotiation, however. The right approach to negotiation can improve the situation of multiple parties.

One example comes from the cast of the television show, Friends. 

At first glance actors Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston and the rest of the star-studded cast might not be your first pick to peg as formidable negotiators, but at the height of program’s popularity they banded together to pull off an unprecedented salary negotiation. 

Cast member David Schwimmer originally took a hard look at his odds of success going into negotiations alone. Then he decided not to. The actors were uniquely close and accustomed to working together under high pressure. Each one had different leadership styles that would be useful in a negotiation.

If they negotiated individually, studio executives could pit them against each other. Instead, Schwimmer correctly assessed that a strong team comprised of the entire cast would be better for everyone in the long term. And in fact, they walked away with $1 million each per episode for the final two seasons, which aired from 2002-2004.

So, you want to reach a more creative agreement…

 but how? You’ve heard it many times: to get the most out of an agreement and a new business relationship, you have to collaborate to find new sources of value in addition to claiming value for yourself. Yet coming up with original, value creating ideas can be easier said than done.

 As Daniel Kahneman explains in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011), the vigilant, analytic thinking that we strive to adopt in negotiation is actually less conducive to creativity than the superficial, intuitive thinking we often try to avoid.

  In the midst of formulating arguments and crunching numbers, how can we open our minds to novel ideas? Here we present three basic techniques that you can use to get your creative juices flowing the next time you want to squeeze more value out of a negotiation.

 Break the problem into smaller parts. Perhaps the most helpful step you can take to promote creativity as a negotiator is to break problems into smaller components, writes Leigh Thompson in The Mind and Heart of the Negotiator (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2011).

By doing so, you can build a multi-issue negotiation out of what might appear to be a single-issue deal. Negotiators often think they are haggling over a single issue, but that is rarely the case. In 2003, a university and its food and commercial workers’ union avoided a strike despite a $300,000 deficit by breaking a single issue, the union’s desire for wage increases into multiple issues, including

- job security,

- parking fees,

- access to facilities, 

- overtime costs,

 Identifying multiple issues positions you to make valuable trade offs based on your differing preferences.

 PROGRAM ON NEGOTIATION

How can you foster this type of creative mind-set in a counterpart who seems fixated on a single issue?

Ask lots of questions, and listen carefully to the answers. Then consider using the information the other party shares

to open up a conversation about your respective preferences regarding the varying issues. If your counterpart is reluctant to engage in such a discussion, put together several different packages for his review. When you put forth several proposals at the same time, you are likely to impress the other side with your flexibility and encourage him to reciprocate with his own innovative ideas. Even if he doesn’t like any of your initial proposals, his reactions will steer you in new directions for discussion.

1.      Consider novel deal terms.

An array of issues may be on the table, but price can remain a sticking point, especially in the current economy. Unconventional deal-structuring arrangements can offer a way to bridge the gap between what a seller wants and what a buyer can afford.

When one side doesn’t have the funds needed to push through a deal, consider whether you can barter your way to the finish line. Thompson tells the story of a Formula 1 motor-racing team that wanted to launch a new website but didn’t have the budget to pay a London-based design studio to do the work. Instead of haggling over price, the team offered to pay for the website with tickets to upcoming Formula 1 races.

 The design studio readily agreed, seeing the opportunity to use the tickets to reward staff members for their performance and to woo new clients and pamper existing ones.

In addition, as we’ve discussed in past articles, a contingent contract offers a way to overcome differences in beliefs about future events and outcomes. Instead of arguing about how the future will play out, negotiators can place a bet on it.

 
  The same design studio described in the previous paragraph took this route when negotiating a deal to build an e-commerce website for the U.K. Football Association, writes Thompson.

The association was working with a limited budget and wasn’t sure the website would pay off. So the studio proposed 3 approaches to more creative agreements

1. “Unpack” a problem into its components to uncover potential tradeoffs.

2. Apply underused deal-structuring techniques to avoid impasse.

3. Open up your mind through creativity-generating exercises.

    Perhaps  receiving a percentage of sales from the new site instead of a flat fee for its work.

Such contingencies serve as a safety net that limits each side’s losses if the agreement goes awry, according to Thompson.

Finally, negotiators often overlook opportunities to create more value by adding conditions to their deals, says Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School Professor Guhan Subramanian.

 A condition

 is a deal-structuring technique that can be expressed in an “if ” statement, such as “I’ll do X if you’ll do Y.”

According to Subramanian, a condition might have been a game-changer for NBC in 2001, when the television network was negotiating with Paramount Studios to renew the eight-year-old hit TV show Frasier for another three years. NBC wanted a “cutback right” to cancel the show if ratings fell before the contract ended.

Under pressure from the show’s star, Kelsey Grammer, Paramount refused; NBC backed down and agreed to pay approximately $5.4 million per episode for Frasier with no cutback right.

 Subramanian argued that if NBC had given Paramount a choice between $5.2 million per episode without a cutback right or $5.5 million with a cutback right, this condition might have motivated the studio to put pressure on its star to accept the cutback right.

 As this example shows, creative negotiators not only find innovative ways to collaborate but also use their creativity to get what they want.

Try some mind games.

We’re all at least vaguely familiar with the concept of brainstorming—the popular technique used to unleash creativity in groups (and reduce the negative impact of “groupthink”).

In a brainstorming session, individuals are encouraged to share whatever idea comes to mind, no matter how outlandish.

Avoiding the urge to evaluate and criticize, the group gathers as many ideas as possible. At the end of the idea-generation stage, members may realize that they have adopted a more creative mind-set, and they may even find some good ideas on the list they’ve drawn up.

Though research has found mixed results for the overall effectiveness of brainstorming in generating useful outcomes, negotiators who want to break out of an analytical mind-set might give it a try.

 "Creativity and Problem-Solving", in The Negotiator’s Fieldbook (American Bar Association, 2006), Jennifer Gerarda Brown suggests several other exercises that negotiators might use to stimulate their creativity.

 In “mind mapping,” a form of word association, negotiators write down the problem they are facing and then add whatever related words come to mind on the same piece of paper.

After covering the paper with words, negotiators can draw lines to connect those that seem related. This technique is designed to draw potentially useful links between various aspects of a problem and thus trigger creative solutions to difficult problems.

Another technique, known as “flipping,” involves considering the opposite of a given situation or idea.

Mediator Christopher Honeyman has found that this can help parties find novel solutions to their conflicts.

When encouraged to share their “bad ideas,” disputants may feel freed to offer ideas they partially or secretly support. As in brainstorming, Brown writes, being given permission to disclaim ownership of our ideas may inspire more creative thinking.

 
 Remember all communication is negotiation,  for private household staff who work long hours and must think on their feet and be a step ahead, use reflection at the end of each day, have you negations ready and be prepared, you will get the salary, time off or outcome you want.

The Art of Negotiation

Private household professionals work in fast paced dynamic environments, negotiation skills can be a important part of there communication tool box. Be prepared and plan what you require and don't be afraid confidence is the key.

Summary

This brings us to the end of this topic, where you would have learned the tips on negotiation, how they are they can be used.

Coming up next

Next you will be taken on a using workplace examples of reflective practice and how this can help communicate and steer your work in your desired direction.

Four steps to reflective practice

 Four Steps for Reflection Look, Think, Learn, Plan

 Look back at a situation or experience

 Look back at something that happened or some thought you find yourself focusing on and describe it briefly.

Think in depth about your experience or thought

 Think in depth about why your experience happened or why your thought is so important to you. What hunches, ideas, guesses, interpretations come to mind as you analyze your experience? (Probably the most important piece.) Here are some phrases to use to get your thinking started: “significant aspects were” or “important ideas were” or “useful issues arose from” “previously I thought/felt/noticed or did not know, did not question …” “this might be because of” or “this is perhaps due to ….”

Describe what you learned about yourself or your role

Write what you’ve learned about yourself, your role, or the situation. Here are some phrases to get you started: “I have learned that …” or “I now realize …” or “I now feel …” or “I find myself wondering if …”

Plan what you will do next

Describe what you’re going to do next/ your action plan, next steps. This may be resolving to do something differently the next time; it may be adopting a new attitude or changed thinking.

Reflective practice is encouraged in education in general and in teaching communication skills in particular to develop into a reflective practitioner. However, the term is complex to understand and multidimensional thus challenging to grasp, describe and teach.

Furthermore, though used frequently little guidance exists on how to promote reflective ability in teaching communication skills. It discusses the components of reflective practice as well as exemplifies the importance of reflective practice to a professionals capability to learn communication skills.

The purposes of reflecting are:

To allow the speaker to 'hear' their own thoughts and to focus on what they say and feel. To show the speaker that you are trying to perceive the world as they see it and that you are doing your best to understand their messages.

To encourage them to continue talking and allow open lines of communication.

Communication, communication, communication.

We all know it’s important, but communication skills can be challenging to develop and implement at work. The rise of remote and hybrid work hasn’t made it any easier, either. it is the number 1 thing families ask for when recruiting household staff.

Yet, effective communication at work can be transformative for individuals, teams, and businesses.

Why is effective communication important in the workplace?

Communication is important because it boosts employee morale, engagement, productivity, and satisfaction. Communication is also key for better collaboration and cooperation.

Ultimately, effective workplace communication helps drive better results for individuals, teams, and organizations. 

To take it a step further, specifically as a household professional , building good communication skills has profound short- and long-term benefits for your organization.

An effective communicator is able to motivate the family to get more done with better results and fewer misunderstandings. And who doesn’t want fewer misunderstandings?

All of these things can contribute to the company’s success — and to your own personal success as a leader.

7 common types of communication in the workplace

Not all work communication is made equal. We’ve all had the experience of sitting through a boring, lengthy meeting with the thought, “This should have been an email.” 

Different communication channels are ideal for different types of communication. Depending on the type of information being conveyed, those different channels can enhance — or detract — from how it is received. An effective communicator will develop different skills and tools to match the type of communication needed.

1. Leadership communication 

Leaders often deliver one-way communications to their teams. The goal may be to inform or update, such as a memo about a new company policy or a change in direction. Leaders also often communicate to persuade, encourage, and inspire commitment. They often communicate through stories more than data.

2. Upward communication 

Managers (and team members) often have to communicate with their own managers and with other leaders who are not in their direct chain of command. These may take the form of memos/emails, reports, or a slot in a standing meeting. Regardless of the format, these types of communications should be considered more formal. 

3. Updates 

Since they’re brief by nature, updates often fall short of being a type of strong communication. Use a visual tracker or dashboard to carry the load, and save your verbal or written commentary for drawing the audience’s attention to what is most important — typically, what requires action or further involvement from them. This might include surprises, obstacles, and potential risks, as well as wins.

4. Presentations

These formal communication events tend to receive the lion’s share of attention, for good reason. Presentations are communication tools that are typically aimed at a larger audience with higher stakes. They have objectives like informing, influencing, and persuading. In addition, many people fear public speaking, and thanks to TED and other series, we have a high expectation for entertainment as well as insight. 

5. Meetings 

Meetings, whether large or small, are a critical part of a workplace’s internal communication strategy. They’re also one of the least understood and most overused types of communication. Effective meetings build synergy between teams and quickly communicate information that would have a high potential to be misunderstood in another format (like email). The best meetings are highly collaborative and leave participants feeling energized, not drained.

6. Customer communications 

Communicating with customers can run the entire gamut discussed above, from one-offs to face-to-face, virtual, spoken, or written, formal to ad hoc. In general, all of the considerations of communication among employees go double for customers. Be deliberate and plan your messages to provide what your customer needs, in the way they prefer, and create a positive impression for the company and the product.

7. Informal interactions 

Informal communications include the emails and chats you engage in all day: making requests, asking for information, responding to requests, and giving or receiving support and guidance. In addition to moving the work of the organization forward, these informal communications have secondary objectives of forming social connections, building culture, establishing trust, and finding common ground.

 The benefits of good communication in the workplace

When employees are directly involved in work products and initiatives, it helps to foster a sense of ownership in the company’s future. It also makes them want to work to improve things like the company’s profitability, customer satisfaction, and brand.

Let’s take a look at some ways that building your communication skills cascades down through your organization — and directly impacts its bottom line.

 8 reasons to work on your communication skills

1. Better engagement

Better communication results in greater employee engagement, which is a key metric for employee productivity and potential retention. It reinforces that your people are key contributors and people who the company values for their unique skills and experience. In other words, their contribution — and input — truly make a difference. 

 2. Increased morale

Team members with low job satisfaction take more time off of work, are less productive when in-office, and often negatively impact the productivity of other employees when they are present. However, when an employee has an understanding of the work that they have to do and how it connects to the overall success of the team, they bring more energy and pride to their work. 

 3. Improved productivity

Better communication techniques help families to better comprehend your roles, which in turn helps employees perform their assigned duties better. Resources and time can be saved through these techniques, therefore getting more work done and reducing stress.
 

4. Reduced churn

From nannies to major domos, experience equals value to families, and no family wants to waste the huge costs of recruiting and training good employees by having them leave quickly. As a key factor in employee satisfaction and engagement, communication adds value to the organization by reducing the turnover of skilled and seasoned staff members. 
 

5. Greater loyalty

Longer-term, staying with a family for many years can add strength to your experience.  Many jobs require years of experience before an you has sufficient expertise to drive innovation, solve critical problems, and lead others. Based on how the family feel they are treated and valued as individuals — impacts how loyal they will be to you..

6. Better collaboration

Most companies today use technologies that don’t require team members to be in the same room, the same building, or even the same country. This shift presents new communication challenges, which means managers can facilitate collaboration by helping groups communicate effectively when using the latest technologies. 

7. Fewer workplace conflicts

Many conflicts originate with miscommunication. Poor communication can create negative relationships or even toxic or hostile work environments. . This includes honing and refining communication styles that focus on listening to others, having empathy, and considering individual differences. 

8. Greater motivation

Psychologists have found that unless people understand the “why” of a concept, they will be less likely to understand or remember it. The same goes for many aspects of people’s work lives. As a manager, one key communication skill is hearing the “why” and following up with a “because.”

8 ways to develop communication skills at work

Now that you understand the importance of good communication at work, you need to know how to develop those skills. Remember: effective communication is about active listening — while it may seem counter-intuitive, a “listener-first” approach will often help you structure the delivery of your message. 

1. Think it through

There are many communications frameworks, but if you want to improve your communication skills, start by getting in the habit of thinking through these 5 questions for any communication you create:

· Why are you communicating?

· Who is the receiver, audience, or participant? 

What is your goal or objective? 

· What do you want the recipient to do as a result of the communication? 

· What format will best accomplish your goal? 

If you struggle to answer these five questions, you should spend some additional time thinking about how and why you’re communicating. 

2. Give it time

Plan what you want to say and review your communication to make sure it’s actually doing the job you need it to. For written communications, especially, this means: revise, revise, revise. Remember, great communication might seem effortless, but it rarely is.

3. Make it easy

Workplace communication almost always has a larger goal. People are busy. Don’t make them work too hard to understand what you are saying and what you need them to do. State your objective and main point from the beginning of a presentation or written communication so that your audience knows where you’re going. Then fill in the details.

4. Simplify

While you don’t want to condescend or “dumb it down,” in everyday work communications, be mindful of not making the other party work too hard to understand. Find a clear, simple phrasing to encapsulate your point. Repeat it at the beginning, middle, and end, and consider using a simple visual or metaphor to make your point clear and memorable.

5. Experiment and diversify

Work on developing different tactics for different communication needs. Focus on experimenting with one aspect of your communication at a time. For example, spend a week paying extra attention to how you structure informal communications. Then spend a week trying different structures for formal meetings or updates.

6. Practice and reflect

Be deliberate about reflecting on what goes well and what doesn’t in your day-to-day communications. Maybe an email to your manager didn’t go well. Can you see how it might have been misinterpreted? What would you do differently next time? Similarly, if a conversation with a co-worker didn’t yield the expected results, try to identify whether you clearly communicated what you needed. 

7. Consider the full package

Consider recording yourself through a few interactions to gain insight into what your full package is communicating in your daily interactions with your team. Do you make eye contact? Is your facial expression relaxed and confident, or tense? How’s your body language? Do you leave time for questions and clarification? 

8. Seek feedback

Ask a few trusted co-workers and your manager to rate your communication skills. Start by asking them to rate (i.e., on a scale of 1-10) your written and spoken communication separately.

Then ask these 3 questions: 

• What one thing should I start doing to communicate better with you?
• What one thing should I stop doing in my communications with you?
• What one area or skill should I work on to improve how I communicate in this organization?



How to improve communication when working remotely

Communicating well is even more important during remote work. Doing it well can help build trust and connection and avoid some of the frustrations that come from miscommunication. 

Here are a few areas to consider to improve remote communication:

Clarify expectations 

State expectations upfront and repeat them at the end of a communication. Even better, ask the other person to restate their understanding of your expectations. 

Engage in 2-way flow 

Being remote can make it easier for employees to check out and disengage. Be deliberate and creative about giving others a role in communication. Ask questions, use polling and ranking tools, and solicit responses in the form of emojis, gifs, or one-word descriptors. 

Remember the power of in-person 

A lot can be misinterpreted in the flat space of text without additional cues like tone of voice and facial expression. Don’t default to communicating solely through text or chat. A well-crafted team Zoom call or in-person meeting can establish a better connection and shared understanding, giving others a chance to surface areas of misalignment.

  Focus on quality 

People may feel protective of their time when working remotely, so make sure that live events are well-thought-out. Send agendas, meeting objectives, or background reading ahead of time to help people prepare to have productive conversations.

 Create an informal space 

Assuming good intentions and a sharing culture are both foundational for effective day-to-day communication.

 Show you care 

You don’t have to spend a lot of time checking in with people and asking about their personal lives. But, now more than ever, it’s worth reminding yourself that the recipients of your communications are real people who have their own challenges, distractions, hopes, and fears. Before getting on a video call or firing off an email, try picturing that person on the other end.

Start communicating better today

Every year communication tops the list of skills in demand by employers. There's a reason. Communication is what makes our professional and personal relationships go smoothly. It's how we show care, catalyze change, and get things done. 

That's reason enough to improve — and keep improving — these important skills. Luckily, we can all learn to communicate better.

And remember ..... there is a time and place for effective communication.