1.3 To What End?

Quantifying Interpersonal Communication

Given the inherent complexity of interpersonal communication, its value remains difficult to quantify. Sure, a respectful interaction with a client will likely nurture positive collaboration, but how does an act like that affect an organization’s bottom line? Turns out, interpersonal communication has a cumulative effect. The United Kingdom projects soft skills will earn the country an estimated £109 billion ($142.5 billion) in the year 2020.1 On the flip side, a study by SIS International Research shows that organizations blame communication failure for a $26,000 per employee annual loss. Looking closer still, businesses with 100 employees estimate that every 17 hours per week spent managing communication issues costs them more than $530,000 every year.2

But how do organizations arrive at these figures? Most often, interpersonal communication and its outcomes are observed in real time, recalled in a performance review, or critiqued following a training or probationary period. Considering the plethora of ways soft skills can be applied in the workplace, there are many interactions that are observed, but many more interactions aren’t. Those that are recognized can have potentially career-altering effects—from polite suggestions and promotions to rebuffs and firings. Table 1.1 highlights a handful of critical interpersonal communication skills and common workplace applications through which they may be exercised and observed.

Table 1.1
Skills Applications
Leadership Staff Meetings
Teamwork Emails
Creativity Phone Calls
Inclusion Memos
Empathy Pitches
Patience Informal Chats
Tolerance Trainings
Speaking Performance Reviews
Listening Interviews
Dependability Client Meetings
Flexibility Project Meetings
Motivation Sales Calls
Responsibility Networking

But retrospective assessments can’t undo miscommunication or recover revenue lost to negligent or callous behaviors. Instead, organizations hedge their bets well before an employee is even hired. Hiring managers spend the bulk of an interview asking applicants to describe situations that will illustrate emotional intelligence, specifically the methods and motivations exercised when that person interacts with others. An applicant, by understanding emotional intelligence, can be better equipped to answer such questions and improve their hiring chances. The following are examples of such questions and hypotheticals:

  • Tell me why you would be a good team player.

  • What difficulties do you experience when working with others?

  • Describe your relationships with past bosses and colleagues.

  • Describe a conflict you were involved in at work. How did you resolve it?

  • Tell me about a time you disagreed with the actions or decisions of a manager or supervisor. How did you approach the situation?

Once an employee is hired, a series of compulsory trainings is often arranged to bring the individual up to speed with organizational rhetoric, culture, tone, systems, and expectations. These might include explanations of the following:

Figure 1.5: Training a new employee.

Photo by fauxels via Pexels.

Status differences: An outward expression of one’s rank within an organization’s hierarchy. Examples could include sitting at the head of a table, dress code liberties, arriving late to work, overt uses of one’s title, or name-dropping.
Chain of command: Established channels of operation. Rather than asking the CEO for permission to leave early, for example, an employee would likely speak to his or her immediate supervisor.
Unwritten rules and regulations: Organizational statutes usually assumed or communicated by word of mouth. Just because it’s not written in the company bylaws doesn’t mean you should sit on the conference table to eat your lunch.
Division of labor: Assignment of roles to complete a task within an organization. Clear delineation of responsibilities promotes efficiency by limiting confusion and redundancy.
Physical work environment: Sound and flow of an organization’s space. Office design sends its own message. Whether siloed by cubicles or raucous amidst an open floor plan, an organization’s space can inform employees’ attitudes, behaviors, morale, and productivity.
Dress code: Wardrobe requirements for an organization. Whether explicitly stated or otherwise, dress code defines more than standards for professional appearance. Within an organization, wardrobe can be a matter of safety (e.g., mandatory steel-toed shoes in a factory or religious dress and observances).

Functional Adaptation

Figure 1.6: Adapting interpersonal communication style.

Photo by fauxels via Pexels.

Proper alignment to each of the expectations mentioned above better enables an employee to adapt his or her own interpersonal communication style to fit a given organization. This, in turn, directly impacts his or her ability to successfully apply the aforementioned methods and strategies to navigate critical organizational functions like the following:

Problem-solving: Disagreements, misunderstandings, mistakes, and accidents are all inevitable consequences of working with others. In an organization, responding to them in a way that produces a “win” for the team doesn’t always happen, however. In the appropriate circumstance, an egalitarian approach may prove fruitful with participants exercising equal parts listening, tolerance, patience, and empathy.
Business goals: You may have heard the adage “Start with end in mind.” In other words, it’s easier to contribute to or complete a task if you know what you’re working toward. Business goals, whether written as a mission statement in the company bylaws or embedded into an individual’s guiding principles, motivate an organization to accomplish a job with structure, teamwork, and determination.
Change management: When big shifts happen in an organization—such as downsizing, outsourcing, or pay cuts—transparent, pragmatic communication from the change architects is critical to moving people through to the other side. Establishing trust in this manner is paramount, yet research indicates only 50 percent of Americans believe their bosses are open with them.3
Company culture: Much of the organizational rhetoric described earlier, be it dress code or physical environment, will determine the attitude, decorum, and synergy of an organization. If an employee is made to feel uncomfortable, marginalized, or isolated, communication is the only way to air the grievance and find a solution. A robust culture of open and tolerant conversations can create a safe space for sharing.
Diversity and inclusion: Within a company’s culture is a determination to treat its members fairly. While many organizations boast equal opportunity by including a clause in their bylaws and hiring materials, research indicates they aren’t walking the talk. “More than one million employment discrimination complaints were filed between 2010 and 2017.”4
Workplace miscommunication: Communication itself can often be the problem. Unfortunately, however natural, conflicts of any size have the power to disrupt relationships and create divisiveness, low morale, and organizational chaos. But communication is also the way through. Human resources representatives can offer third-party remediation if individuals are ill-equipped to resolve an issue on their own.
Personal relationships: You might think personal relationships don’t have a place within an organization, but if you’ve learned anything about interpersonal communication, it should be that relationship building is the point. This course is designed to provide practical tools to help you navigate those relations successfully.
Management and leadership: Research indicates that “85 percent of employees said they’re most motivated when management offers regular updates on company news.”5 It’s proof that in order to unite a workforce to reach a desired goal, top-down communication must be built into the fabric of an organization. Leadership, while an interpersonal communication skill itself, requires the strategic application of many other interpersonal skills to be effective.
Professional development: With a majority of applicants not demonstrating interpersonal communication proficiency, many organizations rely heavily on positive results from periodic trainings and professional development courses. After all, many Fortune 500 companies name strong interpersonal communication and team skills as the most important criteria for success in organizational leadership.
Conflict/Crisis management: Research has demonstrated that supervisors spend more than 25 percent of their time managing conflict.6 A unified workforce not only streamlines communication in crises but also facilitates innovation and increases productivity.

Studying the aspects of interpersonal communication is akin to examining a picture within a picture; where does one end and the other begin? Applying skills like empathy, for example, requires empathy, if, that is, one observes the need for its application in the first place.

Figure 1.7: Picture within a picture.

Photo by John Arano via Unsplash.

We’ve asserted that interpersonal communication skills are critical, learnable skills, but we didn’t say they were easy skills to learn. If you feel like you need to strengthen your communication skills, you’d be among a growing majority. A survey by the Workforce Solutions Group revealed that “more than 60 percent of employers say recent applicants lacked communication and interpersonal skills.”7 Two psychologists, John Mayer and Peter Salovey, accepted the challenge to research this problem back in the 1980s and developed a set of terminology that’s been so influential as to transform the way organizations define, manage, and value interpersonal communication.

Mayer and Salovey published an article in 1990 that revealed a concept they called, emotional intelligence (EQ)—the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth.8 For the sake of this course, we’ll boil it down to the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions as well as the emotions of others. EQ’s thoughtful execution can help relieve stress, overcome challenges, diffuse conflict, and generate empathy and intelligent conversations. These are the very same goals of effective interpersonal communication.

Emotional Intelligence

In 1995, Daniel Goleman extrapolated on Mayer and Salovey’s findings to make EQ a household word, a quality seemingly attainable by anyone. By capturing EQ’s breadth and complexity in 12 essential competencies (Table 1.2), he provided a framework by which individuals and organizations could learn and grow together.9

Table 1.2
Goleman’s 12 Essential Competencies
Self-Awareness Self-Management Social Awareness Relationship Management
Emotional self-awareness Emotional self-control Empathy Influence
Adaptability Coach and mentor
Achievement Orientation Conflict management
Positive outlook Organizational awareness Teamwork
Inspirational leadership

These competencies are the byproducts of the functions we outlined above and complements to the skills listed in Table 1.1. Countless books have been written on the subject since, and entire fields of research opened to commend the pursuit and fruits of improved interpersonal communication garnered through the mastery of these skills.

What are your own strengths? Take a moment to read Table 1.2. Which qualities best describe you? Where might you fall short? What might others observe? Chances are you haven’t aced all 12 of Goleman’s competencies, but few have. As we’ve discussed, interpersonal communication skills can be difficult to master and to quantify, and yet they remain key to building strong leaders and growing organizations.

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