Communicating with Diplomacy and Tact: A practical guide

Tact and Diplomacy
Have you ever said or done anything at work you later regretted? Maybe it caused embarrassment or loss of respect. Perhaps it even directly affected your job. Don't worry, you aren't the first person who's done this. But there are people who always seem to communicate with diplomacy and tact. What are the secrets to their success?
People who communicate with tact and diplomacy show sensitivity and respect to others. But that's not all. They also understand that each and every situation is different. The message has to be packaged according to who's receiving it and where the interaction takes place.
This course details the characteristics of tact and diplomacy so you may apply them in any situation. You'll learn how to communicate effectively with people by considering their communication style preferences. You'll explore how to do this in specific professional relationships with superiors, subordinates, coworkers, and customers. Once you've figured out the right thing to say, you'll also learn about the right places to say it.
Strategies for Communicating with Tact and Diplomacy
With tact and diplomacy, workplace relationships are nurtured and can develop into meaningful connections. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. If communication is tactless or undiplomatic, relationships suffer – or may never even get off the ground. To communicate with tact and diplomacy, you need strategies, skills, and awareness. Too often, emotional reactions and misinterpretations get in the way of tactful and diplomatic communication.
In this course, you'll learn how to communicate and develop relationships with tact and diplomacy. You'll also be given the opportunity to apply specific guidelines in a realistic scenario.
In order to develop and nurture professional relationships, you first need to build trust and rapport. Building trust is about integrity and honesty, while building rapport means finding common ground with another person. An effective way to build trust and rapport is to communicate with tact and diplomacy.
Tact comes down to recognizing the sensitivity in a situation and ensuring that whatever you say is appropriate. It enables you to assert yourself, without offending anyone.
Diplomacy comes down to being "political" or "politically correct." It requires, for example, that you take account of an organization's corporate culture when communicating.
Even though tact and diplomacy are two distinct aspects of communicating, you need to bring both together to communicate effectively.
This course will introduce you to techniques that will help you to navigate conversations in a way that's sensitive and respectful. It will demonstrate proper timing and delivery when communicating. This will enable you to deliver messages tactfully and diplomatically, without sacrificing your reputation or professional relationships.
Delivering a Difficult Message with Diplomacy and Tact
How many times have you been stressed or concerned about delivering a message in the workplace? There will inevitably be difficult conversations in the workplace – either with your supervisor, a colleague, or subordinate – that you'll want to avoid. This may cause you to procrastinate or avoid issues.
Delivering a difficult message with diplomacy and tact will help prevent conflict and avoid hurting the other person's feelings. This, in turn, helps reduce any anxiety you may be feeling about delivering the difficult message.
There are two main types of difficult messages in the workplace. The first involves giving bad news and the second involves requesting a change in behavior of another person. Regardless of the context, it's best to carefully plan its delivery. You should prepare the key message in advance and practice the delivery of the message.