Communication & Personality Development

Assignment - 2

Q.1. What are Meetings? Explain how meetings are conducted.

Ans: A meeting considers to be a process when two or more people
interact with each other to discuss one or more topics or matter and to
devise measures to solve a problem. Meetings involve verbal
communication or interaction with the aim to discuss the major problems or
issues faced in the working of an organization
Communicating in a meeting is an important part of effective
communication. Some meeting fail in accomplishing the core objectives of
the meeting due not conducted in efficient manner. Because of the
following reasons:
All participants are not involved, or meeting conducted too long, or may be
unsystematic or lack a clear agenda, or may not begin on the planned time,
or may end without any conclusion.
As a result, this type of meetings leads to agitation and sheer wastage of
time. In order to make meeting effective, it must be planned, systematic
and rational.

The process of an effective meeting includes the following steps:

Plan the meeting: Plan the meeting in advance. The objective of the
meeting can be well accomplished with clear plan.
Planning includes:
Outline the objective of the meeting, decide the participants, plan the
agenda for the meeting on which topic to be discussed, sequence of the
topic to be discussed, time and detail to each agenda topic etc. Plan start
time, break time and also the approx. time by which the meeting end.
Announcement/Declare the meeting:
After planning the meeting’s agenda and before actual meeting begins, the
participants should be delivered a message/memorandum or email to make
them aware for the meeting with agenda to be discussed.
Conduct the meeting:
Be punctual for meeting try to arrive before time for the meeting. The
meeting should begin on planned time. Start with stating the objective of
the meeting so that all are clear with the purpose of the meeting. Then give
a brief introduction of the participants so that all are familiar. Distribute
notes and handouts. Involve all participants/attendees during the
discussion and encourage new ideas from them. Respect their ideas and
ask for a feedback. Make sure that distraction like cell phones rings,
gossiping of attendees etc. should not happen during the meeting. Discuss
all the topic with the given time frame. If the discussion of all issues taking
more time, ask the participants if they are comfortable to discuss those
issues in next meeting. Fix the time for next meeting accordingly.
Evaluate the meeting:
Evaluate the meeting after it is conducted. Circulate an evaluation form to
all participants/attendees which reply you with a feedback on the
effectiveness of the meeting. To get honest and credible feedback, do not
give a space to mention name of the attendee on the form. Ask questions
in the form in such a manner that the objectives of the meetings were
achieved, did it involve participation of all participants, which part of the
meeting found most constructive and which part of the meeting was not
significant by the attendee.
Q.2. Explain the Principles of writing business letters.
Ans: The principles of writing business letters are described in the following
ways:
1. Knowing the Addressee – Business Letter should have the relevant
information about the subject and the person to whom it is to be
addressed. It will create great influence on the reader and will benefit
good possible way.

2. Writing Naturally –Business Letter should contain genuineness in

expression of ideas or thoughts. Business letter should be written in soft
spoken language and the addressee or reader should believe that we
are in conversation with him.

3. Writing Clearly and Without Ambiguity – Business Letter should not

contain any form of confusion or ambiguity. Thoughts should be with
insured clarity and with no omission of words, do not use faulty
punctuation and disorderly arrangement of facts. It should have
affixation of full stops and commas at right places to avoid change in the
sense or subject of the matter. Using of faulty punctuations or words
may prove disaster/failure for the business relations.

4. Writing Completely – Business Letter should have contained complete

information and all the relevant facts to avoid unnecessary queries. In
letter everything should be described or written specifically and to be
complete in all aspects

5. Courtesy and Consideration – In Business letter the courtesy and

correspondence is not limited to obligatory words like “Thank you" or
“Please" but intimate to promptly attending to the letters and necessary
to acknowledge letters when you are not replying immediately. We have
to use politeness in refuse business proposals or saying “no" and it has
to be done in decent manner. In business, courtesy gives courtesy, so
 there has to be pleasing and friendly with business associates and
parties.

6. Do not use Jugglery or Jumbling of Words – In Business letter language

used should be simple and should not be like essay or article from
written point of view. Letter written by using short sentence with simple
words. The letter should not be written using typical or difficult words
and it should avoid from verbose or ordinary style of writing.

7. To avoid using of commercial words/phrases/abbreviations – In

Business letter we should not use commercial
words/phrases/abbreviations as they have become obsolete and out of
practice. We should be careful that there are some important
commercial terms that cannot be substituted, then also they should be
minimize or avoided in the letters.

8. Effectiveness – Business Letter should be concrete, consistent, concise,

precise and relevant so that it is easily understood by the addressee or
reader and its contents should be fully followed. Arrangement of letter
should be in the relevant way to give prime importance to important
facts. The letter should become like a link chain by following important
fact in continuation. Letter should be written in small paragraphs and
should contain specific type of information. Letter should not be too
lengthy or not too short this shows irrelevancy in a business letter to the
addressee or reader.

9. Other important part of the letter like Date, Reference Number, Subject
Line, Salutation, Body of the Letter, Closing of the Letter, Signature,
Enclosures, Courtesy Copy and Postscripts should be written
accordingly.
Q.3. Define Leadership and discuss various Leadership Styles?
Ans: Leadership is an art of motivation other person or a group of people to
accomplish a common objective or task. This can mean directing workers
and colleagues of an organisation in a way that makes it more cohesive
and coherent in order to achieve the organisations need.
Leadership styles is the method to tackle the situation with the manner, an
approach of providing direction, implementation, plans and motivating
people. Leadership is a skill and few people master it, but it is one the most
people need it.

1. Authoritarian or Autocratic Style: In this type of leadership style, the

leader applies strict compliance and expect obedience with his team
without question. It is considered as negative type of leadership because
it sacrifices personal freedom. However, in some situation it can also be
useful. For e.g. In crises the organization, it requires firm guidance from
the leader.
They take full responsibility for goals, decision and strategic pathways to
success. To achieve this, they totally insisted on the compliance of their
subordinates.
Leaders like Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Kim Jong-un, and Richard
Nixon are considered to be authoritarian.

2. Participative Style: Participative style is also called democratic style as

everyone is encouraged to participate. This style involves more
employees along with the leader in the decision making process and
determining what to do and how to do it, but somehow the leaders takes
the final decision.
For example, A Marketing manager approaches his team/colleagues
members on how to promote a particular company product. The team
members start discussing to get idea over the issue, some advice print
media, while others advice mails to the prospective clients. The
suggested suggestion will be taken by the participative leader, calculate
 their pros and cons, and then he takes the final decision after hearing or
considering his team/colleagues members’ opinions.
Using this style is of mutual benefit. It allows them to become a part of
the team and allows you to make better decisions.

3. Delegative Leadership Style: In this style of leadership the leader allows

the employees or teammates to take appropriate decision and whatever
will be the outcome the leader will take the responsibility of that decision.
This type style is used when a team aware of the situation they analyze
and determined what needs to be done and how we can achieve it.
Leader cannot do everything, he must list out important task priorities
and delegate certain tasks. In this style you cannot blame other when
things go wrong. Somewhat this style is to be used when you have the
full trust and confidence in the people who follows you.

4. Force: Force leadership style is mixture of above three leadership styles.

Depending upon what force are involved between the employee, leader
and the situation a good leader uses all the above three styles.