Business Communications in the Times of Covid19

Thanks

Salam aleikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah. I would like to welcome all of you to a brand new session that we have this week. Today insha, Allah will be joined by Dr. Manisha Rafiq.

And she will be speaking

on a very important topic, the impact on business communication, in times of COVID-19.

I would like to remind all of you who have joined the session live right now, over the last three weeks, we have been organizing regular webinars, these webinars are focusing on Business Administration, and how businesses will change at times of COVID-19 and post COVID-19. This is the new normal. And when we say this is the new normal,

what do we mean by it?

As you recall, in the in the first week session, which was conducted by me, I pointed out that when we talk of this as a new normal, we need to internalize into our system, that this is how things will remain. If any one of us is expecting that things will come back to what it used to be at one point of time.

It is don't see that happening. And none of us see that happening. This is a new norm, you can see many industries, many companies are now changing the business model. They are changing their processes. They're also changing the communication. How do you communicate with your customers, within your organization with your stakeholders? As we know, any business, any company and industry have got different stakeholders, the external stakeholders like customers, the clients, your financial institutions with whom you might be banking, with whom you might be dealing with, and your internal stakeholders, your employees, your staff. So how do you deal with them? How do you

communicate with them, many of you might be receiving messages now from a lot of your institutions, companies, shopping malls, etc, will be sending you messages, texts, etc. They're changing the model of communication.

So this is a new normal, if we think that this is going to be temporary, I don't see that happening. And insha Allah in today's session, Dr. Dementia Rafiq will be throwing more light on this she will be shedding more light on this subject, and she will be giving us more clarity as to what lies ahead of us in the subject of business communication.

This webinar is brought to you by the Department of Business Administration at the International Open University. To all those listening to the session, I remind all of you to visit the I O website, the International Open University formerly called the Islamic online university, visit our [email protected] u.edu.jm There are a lot of programs that are available for you to sign up. One of them is of course, the Business Administration programs. We've got bachelor's degree program, associate degree program, program and certificate program. You can choose one which suits your needs. Without further ado, now I would like to invite Dr. Mencia Rafiq to make an initial

presentation, and insha Allah after the session if there are any questions. We shall take the questions at the end. Dr. mansha over to you.

Salaam aleikum to everyone who has joined us for this webinar. This is mature Rafiq and I welcome you all to the third session of the business webinar series organised by the Department of Business Administration at International Open University. I pray and hope everyone is in the best of health and spirits inshallah. So like Brotherman, I'm sure already mentioned in last week's session, our sister Salima talked about the impact of COVID on education and service marketing. And a week prior to that, Redmond zoo will shed some light on the future of business in the post COVID era. In today's session, however, we will be specifically looking at the communication aspect of business,

how you should communicate with different constituencies with different stakeholders during this pandemic.

Alright, so if you think about it, marketing is all about communication, what you're communicating how

How you doing it and how well it ultimately lands. Now, because of COVID 19, we are dealing with many unknown unknowns during this lockdown period. There are various challenges that organizations are facing that are unprecedented and can seem overwhelming. For example, there is disruption of services and sales, there is this need to keep your brand relevant? How do you manage a workforce that has been forced to operate remotely in these testing conditions? Important expectations such as health and welfare of our employees? How do you get your shareholders? How do you make contributions to the society and all of these challenges? Find an equal place on the priority list.

Now, business communication, in times of crisis is very different from business communication. In normal times, the stakes are higher, and therefore the leaders have to and must execute the communication efforts perfectly. Because leaders across the globe are facing questions they have absolutely no answers to in these uncertain times. It's very similar to you know, if you have a friend who's going through a difficult time and you choose choose to be a little more careful with the words to make sure things aren't taken the wrong way. Similarly, all marketing communications today should be crafted with the careful eye of the emotional state of the readers. He can have

brilliant ideas, you can have solutions, but if you can't get them across in the right manner, your ideas won't get anywhere. And research done in the past crisis has actually shown that you have to communicate early and often with your key constituencies throughout the crisis, even if the extent of the problem is unknown, you have to be honest and open to maintain credibility handle it with handle the situation with empathy, put yourself at the receivers and whoever your constituents are, okay. So, in the coming slides, we will be talking about we will talk about some things that you should keep in mind while assembling your organization. We may not be able to cover everything given

the time limit, but we'll try to cover as much as possible. Okay. So, the first thing you have to do is set up a team for centralized communication, this you need to do as an organization. Alright, in large, complex organizations, decentralized communication is understandable, and it makes logical sense, and it's desirable at the same time, but whenever we encounter a problem, or a crisis or an emergency situation, you need a crisis response team, especially in this COVID situation, you know, we see this happening at all levels. So companies must speak in one voice to ensure that a unified message message is

going across is delivered to all stakeholders. For example, you can you have task forces which are set by organizations or by universities, these teams for example, if you set up a task force, this team doesn't need to be too big, you can have about four to eight people. It should include one member of the leadership team one from maybe for corporate communication and HR executive, or you know, an expert in the area of concern wherever the problem is emanating from, and this team, this group of people, they should, number one, they must meet regularly to monitor the situation as it continues to evolve. They should be the one to give information about the crisis, meaning the main

source of information must come from this team,

information to media investors, customers, to suppliers, local government, etc. They must regularly update the constituencies about whatever is happening. We have to remember that

in this time, transparency is essential. You have to explain what you know, explain what you don't know and from what your sources of information are honesty's the key especially in unprecedented situation, it's it's a bad practice to give a best guest answer best guest answer. Instead questionnaires should be told you know, we look into it if you if you come across a question that you don't have an answer yet still don't know how to answer that question. You must tell them that we'll get we'll look into it and get back to you as soon as possible. Avoid fake news at all times and make sure that the information you give out is from verified sources.

Be brief you don't don't send long boring messages because long messages are anyway not entertained or read it's it's very similar to you know, if somebody sends us a long message on WhatsApp, you click on the you click on the you tap on the See More option and it's still loading and then you do that a couple of times and ultimately you don't want to you don't feel like reading that message. Highlight the most essential tasks and focus on completing them first and foremost, which means you have to prioritize especially if you you know, especially if you

Businesses quickly transitioning into a completely new remote setup, there is a possibility that there's quite a possibility that some things might fall through the cracks. So you have to ensure that nothing truly goes by the wayside because of the Coronavirus. This will also prevent your team from, you know, holding unnecessary meetings to review small, trivial matters that don't affect your business. draft a contingency plan for each of your audiences and organization, organizational functions.

For example, should an outbreak occur near your office? What should happen first, second? And third? Who who is authorized to make proper decisions? Who should be informed by what communication methods? What messages should they have? What are the protocols for providing updates? So you should have a plan that that has an answer to all these questions. Do a SWOT analysis, identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and the threat you as a company are facing? For example, what protocols for cleanliness? Does your organization have or need? Is your custodial staff increasing its cleaning and disinfection of you know, touch surfaces like doorknobs and kitchen areas

restaurants? Do they have a correct personal protective equipment?

What emergencies? Should you plan for all of this is something that this crisis response team should look into.

Next. Okay, so how do you communicate and connect with your employees, your ambassadors, you have to know that your ambassadors to the your ambassadors to the community are your employees

as they are the company's most important constituencies. So obviously, if they don't get if they don't understand what's going on, communication outside the organization will be more difficult. It's extremely important for you to demystify the situation for employees, put everyone put everyone's mind at ease and be optimistic and hopeful for the future. Research has shown that a leader actually plays a massive role in reducing employee anxiety. So in many instances, for example, employees, if you talk to employees, they often share that it was they felt really nice to hear the voice of the leader, be it when the live or through a through an email, phone messages etc.

So to effectively communicate with employees, organizations should number one provide regular information

on a platform which is visible to all, okay, this could be any platform, it can be a physical location or virtual. If it's a physical location, you have to keep in mind the SOPs. If that's what you will, it can be an email companies intranet, Facebook, YouTube channel or Instagram. Explain how decisions were made about issues such as working from home, how do you travel? How do you manage day and night shifts, connect with your employees every day, and you have to encourage chatter, you have to keep them in the loop at all times. Because remote employees, sometimes they may not feel comfortable sending emails or video messages, as you know that they're not used to doing it. They

generally talk to a co worker in person. So if your team is not talking to each other, there is a possibility that problems may arise. There needs to be a constant collaboration between remote team members, you yourself as a leader can set up a very good example. And you should ask them if there's something that you need to do from your end.

To make things easier for them, you have to remember that your team members, you know, the more your team members chat with each other, the less you have to worry about and update your employees about all timely information instead of waiting until you have all the answers. It's important for us to remember that your internal communication how you communicate with your employees has a huge impact on your external communication.

Okay, so as I said before, a leader plays a massive role in in this front, you know, especially in terms of decision making, and the perfect example we have is of a prophet peace be upon him, as you would always often include Sahabas prior to decision making. And there are a lot of lessons that we can learn from this. Now this might seem strange, because of one thing he knew more and better than than they did, as he was, you know, the wisest and experienced of them all. Yet we realize the wisdom of this when we reflect on the effect this consultation had on the Sahaba themselves. It made them feel included, valued and responsible for the effort and outcomes and ensured their commitment

to the cause because they have been consulted. Sometimes they had critical information about local matters, which came to light when they consulted and enabled a better decision. It was a training in decision making for them. For the future when Prophet peace be upon him would no longer be among them. It served to

relate to collusion among them and enable them to think across their tribal and local boundaries for the benefit of all concern and the success of the mission of propagating Islam. So a combination of picking the right people setting a high personal example and intensive hands on training our Prophet peace be upon him created not one but a set of leaders who were able to take his message forward. Long after he passed away. It's true that were is you know that there were various conflicts decades after he passed away, which led to the consequences he might not have approved off, but it only goes to show that it only underlines the reality that no grid effort is sufficient for all times. And it

must be continued generation after generation if one is to, you know, continue to reap its benefits.

Okay, so how do you connect, communicate with your customers now with your clients? Now your clients are the lifeblood of your organization's mission and business, maintaining their trust and confidence during a potential Coronavirus related disruption is critical. Here, we use a very different approach. We as an organization don't share the same frequency with clients as we share with our customers or as we share with our employees. Right employees are more of insiders. So the way to approach them is different. And the way you deal with your clients is different. You have to ask yourself a question as an organization, you have to emphasize on what is important to the

customer right now. And the most important thing for customers and for everybody who is alive right now is health and safety. So let's say if you are a retail corporation, you can maybe send out a note from from, from the manager from the CEO to customers describing how detailed and enhanced your cleaning procedures are, or how you have employed additional staff for picking up orders or for delivering services. Okay, if you are a big corporation and can provide relief, then please do so. You know, for example, Google decided to waive off the fees for publishers using its ad manager platform for the next, I think five months. And during this because of Coronavirus as a part of its

effort to support news organizations. This move comes in addition to Google's journalism Relief Fund, which was announced sometime in April, which includes emergency grants to news outlets.

Another example is that of Jet Blue, which is a low cost airline in the United States, it became the first airline to waive, change and get you know, wave of change and cancellation fees for COVID related concerns. So this, this was in a way reassuring, the old you know the current customers and also helped in bringing new ones on board. And I'm sure there are many, many other examples. If you start Googling it, you'll find many many

organizations that have tried to, you know, they try to provide relief. Okay, instead of looking for selling opportunities focus on empathy. companies now have to change the direction and the need to reconsider the advertising and promotion strategies so that they are more in line with the current scenario. Keep your customers updated at all times.

If there are delays, for example, there's delay in processing timing substitutions, make sure your customers are informed. Let your customers know that what steps your business has taken to protect them from exposure of the virus.

Okay, your pre plan this this is the most important point your pre planned campaigns will need tweaking this is in continuation to what we mentioned before. Yes, you can't use content which was created way before COVID. Because it's not relatable, it's obsolete, right? You need to review the pre planned communications for how they might be ill timed or clearly in poor taste or, you know, insensitive, or given what's going on in the world. For example, recently KFC pulled its very famous finger licking good campaign amid health suggestions for personal hygiene and hand washing because it's not, it's not suitable. So the UK KFC spokesperson said that it didn't seem like the right time

to air the ad, you know, so they decided to pause it for a while. It's a very catchy tagline, of course, but you have to pause it for a while because we're trying to maintain hand hygiene and we don't want people doing this. So they decided to pause it for a while and probably they'll bring it back when things get better. Another example is that of Hershey's, they also decided not to enter a new ad campaign which was feed featuring human interaction like hugging, etc. Because, you know, we have to maintain social distancing. So having a perfect messaging tagline isn't enough. Okay, as the current situation can make it look potentially upsetting to your readers or prospects. There's a

formula which shall be remembered, you know, at all times that right messaging plus the ad at the wrong time is a very bad idea. So you have to revamp your automated campaigns to make sure that the tone resonates with the public sentiment right now. You know,

Have a careful eye when you review it so that you can see it from the perspective of your audience and the emotional state they're in. Either you can tweak your campaign or you should hold it off until it's more appropriate time when your message won't be lost or misconstrued in the context of current events.

Okay, moving on, okay, comforting or restoring confidence of shareholders. Now communication with shareholders at this time should come from the top it meaning the CEO or the board of directors.

I read a report on BBC, which said that we all already know this that the world economy is facing already is facing an economic downturn, which is worse than the Great Depression. And the recovery in the global economy will only be gradual, because different countries are lifting the lockdown and different points of time. So clearly, the pandemic has created an intense volatile volatility in the financial markets and have turned what was an incredible bull market into a potential recession. So therefore, it becomes the responsibility of the publicly listed companies to communicate the impact of COVID on the operations while doing so, number one, most importantly, be transparent and direct

about the short term challenges. Make sure take this crisis as an opportunity to strengthen the long term fundamentals. Share what you're doing about the problem with your shareholders. You have to watch closely all the travel guidance and develop plans around your annual meetings, which include setting up webcasts for shareholders.

Okay, be active with communities and I think this this point, everyone can relate to and everyone can be a part of, we know that everything that happens within an organization around COVID affects

affects everyone in the communities around them. Every organization therefore, should try their best to make sure that their actions should not negatively affect members of the community. Okay, at the same time, this is an opportunity for you to enhance the relationship with local communities where you operate by this is good for your brand image to in the long run. Now, you might say that, you know, not every company may have a clear service to share there. Still there, there are many creative ways that almost any company can be a fuse, to those in need. Some examples, some examples, or you can offer resources such as supplies for cleaning, or food for those in quarantine. Stroud

being human, helpful and relatable, you can be in touch with the local media to help calm the communities with motivational statements, which will, you know, enhance the credibility of an organization, you can come up with a video share it on your social media platform, which is motivating and you know, which which is well received, it will be well received by the communities, being transparent about whatever is happening, don't be radio silent, because silence will feel silent, then your customers, your you know, your community, your customers, or even your employees might get anxious, share ideas in which you're helping your local community, or global community in

the crisis. Now this, this can be, you know, this, this can further inspire other other organizations, your competitors. And they might also, you know, try to help local community or global community or whoever is facing a crisis. Now, in business communication we have, we use the term and we've talked about this in detail in the Business Communication course that we offer at IU. There's this term called the EU viewpoint, okay, using the EU viewpoint means that the center is, you know, giving primary consideration to the receivers point of view when you're composing a message. It's basically you're trying to be in their shoes. And this is the most powerful and most

useful and powerful concept in business communication. And it's the key to achieving common understanding. So therefore, whenever you are dealing with uncertainty, leaders have to look into, you know, they need to look at communication from the perspective of the audience have empathy for them, rather than, you know, fear of doing the wrong thing. This one, this calls for companies, like I said before, to communicate even when they don't have all the information or to reveal as much as they can about sensitive information and to also be vigilant at the same time, about correcting mistakes, you know, without worrying about the repercussions. So to sum up, in conclusion, work on

building trust, ask yourself if you are a company and as an organization, ask yourself does this build trust or is it just reminding our prospects that we're here and we sell a certain product? Remember to be genuine and helpful if in any of your company communications while this pandemic is going on? Remember to be genuine, helpful and considerate. Don't settle for low blue sales pitches that prey on people. You know when they're most vulnerable. Sooner or later, you know this is going to end when we

don't know we don't have that answer. Even though this is the new normal, we know that

after two years after a year, we are sure that eventually we'll come out of it Inshallah, as human beings, we, as human beings are wired to adapt, we have this resilience built in into us. So now once this ends, or we get out of it, and you know, when we turn around and look back, we don't want to be remembered as someone Now this applies to both individuals and companies, you know, we don't want to be remembered as someone who try to encash on an opportunity that involves someone's misery, or who try to take advantage of vulnerable people. Yes, as an organization, you have to and you should think of innovative ways to keep the business running. And for that businesses in every

almost every sector will have to reorient themselves to get a fair and deeper understanding of the client's business realities to be relevant.

Okay, communicate facts, feelings and actions. At this time of heightened anxiety, economic turmoil and an unknown future due to COVID-19. Communicating facts, feelings, and action is more important than ever before. So managers, or employers must carefully listen to the employees and openly communicate what is known, which are the facts, how they feel about it, which are the feelings and what they are doing about it. And if you further if you feel interested in enhancing your business communication skills, we at International Open University, we offer a full fledged course in our BBA program, which talks about business communication. It covers complex,

complex

topics, like as to how you communicate in a global environment to as simple as how you write an email. I've shared the website, I've shared the website here www.io.edu.gm. And you can also check out check out our University page on different social media platforms. And I think I think that'll be all from my side. Over to you brother man suit.

Okay, BarakAllahu Hickey.

Thank you so much Dr. Mencia for your initial presentation. Mashallah, that was extremely insightful. And the fact that you introduced the concept of how communication used to be conducted by the prophet Alayhi Salatu was Salam during his time. And in fact, any one of us will go back to the life of the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, we see that a different point of time, the one of the most important thing that the Prophet SAW Selim always did was communicate with people, he was always available. Anyone who wanted to communicate with the Prophet SAW Selim, they didn't have to go through a line of channel of people before they could reach the Prophet alayhi salaatu, WA,

salaam, anyone could communicate with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

So

we would like to now take forward your questions. I would like to invite all of you who are watching this on Facebook or on YouTube, to post your questions. If you're watching this live,

please post your question in the chat box.

And while you're posting your questions, I would like to remind you that this these webinars that we are conducting will continue for the next five weeks. All right, so we have five more sessions coming up.

The next week, there is going to be another session, the details of the session will be uploaded on the Facebook page of the International Open Universities. To all of those who are watching this video. Now I request all of you to subscribe to the YouTube page. And remember to click on the notification button in order to receive timely updates about all of our programs and all the lectures of other speakers and moderators who keep coming and interacting with

the general masses. There's a question now and I'm going to put forward the question to Dr. mansha. When you mentioned about communication with shareholders. Let's take an example of a CEO of a company like you mentioned that there should be more transparency the CEOs and the top level must interact directly with the shareholders and mentioned about the challenges that they face due to COVID. Let's take a scenario where the company or the organization are suffering huge amount of losses.

How Why is it will be to be extremely transparent about the losses.

Well, for a publicly listed company, you have no other option but to be transparent, everything is updated in the reports. But how are you going to convince your shareholders through your communication in these difficult time? I know this is not directly related to business communication.

But it's more of strategy. But if you would like to shed some light on this

are like, we have to know that shareholders should have, first and foremost, first and foremost, you have to be transparent with your shareholders regardless of how bad the situation is. So, therefore, shareholders should have a clearer understanding of company's liquidity and cash position. For example, if companies are stressed shareholders and investors would want to hear more frequently from them about how they are managing liquidity in short term, and they should be provided with guidance based on the long term, key performance indicators of value rather than short term earnings. And if you are forecasting, you know, if in your forecast, you can see that it looks

promising, then, then then there will be convinced and then that is the only way you can convince them and especially given the situation. You know, your company is not the only company that is facing this problem. So shareholders can anticipate that, you know, something good, they can anticipate that there is some some kind of a turmoil going on. So I think, yes, you have to be transparent as much as possible. You don't want to surprise them one fine day and tell them that you know, you're going bankrupt or the company's not doing well. And like I said, if the long term KPIs look promising, then I think that should be that should that should be, I guess enough. I hope I

answered the question. Yes, I would like to add something to that. Because I want to know, thank you so much. Documentary you rightly pointed out, I think it's extremely important to be completely transparent with your shareholders. And as I mentioned that in a publicly listed company, everything is being presented quarterly through the reports, the financial reports are out there, the share prices are moving up and down on a day in and day out basis. You need to be transparent in your communication. In addition to this, as far as the pandemic is concerned, no doubt the pandemic is going to affect the operation, the size of the operation, but how well do you adapt to the changes?

What are the other processes that you have in place to deal with the current crisis? Look, the norm, this may be a new norm in the sense the whole pattern of business is going to change. But that doesn't mean that the business will shut down. It only means how fast the business can adapt to the changes. And that's where all of us as shareholders in companies will have to put trust in the company. That's extremely important.

Okay, here's another question you want to say something doctor mentioned? No, no, please go on. Okay.

There's another question which is come in. And before I come to that question someone wants to know about what are the ways through which a student can earn online any easy way to make business at home? The questioner needs to be reminded that we have a session which is going to come up in September. That's on the 12th of September, we have brother Abdul Rahim, who's a farmer entrepreneur, he is going to join us and He will be conducting a session on how can you earn money, different ways of earning money online, in these post COVID era, so you please remember to subscribe to the YouTube channel, and follow us regularly for the updates.

Here's another question.

You have so many emails which come to us on our inbox day in and day out, so many marketing emails, and considering the fact that now we're living in a post COVID era, the emails have increased, the volume of emails have increased?

Do you suggest any other alternate ways of interacting? Do you? Is there any other way through which we can better interact with an audience with our target customers with a new customer, especially the new customers who we wish to get them to sign on to products etc? Is there any other alternate ways? I don't understand the question emails coming in from is it within an organization or organized organization? Okay, that what the question means over here is that there are a lot of marketing emails which are going out. So they are regularly being bombarded with marketing emails. And our general tendency with marketing emails is we put them in the spam folder, we delete them.

So keeping this in mind, we might lose out new customers, if you just spam them with marketing emails. They may not be interested considering that now in the post COVID scenario, there are more emails hitting the inbox. Yeah. So what could be other alternate ways of reaching out?

I think because we are working from home.

We can emails is the only option. We don't want. I mean, it's one thing to you know, we get annoyed with so many emails. We don't want people to you know, start the

You know, sending us messages on WhatsApp, that's a very personal mode of communication. So I feel like in this situation, if you feel if you feel this, this is not, you know, help helping you, you might

probably choose another alternative, such as

we have emails, and then we have.

Okay, I need to think on this

one, so please share it to your thoughts. Yeah, I mean, I think you mentioned a bit about social media as well. So I think social media could be a very interesting tool, isn't it? What's that on social media be one of the tools? I think it depends on from individual to individual. If your social media is specifically for your personal use, then you wouldn't want you know, companies to get in touch with you there. But yes, maybe LinkedIn is another platform. LinkedIn is a platform where people can reach out it's specifically meant for, you know, it is, it's meant for work, it's meant for business. So if you're reaching out to people there that it makes much more sense, as

opposed to sending someone messages on Facebook or Twitter or worse on WhatsApp, right. And then, of course, larger organizations, bigger organizations, they can, of course, reach you through any social media platform, because they simply promote or boost the post. So whether you like it, or you don't like it, you will keep receiving updates, promote promo materials and content on your social media pages. Well, absolutely. So, Dr. Munch, I have another question for you. This is interesting, considering the fact that we are unsure about how people are going to react in this post pandemic situation with the emails and communication, is there a way through which we can actually gauge

prior to reaching out to the customers about a more appropriate form of communication, maybe through surveys or conducting surveys, of course, is also a challenge in these time. So do you think that nothing surveys etc, could be a better way of gauging what the customers want? What form of communication will work with them? I think it's a very good option, if you're conducting surveys, but you know, you get you basically narrow down, you know, the things that you're looking for. But then again, the thing with services, I know so many people, especially being a researcher, we get a lot of a lot of my friends, or colleagues, they send out surveys, and sometimes you just fill in

surveys, you know, without even reading the question. So yeah, so it's a 5050 situation, sometimes it may work, sometimes it may not work, you know, it depends on the person who's filling in the survey depends on the state of the mind and how they're how they're basically doing it. Yeah, okay. Thank you so much. There's a question from one of our participants, she wants to know that in an organization, and now we're talking about a communication, which we have on one on one basis, with staffs with colleagues, sometimes we find ourselves in an organization where there may be some players who are probably not able to communicate effectively, or communicate respectfully. Or

sometimes we may have a boss or a leader who may be rude or harsh in his way he communicates. In this case, how do we present ourselves or effectively communicate without getting them to react negatively?

Okay, I see in our personal lives, we always have this option, if you know, you come across somebody who's rude, you always, you know, you can shut them out. But unfortunately, in our workspace, we don't have that option. So the best way to communicate so I mean, of course, you will come across a colleague or you know, your boss, or anybody in your in your workspace, who is who is rude, the best way to communicate with such people is that try to have minimal verbal conversations with them. And you should always communicate via email, or because, you know, people will always try to be as civil as possible when you're communicating on an email. This is the screenshot error, right? So it's, you

know, even though the person wants to be rude, they want to, you know, they want to exploit someone or they want to abuse, they will, they will be careful if you're sending out an email, because, you know, one email is enough, basically, to tarnish someone's image, right? So the best way to communicate with this person is professionally via email, or texting, try to, you know, have minimal, verbal conversations with them. And also at the same time, you know, there's a difference between somebody being rude or somebody giving you a critical feedback. If, if it's a feedback, then you need to ask yourself, you know, is it maybe, maybe, maybe it's good, maybe it's just polishing

you, you know, maybe it's, maybe you're getting, you know, it's sort of helping you, but there's a fine line between the two. But if you feel like no, the person is really, you know, trying to bring me down. So you should, you know, make sure that the communication is on a formal platform such as

Email, I would suggest, yeah, thank you so much. I think that's a very, very important point that you've made, that sometimes what happens is in a one on one communication, especially a face to face communication, this could be a challenge where the other person may try to, because of his or her position in the organization, or because of his or her temperament may try to be a little rude, maybe a little negative. And one of the best ways to communicate with such people or individuals is, if it's a professional communication, put it on email, or put it on a written document, and send it across. And then the important factor when you do all of this is also to use positive emphasis

statements. Sometimes what happens is, when we know that a person may react, the last thing we want to do is use negative emphasis statements in our mail in our communication, it's extremely important to use positive messages. We don't we, yeah, we try to soften up the person. That way, we are able to be more assertive. And of course, like you rightly pointed out, sometimes the best form of communication is written form of communication. And that's why we have different forms of communication, there isn't any best form of communication, the best form of communication, which is subjective, depending on the situation or environment you are in. Okay, we have another question for

you. You spoke about businesses engaging with employees and clients with empathy. What are some of the ways the businesses can show empathy? And can you give some practical examples you didn't mention about KFC etc? But can you mention a little bit more on this? For example, let's say if, for example, somebody in your organization, one of the employees is infected with COVID. Okay, it's COVID positive. So this person has some deadlines, he's supposed to report to work, you can't email this person just saying, you know, report on this time, send me the file, you have to be considerate, you have to, you know, use you know, you have to, you have to be you talk to that

person in a way that you want, we have to understand that we're dealing with human beings at the end of the day. So, it's very important to be considerate, and to show empathy. And I think I think this is the best example I can think of right now. Because, you know, you can't, we're not dealing with machines here. So you have to be considerate and, you know, show empathy and, and, yeah, and that's about it. Okay, thank you so much for answering that question. We will try and take couple of more questions. If there are more questions, you can send it ASAP otherwise, we will be closing the sessions shortly.

Before we move to the next question, I would like to remind about how a prophet peace and blessings be upon him would communicate in different situation. So we have an example of the Sahaba, this companion who had this gold ring, which he was wearing, and the Prophet alayhi salaatu wa salaam saw him wearing the gold ring, and he immediately took it off his finger, and he just threw it away on the sand.

That was a very strong, aggressive form of communication, which the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him did in with that companion. And the same man, the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him. When he sees that a man a Bedouin is defecating on the walls of Masjid Al Nabawi, peace and blessings be upon him, he was urinating on the walls, and the Companions rise to attack him. The Prophet peace be upon him, just calms them down and says, Let him finish what he's doing. And then the Prophet peace be upon him instructs the companions to clean up the area. And he says, send the person to me. And then he explained to the person, that look, this is our prayer area of worship, we

come here to Praise Almighty God, we come into worship Almighty God. So the Prophet peace be upon him is using different forms or different approaches. Depending upon the situation you need to have a good understanding of who the recipient of your message is.

Absolutely a recipient of a burst of your message is a person who may be hostile, then you have to manage him using your wit. And that's what we learned from the Prophet peace be upon him. Now, of course, if we apply this model in an organizational setup, we can certainly benefit Insha Allah, of course, you will have to extrapolate the teachings, but I'm sure we can certainly apply and use a lot of benefits simply from the life of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

Okay, there's

one more question. Let me see. It's not a question.

Okay. Yes, there's a question. I'm an IOU student who studies it. Do you think these webinars are relevant to my studies? I think I'll take this question. Absolutely relevant look, whether you are an IT Student What if you wish to start a company of your own? What if you wish to start a business of your own?

The message that is being imparted through these

Business webinars is something which will not only apply to you, as a staff, as an employee in a company, but even as a leader, as a owner of a company.

Please don't just in fact, I can tell you, when I was doing my postgraduate studies, we had people who were from the hotel management background, it background engineering background, people who did the MBBS would come and do their MBA studies. And when we would want would inquire Why are you doing an MBA after being an MBBS? After completing your medicines, medicine studies, you're a qualified doctor. Now, they would say that our goal of vision is to set up a hospital to set up a private nursing home, and we want to have the business administration skills as well.

So never limit your learning to let's say, if I am an expert in it, what if I wish to become a leader? What if I wish to provide the services right now? I'm working for the company. I should make next look for setting up a company of my own. I should have that vision in the long run to have a company of my own. And that's where all of these skills and knowledge will be handful it will be beneficial.

Okay. All right.

I don't see any more question. Yes, there is one. Is there a communication workshop only available for IoT students? Well, I don't think we have any specific communication workshop at this point of time, but inshallah Soon we shall work on this and we have Dr. Mansour, she teaches business communication. We will soon work on this. And if there is a workshop which comes up you will get to know remember to follow IU on the Facebook.

And I don't see any further questions right now, though, there are no further questions. To all of those who are listening. I remind you once again, please remember to subscribe to the IOU page to the Facebook page to be updated about the future. Upcoming webinars. Remember, next week, we have another faculty member sister samsara Jehan, she will be joining us. Many of you might be knowing her but she has been there with the university for some time now. She might have studied some courses under her. She will be joining us next week. And she will be also touching upon some interesting topic. We'll announce the topic on social media in a couple of days. Watch us on the

Facebook. Please remember to visit the IOU website and register with the BBA course we have other programs as well. A lot of other programs are being offered as well. You can check out the other courses that we offer on the IOU webpage, the Islamic Studies, the Islamic banking courses etc. I would like to thank Dr. Dementia for taking the time out and making a very powerful and insightful presentation. I would also like to thank all of those who've attended the session on the YouTube page BarakAllahu li comb, we pray Allah subhanaw taala puts Baraka in the session. And we conclude with the supplication with the DUA Subhanak Allahumma Wahby Hambrick a shadow on the island duster

Federica were to do a lake was Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh