Brady Bowling
According to a study by Watson Wyatt, “businesses with effective communication practices were more than 50 percent more likely to report employee turnover levels below the industry average”. Poor communication causes a dysfunctional workplace and productivity to be low. To help improve poor communication, Texas business man and Amazon specialist recently took time out of his busy work schedule to help engineer improvement on business communications. Michael Boese reveals important information about business communication that helped him be successful in the business world. He opens up on how imperative communication is and delivers key information that young business goers should take into account. After working global roles with multiple Fortune 500 companies with a vital role and getting the business experience needed, he started his own engineering consulting company. Shortly followed by becoming a business owner, he took a position at a well known brand recognized around the world, Amazon. Now that you know Michael Boese is more than certified to deliver key insight about business communication, here is what he recently said in a short interview.
What is your professional history (include your timeline and roles)?
Michael Boese: “From 1996 to 2000 I was at Monsanto where I was the Environmental Manager. From 2000 to 2010 I worked for Lennox International where my position was the Environmental Director International Operations. From 2010 I was at PepsiCo where I held the position of Environmental Director of North America Beverages. From 2014 to present I became the owner of Stonebridge Engineering & Consulting Group, LLC. Also, in 2016 I took a position for Amazon as the Global Specialty Fulfillment and Retail Environment Leader.”
What writing advice do you have for professional communicators?
Michael Boese: “Read, read, read! Read the Wall Street Journal every day. Read business books. Read biographies. Read history and fiction. The best way to be a better communicator is to be a better reader. Also, listen, listen, listen! To speak better, listen to good speakers. A lot of people do not like to read but it is the secret to better communication, expanding your vocabulary, and making you smarter.”
What is your one pet peeve when it comes to professional writing?
Michael Boese: “Lack of clarity – writers often don’t put themselves in the mind of the reader. What kind of message is your reader getting? Make sure your message is clear to them.”
What kind of business reports do you read and/or compose regularly?
Michael Boese: “I read the Wall Street Journal every day and I try to read a serious book and fun book. Right now I’m reading Steve Martin’s autobiography and a historical book on the Battle of Stalingrad during WWII. Everyday I write many emails and professional reports for business and engineering. These can be scientific, about engineering and nature, but also cover legal and broad business audiences.”
What are your writing suggestions to make those types of reports successful?
Micael Boese: “Avoid run-on sentences… use bullets for points… try to not make paragraphs too long… always remember the audience.”
What speaking advice do you have for professional communicators?
Michael Boese: “If you are serious about speaking join Toastmasters. This is a speaking club that meets weekly. There are clubs all over. You practice all sorts of speaking from prepared speeches to impromptu. It’s also a lot of fun. Here are some simple tips – look people in the eye, speak with passion, stay on point, have humor, learn to inflection and body language techniques.”
Name one thing you wish you had known about business communication prior to your professional career?
Michael Boese: “I wish I joined Toastmasters sooner. Also I should have sought more speaking opportunities – practice makes perfect!”
After assessing the Burning Glass list of Baseline Skills (2016), which skills not in the top 5 would you move into the top 5…and why?
Michael Boese: “Listener is near the bottom. How many times have I had a conversation with someone who wasn’t listening? Instead of listening they were preparing a response. We’ve got a lot of people out there who are terrible at listening. This is an important skill to improve yourself.”
What team skills do you feel young professionals need the most?
Michael Boese: “Communication is the biggest gap followed by bias for action and delivering results.”
Key Takeaways
Reading, speaking, and listening gives Michael Boese the ability to bring clarity while communicating with partners, clients or customers. Not having superb ability in these areas brings confusion and chaos into the work environment. This is not ideal for being productive and having to communicate with individuals that help evolve a business. Individuals also means customers, who at the end of the day help improve revenue and like-ability for a business. He states, “listening is too low on the basic skills graph. Instead of listening, people prepare a response before hand, which can hinder a valid response to a situation”. Communicators are better off listening to the full task at hand and prepare an in depth response that can improve the communication process between the speaker and the audience. Knowing the audience is vital while communicating via speaking or writing. This keeps people within or outside the business engaged with the message delivered and keeps a positive disposition in the back of their minds. To improve communication, Mr. Boese says “The best way to become a better communicator is to be a better reader, also to speak better, listen to good speakers. A lot of people do not like to read, but it is the key to being a better communicator and expanding vocabulary”.
At the end of the day, striving to become strong and effective communicators will help drive a business to success. Michael stresses reading, speaking, and listening because he understands how important these skills are to the development of a successful business. Having effective communication skills can allow an employee to be a valuable asset when it comes to preparing professional business reports or presentations. Understanding how valuable communication skills are brings a plethora of opportunities to excel in business and build relationships. These relationships have the potential to offer opportunities bigger and better in your professional career.
Adding onto the three main skills Michael Boese stressed throughout the interview, building effective relationships is another skill imperative for business. Building relationships with different people can allow a multitude of different opportunities in different fields. Many businesses do not succeed without the relationships executives built with others to support them throughout their journey growing a business. These many different relationships can be effective due to the interpersonal sense of fulfillment and improves teamwork between multiple people. Building trust between business partners and also be able to improve communication skills between each other to help improve even through the struggling times of building a business. Having an outgoing personality and meeting new people is a vital factor between a business succeeding or failing. Who knows, these people might just be the difference maker you need.
Biography
Michael Boese resides in McKinney, TX with his wife of 25 years, Sharon and their 3 sons Andrew (22), Samuel (20) and William (17). He has degrees in Environmental Engineering (BS) and Occupational Safety & Health (MS) from Murray State University and is in the process of obtaining an MBA from Stanford University. Michael Boese’s professional life has brought him many opportunities and nothing short of success.
Michael Boese is formidable in:
Environmental, Health, Safety & Sustainability leader with over 25 years’ experience in global roles at Fortune 500 Companies including Amazon, PepsiCo, Monsanto, and Lennox International.
These roles include: North American Business Operations Lead, Director, Senior Manager, as well as Owner of Stonebridge Engineering & Consulting Group, LLC.
His achievements include leading strategy development and directing global operations for field execution tactics of environmental, health and safety objectives including:
Corporate Compliance, Supply Chain Operations, Operations Management, Global Program Management System Design & Integration, Policy, Legal & Regulations, Global Software Management Information Systems, Regulatory Compliance Assurance, Metrics Tracking & Reporting, Energy/Resource Tracking & Reduction, Risk Assessment, Analysis & Management, Project Management, Capital Expense Planning (CAPEX), Auditing Program Management, Contamination Investigation, Mitigation & Remediation Management, Property Due Diligence, Indemnification & Risk Assessment and People and Team Management
His certifications include:
A registered Professional Engineer from the state of Texas, a Certified Safety Professional, ISO 14000 Lead Auditor and a Certified Toastmaster. In his spare time Michael serves as the Chair of the Board for the Food and Beverage Environmental Conference where he held previous offices as President and Committee Chair.
Michael Boese Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/michael-b-0990455
Brady Bowling is a junior at the University of Southern Indiana, majoring in Business Administration in the ROMAIN College of Business. He is from Lexington, Kentucky and is at USI to play baseball. He has an Associates Degree in Sport Management from Lincoln Trail College as well.
