Incorporating Logos and Pathos in Communication for Business Teams

Communication is part of what makes us human and has existed since, well, forever. It is essential for maintaining long-lasting, fruitful relationships across all areas of life and is especially valuable when it comes to fostering strong business relationships.

Collectively working through shared hurdles is what makes any business team stronger.  Regardless of the scenario, we must be sure to keep logos and pathos in mind. Logos refers to logic while pathos refers to empathy and emotion. The combination of logic and emotion helps us propel conversations forward, address all angles of a given situation or task, and gets us closer to solutions that cover all bases. Incorporating logos, pathos, and GetAssist offerings into your communication routine will make your team soar.

Encourage feedback

Encouraging and facilitating feedback is a great way to maintain a productive and healthy working relationship. Frequent feedback benefits all members of a team by maintaining an open, free-flowing dialogue and ensuring that each individual is comfortable sharing their thoughts. If feedback is incorporated at all times, it makes any potentially “negative” comments easier to accept for the individual on the receiving end. Take feedback to the next level by compiling a monthly newsletter highlighting employee jobs-well-done via GetAssist’s Employee Engagement app, and/or use the Project Logs tool to create a list of “pros” and “cons” for in-depth discussion.

Logos and feedback: Approaching feedback in terms of logos encourages the team to remove emotion from the conversation and decipher pieces of work for what they are, no strings attached.  If a team member is on the receiving end of dismal feedback, they have a chance to take a step back and discuss their perception of the project from a strictly logical standpoint.

Pathos and feedback: Approaching feedback in terms of pathos does just the opposite – it brings emotion to the forefront, which serves as a way to unscramble the feelings that naturally arise throughout project progression.  Try an exercise in which every team member starts a sentence with “I feel as though…” or “The emotion that comes to mind most when I think about this project is ___.” Sure, you might feel a bit vulnerable in this moment, but allowing yourself to be vulnerable in front of your work family will actually advance the quality of the relationship.

Reflect on projects

Taking the time to reflect on completed projects promotes communal improvement and serves as a method to fully review the steps of a task from start to finish. When reflecting as a team, be sure to make note of things you’re proud of, as well as things that could be improved in the future. This is a way to reward yourself while simultaneously cultivating a forward-thinking mindset. After all, forward-thinking is one of the most valuable characteristics of a team! If while reflecting you come up with a new idea that will benefit colleagues and make future projects skyrocket, be sure to post them on the private Community Bulletin Board on GetAssist!

Logos and reflecting: Practicing reflecting from a logos standpoint is the perfect chance to ask and answer the questions, “What should we do the same in future projects?” and/or “What should we do differently?” Again, emotion is removed from the conversation when taking a logos (logical) approach, so the team will be able to discuss the projects in a simply elemental way.

Pathos and reflecting:  Reflecting from a pathos standpoint has potential to provide a strong cathartic release (the purging of strong or potentially repressed emotions). When this occurs, the team is granted a chance to re-set and push forward with a clean slate.

Keep the big picture in mind during team conversation

Day-to-day tasks can make it difficult to keep the big picture in mind. But isn’t the big picture what we’re striving for?! Business teams that strive to keep the big picture in mind tend to have higher levels of morale by keeping the end-in-mind in the forefront. They’re consistently reminded of how their hard work will pay off in the long-run. Explore GetAssist’s Employee Engagement app and Project Logs feature to help keep the big picture in mind while simultaneously tackling those daunting day-to-day tasks.

Logos and the big picture: Keeping the big picture in mind while practicing logos requires a bit more mindfulness, but it’s certainly doable. Logos comes into play when planning-out the steps that will ultimately lead to the big picture. Being logical about timeline mapping and hitting important milestones within a project will help maintain organization and excitement while trucking along toward the end-in-mind.

Pathos and the big picture: You and your team are inching closer and closer to the completion of a project and the anticipation is causing some anxiety. Here is where you’re allowed to express “all the feels”. Replace the anxiety with full-blown positive emotion for the home stretch. Play upbeat music that entices excitement, print out some inspirational quotes to keep your head in the game, listen to a funny podcast to get the laughs flowing. Finally, cry tears of joy once the project hits completion (a.k.a when the big picture has become reality).

Last, but certainly not least, have fun! If your team is approaching or just finishing a couple of difficult and busy weeks, consider carving out some time to play games, complete team-building exercises, etc. Just be sure to keep the work-related conversation to a minimum. As much as you talk about business, you deserve some casual dialogue with one another too! Mark down some tentative dates for fun activities using the company community’s Shared Calendar on GetAssist.

Employees are a company’s most valuable asset. Connect with purpose and keep them engaged using GetAssist’s Employee Engagement App through private Company Communities and its Project Logs feature. You will be thrilled with how far GetAssist will advance your team!