Communication is the key to the kinds of relationships we make both personally and in our work lives. Have you noticed how predictable people are in how they communicate? The same patterns repeat over and over. Do you sometimes shake your head and say to yourself ” I sound like a broken record”. We all can think of situations like that - it could be with children, spouse, co-worker, boss, siblings etc.
Do a little exercise today. Observe yourself as you interact with someone where it matters to you that the other person really understand what you are trying to say. What did you observe about yourself? Did you feel understood and comfortable in being able to say what you wanted to say? If that happened you would feel really good about the interaction. Or was the interaction such that you found yourself escalating your voice because you felt the other person was not really understanding you. Did you feel that your process was such that it reminded you of other interactions with the same person? If the latter was the case, I want you to think about how you could deal with this person a little differently next time.
Because communication is learned we can learn more effective ways of getting heard and understood. I plan to address communication a lot in this blog. I am interested in hearing from you about your experiences and frustrations when communicating with others. Together we may be able to come up with solutions.
