Communicating with others is something that we do everyday, yet it’s something that we don’t “talk” about. We all have our natural way of communicating with others, but unfortunately our preferred method of communication doesn’t always work well for others. What should we do when this happens?
I’m a big fan of writing. I like to send emails and write letters as my preferred method of communication because I can get my thoughts out without any interruptions. Writing also helps me put more thought into what I’m saying, because it shortens my conversation with those that will read and reflect on what I’ve written.
The down side to my style of communication is that nowadays, most people are too busy to carefully read over things. A lot of people will skim over what I write or won’t read the message at all and then will call me to verbally discuss the message that they didn’t read. When this happens my time is wasted.
For some, verbally communicating over writing is very productive. As I think about it, when I didn’t have a team, verbally communicating worked very well for me; I think this is because I had less responsibility, so there was less for me to have to remember.
One of the things that I’m learning and forming into a habit is connecting more with those who communicate similar to me; I think that this is something that we all should do if it leads to us being more productive.
Don’t get me wrong, writing and sending emails is not necessarily better than talking, but we all have a natural style of conveying information that we are most comfortable with. If we want to be more productive, we should get closer to those who have a similar style of communicating….or learn to comfortably adapt to how others communicate.
I was watching a documentary about a singer named Nate Dogg, and learned that he was paralyzed from the neck down after having a stroke. In his final years alive one of his family members came up with a way to communicate with him.
They wrote the alphabet on a board and they would point to letters and he would blink (once or twice) to confirm the letter of the word he was spelling. His family adapted to what was necessary in order to communicate with him.
What is your natural style of communication? How well do you communicate with your team? How do you prefer that your clients communicate with you? Did you let your clients and team know your preferred method of communicating? Is your way of communicating productive? Why do communicate the way that you do? What is one thing that you would like to improve about the way that you communicate?
Just a few questions for you to ponder while you're in the midst of making today GREAT!
~Matthew