I have written a blog before on communication and I just can’t stress enough how important it is in our life. For the past two weeks I was in a situation where there was a lack of communication. I started to have a lot of questions, made a lot of assumptions and act upon some of my assumptions. Did that help the situation? No, it just made it a nightmare. Then after pushing for more information from the other person, I found out that most of my assumptions were wrong. The problem with this situation is the lack of communication. If there were proper communication between the two of us I would have not made my assumptions or go around confuse with unanswered questions. You will be amaze to know how many things can be avoided if we just open up and communicate with each other effectively.
The one thing I don’t like it reaching out to someone and the person don’t respond. If I took the courage and time to reach out to the person, I don’t see why they can’t respond. But not everyone see the situation from the same angle. To them it might be fine to hold back and let you figure it out. This is not the best way to go about doing things but people do it all the time.
We make too many assumptions and most of the time they are not right. Below is a copy of the blog post I had written about a month ago. This talks a lot about verbal communication and how important it is to be a good communicator.
Communication! Communication! Communication! Communication is very important in expressing your opinion, thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Being a good communicator is helpful in having a mature relationship with managers, co-workers, friends, family, and the Lord. Communication is not just expressed verbally but also in body movement, written and through actions. Today I am just going to talk about verbal communication, maybe another time I can discuss the others.
Being in the corporate world, I have learned a lot about communicating with people on various levels. At times it can be challenging dealing with people from various backgrounds, different level of intelligence, different cultures, different languages, and different personalities. Dealing with each individual is very important in having a healthy relationship.
I have notice that there are attributes in a good communicator (this is not in any specific order):
1) They make none to minimum assumptions
2) They are great listeners
3) They understand what their audience is saying from the audience point of view
4) They express themselves exactly the way they want their audience to receive it
5) They are great at responding back
6) They ask questions
7) They know their audience
These are not anything I learned from a special class or someone told me. But they are things I observed as I communicated with people daily. I had an experience at work that taught me never to make assumptions of my audience. I was doing a presentation at work to my department, which included engineers and managers. In preparing for my presentation, I included few acronyms that we use frequently in the technology field and few technical names for the applications I was discussing. The engineers that I work with daily understood or had a good knowledge of what I was talking about. But most of the managers who did not have a technical background was totally lost and confused. I had to stand there and explain to them every acronym and every technical term, which caused the meeting to go over time and caused me to rush through the remaining of the presentation. That presentation as you can see was not very successful. I delivered my material but not effectively. Therefore one of my big lessons learned was not to make assumptions again.
Now, the other problem that I faced was understanding what a person was saying from their point of view. There are a lot of times when I see it from my point of view and it can be totally different. To confirm I am on the same page as the other person. I might ask questions or give a summary of what I think the person is trying to say. That gives the person the opportunity to break it down more, give examples or to try and bring it to a place where we both can see the same thing. But the most important thing in understand a person from their point of view is being a good listener. If you don’t listen carefully, it will be hard to follow and understand what a person is really trying to say.
The third problem that can arise in communication is speaking exactly what you want the audience to get. There are ways to phrase a statement that can express various views. Don’t express yourself in a way you don’t want the audience to receive it. Most of the time if not clarified, the communication can be tainted and end up on the wrong foot. This all goes back to explaining yourself properly and making sure your audience is following you throughout the discussion.
The fourth issue is responding back to the person that is speaking to you, sent you a message or left you a voicemail. The worst thing that you can ever do is leave the person ‘hanging.’ Not responding to a person can cause the individual to be confused. The person doesn’t know if you receive the message, if you don’t understand it, or if you took it the wrong way or if you just don’t care to respond. The least you can do is show some sort of acknowledgement. The person can hope you have received the message but there is no guarantee till they get some form of confirmation.
These things are not only for the work place but in dealing with the Lord, family, friends: when you are giving encouragement, giving a Bible study, comments, jokes and just about any other way you verbally communicate with another person.
One more thing before I forget, it is great to keep a person up to date. Keeping a person up to date shows you maturity level in dealing with situations and being on top of things. For example, if you are running late for a meeting, let someone know. If you won’t be able to meet up with someone, let them know rather than two days later when they are upset you are trying to tell them that you had something else to do. Communication is key to any healthy and mature relationship.
The most important communication is with the Lord. The more you communicate with the Lord the better you will understand him and he will open up to you. The closer you get to him the more he will reveal himself to you and show you things that you have never seen before. But you have to have that communication. Daily communication brings forth a health relationship.
So today try to improve your verbal communication, to have a more effective outcome.
The one thing I don’t like it reaching out to someone and the person don’t respond. If I took the courage and time to reach out to the person, I don’t see why they can’t respond. But not everyone see the situation from the same angle. To them it might be fine to hold back and let you figure it out. This is not the best way to go about doing things but people do it all the time.
We make too many assumptions and most of the time they are not right. Below is a copy of the blog post I had written about a month ago. This talks a lot about verbal communication and how important it is to be a good communicator.
Communication! Communication! Communication! Communication is very important in expressing your opinion, thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Being a good communicator is helpful in having a mature relationship with managers, co-workers, friends, family, and the Lord. Communication is not just expressed verbally but also in body movement, written and through actions. Today I am just going to talk about verbal communication, maybe another time I can discuss the others.
Being in the corporate world, I have learned a lot about communicating with people on various levels. At times it can be challenging dealing with people from various backgrounds, different level of intelligence, different cultures, different languages, and different personalities. Dealing with each individual is very important in having a healthy relationship.
I have notice that there are attributes in a good communicator (this is not in any specific order):
1) They make none to minimum assumptions
2) They are great listeners
3) They understand what their audience is saying from the audience point of view
4) They express themselves exactly the way they want their audience to receive it
5) They are great at responding back
6) They ask questions
7) They know their audience
These are not anything I learned from a special class or someone told me. But they are things I observed as I communicated with people daily. I had an experience at work that taught me never to make assumptions of my audience. I was doing a presentation at work to my department, which included engineers and managers. In preparing for my presentation, I included few acronyms that we use frequently in the technology field and few technical names for the applications I was discussing. The engineers that I work with daily understood or had a good knowledge of what I was talking about. But most of the managers who did not have a technical background was totally lost and confused. I had to stand there and explain to them every acronym and every technical term, which caused the meeting to go over time and caused me to rush through the remaining of the presentation. That presentation as you can see was not very successful. I delivered my material but not effectively. Therefore one of my big lessons learned was not to make assumptions again.
Now, the other problem that I faced was understanding what a person was saying from their point of view. There are a lot of times when I see it from my point of view and it can be totally different. To confirm I am on the same page as the other person. I might ask questions or give a summary of what I think the person is trying to say. That gives the person the opportunity to break it down more, give examples or to try and bring it to a place where we both can see the same thing. But the most important thing in understand a person from their point of view is being a good listener. If you don’t listen carefully, it will be hard to follow and understand what a person is really trying to say.
The third problem that can arise in communication is speaking exactly what you want the audience to get. There are ways to phrase a statement that can express various views. Don’t express yourself in a way you don’t want the audience to receive it. Most of the time if not clarified, the communication can be tainted and end up on the wrong foot. This all goes back to explaining yourself properly and making sure your audience is following you throughout the discussion.
The fourth issue is responding back to the person that is speaking to you, sent you a message or left you a voicemail. The worst thing that you can ever do is leave the person ‘hanging.’ Not responding to a person can cause the individual to be confused. The person doesn’t know if you receive the message, if you don’t understand it, or if you took it the wrong way or if you just don’t care to respond. The least you can do is show some sort of acknowledgement. The person can hope you have received the message but there is no guarantee till they get some form of confirmation.
These things are not only for the work place but in dealing with the Lord, family, friends: when you are giving encouragement, giving a Bible study, comments, jokes and just about any other way you verbally communicate with another person.
One more thing before I forget, it is great to keep a person up to date. Keeping a person up to date shows you maturity level in dealing with situations and being on top of things. For example, if you are running late for a meeting, let someone know. If you won’t be able to meet up with someone, let them know rather than two days later when they are upset you are trying to tell them that you had something else to do. Communication is key to any healthy and mature relationship.
The most important communication is with the Lord. The more you communicate with the Lord the better you will understand him and he will open up to you. The closer you get to him the more he will reveal himself to you and show you things that you have never seen before. But you have to have that communication. Daily communication brings forth a health relationship.
So today try to improve your verbal communication, to have a more effective outcome.
thanks for commenting on my blog. glad it made you think of your future special day as well. great post. i really liked what the image said too... cause i get nervous and emotional when i have to speak my mind. Communication is very important though. Hope you keep on reading my blog, I'll keep an eye out on yours too... God Bless:)
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