Want to Unlock the Secrets to Thriving Relationships?  Try these Personal and Professional Communication Tips

In this fast-paced, often chaotic world, the rarity of thorough, full-cycle communication can be a challenge. However, the rewards of mastering this skill are immense. Your success in personal and professional relationships with family, friends, and your business team hinges on clear, often detailed, and transparent communication. How is your communication? Imagine the possibilities if you could enhance it.

Go ahead and check yourself.  Are you delivering messages that matter?  Is your message getting through?  Are you getting the messages others send?

Most of your communication is likely maintenance talk comprised of brief messages giving the minimum amount of information needed to keep things moving forward –

Did you get the message? Take out the trash. Will you be at the meeting today? Can you pick up the order? Can you pick up your shoes?  Turn off the lights. Did you file the report?  Have you seen my phone?

Maintenance talk is necessary and good, but it is usually quick and assumes a lot.  By nature, it rarely gets to interactions with logical processes, intuitive impressions, or emotional issues important to relationships.

Weak or poor communication can be a significant cost to your business or church. Research estimates that businesses could lose up to $12,506 per employee yearly due to poor workplace communication. This adds up to an estimated annual loss of $1.2 trillion among US businesses.*  This underscores the urgency to improve your skills and the potential for significant savings and increased productivity.

Are you ready to improve your communication and thrive in your personal and professional relationships? Here are some practical communication tips you can easily incorporate into your daily interactions, equipping you with the tools to enhance your communication skills and relationships.

• Empower yourself and others by recognizing that effective communication is a skill that can be learned and improved. Don’t underestimate the power of training in emotional intelligence, assertiveness, and other soft skills to enhance communication. This proactive step can significantly enhance your communication skills and relationships.
• Don’t leave understanding to chance. Instead of assuming people comprehend or even hear what you say, take the initiative to check. This simple yet powerful step can ensure that your main points are received and understood, fostering a more effective and confident communication process. Request a reflection of what you said by asking, “What do you hear me saying? This will not only confirm understanding but also build trust in your communication.
• Listen beyond the words. Pay attention to the 97% of the communication that is not words – body language and voice (tone, volume, pitch, and pace).
• Turn off the mind chatter. When talking with others, be in the moment and give them your full attention. Listen patiently and avoid thinking of the next thing you want to say. Once the person stops speaking, count to three before speaking again.
• Be sure you are speaking the same language. Even if you and the receiver of your communication speak the same native language, words mean different things to different people. Be sure to define terms that may be misunderstood – “Here’s what I mean by . . .” If you are unsure, check with the receiver about what they believe a word or expression means to them. “What does that mean to you?”
• Establish and preserve psychological safety. Create a calm, rational environment that invites openness, honesty, and vulnerability, where people feel comfortable being themselves, expressing their thoughts, and admitting their mistakes. If you don’t do this, accurate, productive communication becomes impossible.  Here’s why.
• Clarify your intentions for the conversation. Let your conversation partner know what you intend and don’t intend, what you want and don’t want from the conversation.  This helps with psychological safety.
• Inquire more, and advocate less. In most communication, we try to “tell” another person something, not necessarily hear what they think.  Use more questions.  A two-way dialog will take longer, but the time you spend gaining clarity will be cheaper than the losses you are currently experiencing.
• Use the most advantageous channels. If your message is emotional or more than maintenance, use face-to-face meetings to ensure your desired outcome. Your words are only 7% of communication. The rest is visual and auditory, body language, and voice.
• Use coaching to help improve your communication and communication within your team.

At True Course, we regularly work with people who learned to communicate through trial and error and hard knocks. They assumed they could communicate satisfactorily, but changes in society and their business leave them struggling too frequently to say the right thing at the right time to achieve their desired outcome.

Contact us today to learn about individual and team coaching and training that can increase communication effectiveness in your workplace.

*According to a survey of 251 business leaders and 1,001 knowledge workers conducted by Harris Poll commissioned by Grammarly.  Download the report here https://www.grammarly.com/business/business-communication-report