My granddaughter told me recently: “I hate math.” I asked; “Why?”
She said her math teacher told her class how to do long-division, but she didn’t get it. Last year she was a top student in math, but suddenly she felt stupid and said:
“Math is boring”.
Fortunately my wife and daughter were able to pick up the issue while doing homework with her and were able to solve the problem. It never struck her that he was not a good teacher. He was supposed to be good.
Because of how poorly he communicated, she thought she was slow and stupid.
How many of us in the workplace have a poor self-image because of the inadequate communication skills of someone who was supposed to clearly teach us something, but did not get the message across effectively.
How many of us write poorly, can’t spell, can’t draw or paint, can’t do math which affects our handling of money and other finances; most importantly cannot express our ideas clearly as a result of ineffective messages from managers or supervisors.
Just talking, advising, lecturing, presenting without genuinely connecting with everyone in our team or group often does more harm than good.
“Any words, ideas or systems, not immediately clear to our listeners, become a barrier to their understanding of what we are saying. They may suddenly disappear into themselves trying to grasp the meaning and grapple with what we are saying, miss the thread of the next few sentences and are then, all-at-sea, struggling to keep up with the content and context of our message. We diminish them because they do not understand what we meant, but the reality is that we are at fault by just talking and not tuning in sensitively to ensure our colleagues get our message the way we meant it.”
“How many times do Bosses, Managers or Supervisors use language, they know, understand and use normally, but their employees do not get it, thinking it’s their own fault that they do not grasp the message.”
“The purpose of Effective Communication is not only to be understood, but to ensure we take extra steps to ensure we are never misunderstood.”
(If this grabs your interest, go to http://www.QLCat.com and download Biz Catalyst, Terry’s book:
“The Greatest Book on Coaching for Small Business”)
You will find many direct and stimulating insights like these in this action-oriented book.
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