Communication impacts productivity!
If you can’t be clear, complete, correct AND heard then your message will be missed, deleted or distorted! When information is missed, deleted or distorted you know that can gravely impact productivity. Even if the impact is minor, once is an opportunity for a lesson, repeated over and over is poor form and can lead to big issues, costs and/or injuries.
Be receiver focused in your communication!
Stephen R. Covey’s fifth habit of Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood helps make this point clear:
Show the you really understand where another person or organization is coming from: What are their goals? What is their point of view? When you truly see the perspective of others, you significantly increase the credibility of your own ideas and opinions.
When thinking about what this means and how this applies to your communication, consider what is going to make the receiver understand you; take the action you want; respond in a timely manner to you. Seek to understand their perspective of you, your request, your communication … or, more simply, speak to be understood!
When your message is clear and the receiver can relate your credibility increases and others will be more open to your ideas and opinions.
Don’t over think this: I had to listen to a phone message 5 times just to catch the number so I could call back! It was a tad frustrating and a waste of time, sure only minutes but when this happens regularly the frustration and the minutes add up.
What tiny tweak could you do to your communication to make it easier for others to communicate back with you?
