Communication Articles

This really is an unprecedented time we all find ourselves in. More and more, our respective jurisdictions are ordering us all to stay home. For many people, it’s simply not possible. Our grocers, hospital staff, and others must go into work still. There is another segment of us that can still run our business from home. Still, others might need to do both. Regardless, this article contains some critical tips for your company to remain helpful to your respective customer base. After all, we need to keep our businesses running.

This topic is as old as leadership is.  From the very beginnings of people being led, this art has been studied.  People have been training, writing, and blogging about how to best communicate to those you mean to lead.  The problem with saying anything to your staff is that they will always have three meanings, regardless to how much planning, thought, and good will you put into it.  There will be what your words mean, what you mean by your words, and what each member of your team thinks you mean by it.  It’s your responsibility to either strike certain phrases and statements from your vocabulary, or learn when the right time to use those words is.

No matter how short or long you’ve been “the boss,” communication will always be your most challenging aspect of the job.  You’ll go through recurring phases of focusing on direction, feedback, motivation, correspondence, and more.  (That is, if you’re worth your salt as a leader… You’ll be bettering your leadership skills daily.)  Communications are always tricky.  If I learned nothing else from Daniel Goleman’s Working with Emotional Intelligence, it’s that we need to focus on communication and that communication will always be different for the situation, person, and medium.