Communicating with impact | Corporate Alchemy - Executive and ...

Good communication is vital, for building and sustaining effective relationships and is the foundation for delivering outstanding business and organisational performance. It is created when leaders and managers commit to building strong and productive relationships and realise that we communicate with very much more than words. By taking onboard all the unseen issues that go to make up what is said, a person can ensure that their engagement with people is highly impactful.

The Top Ten things to do to improve your communications are:

1. Set your intention.?Clarify in your own mind what your intention for the communication is beforehand. What is the objective of the communication and what outcome do you want? Clarify what you want the person to understand and what you would like them to do as a result of the communication. Share your intention and the outcome that you?re looking for during the communication, and ask whether the person now understands what you were trying to convey and whether they?re agreeing to what you?d like them to? do.

2. Watch body language.?Both your own and the other person, whilst you?re communicating with them. Realise that you are communicating with your feelings, your looks, your posture. Does your posture match what you are saying? Recognise that another person?s communication, in all its varied and subtle forms, always has some significance for you and the situation at hand.? Communication is a two-way process ? watch, listen and learn. What are another?s words, behaviour and body language telling us about their thoughts and feelings? How are we affecting them?

3. Engage humanely.?By seeing people as human beings with all the greatness and the difficulties of that, we can focus on them with genuine interest and compassion. When communication breaks down we tend to move away from people. To bridge differences between you and others, fully engage with them by closing the physical, emotional and mental distance that separates you.? Try to re-establish and maintain eye contact during any communication. This will ensure engagement between you.

4. You have choice about what to feel.?People will often quote the behaviour of others as a reason for reacting emotionally and getting upset. You always have a choice in the way you respond to the people around you, no matter how they may be behaving.?Although it is often seen as normal to blame people for the way we feel, it is not helpful. Taking charge of our emotions is a choice we can make, allowing us to respond and communicate more effectively.

5. Focus on facts, not blame.?Identify the facts of the situation, not who is to blame. Blame is a sure fire way to end effective communication as this makes the other person feel judged and a failure. They will either fight back, withdraw from you, or become passively aggressive. ?Aim for no-fault communication, where everybody can feel included, listened to and acknowledged. Try not to sit in judgment. Realise that we tend to blame others to take the heat off ourselves.

6. Be open to learn.?You don?t have to be right. Be open to the possibility that you have something to learn from other people. This will make you more receptive to their communication.?Insisting on being right means we lose the opportunity for learning or change, and we risk alienating the people around us. We don?t have to give in or give up, we just need to be willing to listen and learn from the people around us.

7. Do not interrupt.?Interruptions destroy two-way communication. Be willing to hear another person fully and sincerely.?If we interrupt and try to take control of a conversation, we stop listening and lose the opportunity for learning. We interrupt because we don?t like the feelings that are coming up in us ? maybe impatience, frustration, anger and boredom. What do these say about you?? Learn to feel ?your feelings, feel the uncomfortability of them and listen anyway.

8. Trust others with what is on your mind.?To communicate successfully and form strong working relationships, you must be willing to be completely honest with people and allow them to be honest with you.?A good level of honesty may raise fears of offending people and damaging relationships or of hearing less than complimentary views about ourselves. However, if our communication is sensitive, non-judgmental and aimed at genuinely helping the situation, or another person, it will always enhance the relationship.

9. Take responsibility for your experience.?If you don?t like the way people are responding to you, avoid blame, accept responsibility and change your approach.?If someone responds to us negatively, consider that only a small proportion of our communication relies on the words we use. How was our mood, tone, body language and general attitude to the other person? If we accept responsibility for our communication, in all its varieties, we are empowered to improve it and strengthen our relationships.

10. Go for resolution and win-win outcomes.?Avoid compromise ? it leads to situations where everybody feels they have lost something and leaves important issues unaired.?Keep communicating openly, honestly and without blame until everybody feels heard and their contribution valued.? As the leader, ensure that you do hear and value everyone?s contribution. If the communication is genuine, there is a collective intelligence at play and this should point to a natural best outcome.

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Penny Sophocleous

Director

Source: http://www.corpalc.com/index.php/communicating-with-impact/

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