I recently attended a talk by a university professor on how to avoid miscommunications and misunderstandings. He went through many suggestions and examples on how to accomplish this, but one suggestion he made stood out among the rest to me: "Focus on what people say, not how they say it."
There have been times that I have been certain, based on how a message was delivered or on a poor choice of words, that someone's intent was malicious, rude, insulting or unprofessional, only to find out that it was none of those things, but just a perceived "tone of voice" or aggressive posturing. In the end I was sometimes misreading the messenger and not paying enough attention to the actual message.
We need to learn to look beyond the window dressing and get to the intent of the communication. So many things in business, especially negotiating transactions, become bogged down in mistrust or a desire to win that I think our perceptions detect things where sometimes none exist.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this? I will be happy to listen to you! :)
Comments (5)Subscribe to CommentsComment