How an open communication style can elevate your workday interactions
Listen with intent, ask questions, and understand that ‘no’ is often a steppingstone to ‘yes.’ These techniques can help you bridge divides and foster cooperation.
Our workday lives and workplaces offer daily exercises in challenging conversations.
From feedback and coaching discussions to interchanges with co-workers who can say “yes” or “no” to your requests for resources, process changes, budgetary allocations or fresh ideas, there’s no end to the pivotal interactions we encounter at work.
Though there are many tools, techniques and approaches for gaining support or getting your way, a few commonsense, authentic communication tactics can improve your success and strengthen your credibility.
Here are five communication techniques that show you care:
1. Listen so hard that it makes you sweat.
Tom Peters offers in “The Excellence Dividend”:
If you’re not exhausted after a conversation, you weren’t listening hard enough.
By pushing everything out of your mind and focusing on the speaker, you can understand and build an empathy bridge with the other person. It also shows respect.
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