Over Communicate… To A Point!
Thursday, April 30th, 2009Everyone would agree that the ability to communicate is one of the best ways to have a successful, harmonious, peaceful, fulfilled life.
Did you ever think about… why is the divorce rate so high in our country? Why is there no confidence in our economy? Why don’t people trust their employers or each other?
The answer is that people can’t seem to figure out how to communicate. The simple answer is to put yourself in the shoes of whomever you are attempting to communicate with and ask yourself, “What would I want to know in order to be able to (understand, feel, believe, etc…) what I’m trying to communicate?” For example… in my selling career, I have been able to be a top producer at my company because I’m constantly putting myself in my customers shoes and thinking from their point of view.
What I mean is that when I identify a customer that is interested in making a purchase, I take the time to ask the questions necessary to best understand what the customer’s situation is, what they need, why they need it, and when. Once I have this information, only then can a solution be presented that strikes the chords in my customer’s decision making process to say “yes” to my solutions. This approach also works perfectly in relationships with loved ones.
Now the “to a point” part… if you have spent days, months, years, and repeated attempts to communicate a message to another person whom you care about and the other party isn’t responding, then they just might not get it, or don’t want to get it. What I mean is that with some people, they either don’t have the ability or desire to understand what you are trying to share. So in those cases, it’s best to either move on or limit your contact with that person or party.
Do the best that you possibly can to understand others, to put yourself in another person’s shoes, then and only then, share your thoughts, ideas, and plans! If you do this, then when your head hits the pillow each night, you can rest easy knowing that you did all you could to communicate.
