Effective Communication

The most powerful communication tool at your disposal is not speaking but listening. You’ll communicate well when you listen well. The reverse plays out often, and most of us have experienced it. You meet someone at a conference. As you are reading the person’s name badge, you engage him in friendly conversation: “Hello, Fred what do you do?”  Five minutes later Fred has not stopped for a breath! You are wondering how you can escape without being rude. This person has demonstrated no interest in you at all. You feel trapped and develop a desperate need to leave him to get out of the conversation. If he had engaged with you in return – showing interest through dialogue instead of monologue – you would have a different opinion of him entirely.  In fact, if he had built rapport with you, then you would probably still be engaged in an interesting discussion. Responsible Listening A key to effective communication is listening to the other person. Of course, if you want to listen to the other person, you have to give them opportunity to speak. This why our module on Communicating for Impact recommends the following:

Your listeners’ learning styles can play a big role in how well they keep up with and understand what you have to say. People have different learning styles, which means we have different ways we learn best. In a formal class, one’s student ability will be enhanced while another student’s potential will be diminished if the teacher presents all the lessons in a single learning style. Similar things can happen when we speak to people. For example, a young man I know has a kinesthetic learning style. Essentially this means that he learns best by doing. He has great difficulty with chalk and talk teachers and finds their lessons difficult to deal with. In contrast, he is in his element when learning is “hands on.” He also needs to be convinced that what he is asked to do is relevant. In other words, he needs to understand the “why” before effective learning can take place. Why are Learning Styles Important for Responsible Speaking?

Paul, a member of the IT group, cornered his boss in a ‘conversation’ at the coffee station. Because the boss could not easily escape, Paul was taking the opportunity to overwhelm him with information. Of course Paul was not getting anywhere with his insensitive, one-sided communication style that ignored his listener’s needs. I hope that I’m not as tactless as Paul with his boss, but I confess that sometimes I have been just as ineffective when it comes to communicating with others. Christ-centered leaders are committed to enabling others to achieve their full potential. And central to this focus is responsible speaking. It is vital for us to communicate ideas, objectives, and methods effectively to others. This is important because our listeners need to be able respond appropriately in order to achieve their full potential. Most leaders are all able to talk well, but this does not guarantee that real communication is taking place.