In the 40th podcast, I talked about communication as a requirement for leadership. I mentioned at the eighteen minute and eighteen second mark (podzinger.com is great, isn’t it?) that listening was a topic for another day, and that day has come.
The first effort in communication is being articulate and choosing your words carefully, but the reciprocal is active listening, and this is important for both sides.
For example, you spend adequate time preparing your talk with an individual, working on getting just the right words in the right order and putting the emphasis in the right places. It is perfect in structure and delivery, yet, the person doesn’t get it. What happened?
Have you ever been distracted, tired, angry, frustrated, despondent, or busy and had someone come into your office and expect your full undivided attention.
See, there are two sides to this coin, but let’s look at the consequences.
8:05 AM … You have a very important assignment that you give to your top guy and once assigned, you know you don’t have to give it a second thought. It will be delivered on time, under budget, and with flamboyance.
8:06 AM … Your boss barges into your office and starts going on and on and on about something or other that you just don’t have time for. Your are overwhelmed and stressed to the max, and he doesn’t care. What does he want? Blah Blah Blah! Is he still talking?
You see, Jim had a fight with his wife this morning and found out his son is in trouble at school and the twins need new dresses for the Senior prom. Eighteen hundred bucks for the complete ensemble. What is he made of, money?
All kind of things can enter into the fray when considering why communication isn’t happening in the work place and if you are like most of us, they have happened to you, too.
The boss didn’t handle the situation very well, by not realizing that Jim was completely distracted and Jim has brought a lot of baggage into the office this morning. What are you supposed to do in this situation?
What do you do if you’re the boss?
What do you do if you’re Jim?
Let’s look at each of these in more detail over the next week.
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Dave J. (64 comments.) // Apr 18, 2006 at 12:37 pm
I run into this when trying to teach someone how to do something on the computer. It seems crystal clear to me, but they will admit they just don’t get it. There is some disconnect in interfacing with the technology that they can’t see the same as I do.
The emotional thing you describe here is also something that a logical person like me misses sometimes.
2 Larry Hendrick // Apr 18, 2006 at 9:32 pm
Dave,
I know just what you mean. Patience is not my strongest suit, but I continue to work on it. “It’s just click here and say OK” should be easy, but it doesn’t work that way most days.
Emotional? Emotional? yeah, me too. I think it is something that gets overlooked frequently.
Thanks for commenting,
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