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Why are so many people who are well educated and talented to ignore communication?

The reason is simple: the leaders didn’t realize that the current communication was not good, so they thought that their team had no communication problems.

The position of the leader allows them to not only see the company’s long-term vision and high-level operations, but also clearly see other aspects of the company. However, they have forgotten that this comprehensive perspective comes from their position, and others do not have this favorable perspective.

The more you see, the more you can’t see. This ironic blind spot is caused by their position.

Think about it, have you ever heard this saying: Leaders and teams are “disjointed”, don’t know “actual situation” or “infatuation”. In fact, this is a problem in many teams and organizations.

How did the problem occur?

The leader did not deliberately not understand the internal workings of the team, but was unconsciously out of touch with the team.

For such blind spots, only truly proactive leaders can be identified and avoided.

01.Understanding the true meaning of communication

Leaders are always passing messages.

Leaders are always getting attention. Every sentence you say, every interaction you make with others, every facial expression you make, will be carefully observed and repeated in your mind.

People will observe the leader’s reaction – agree or disapprove – and then adjust their behavior based on these reactions.

You need to be aware of this and be sure to pass on the information you want to pass, because in the eyes of others, you are passing information all the time.

You can emphasize specific messages by making a slight difference in your daily communication style. For example, if you are always whispering on weekdays, and one day you are angry and yelling, people will definitely remember.

Leaders with varying behaviors and erratic leaders will send inconsistent information, adding unnecessary friction and confusion. Steady and heavy leaders pass on consistent messages through each action to strengthen their team consensus, and in a few cases, the opposite is normal, emphasizing a certain point of information.

02. The message you convey will be misinterpreted soon

No matter what medium you use, almost any information you send will be misinterpreted immediately.

Because this process is disturbed by too many factors, such as your tone, the mood of the other person, the words you use, your facial expressions, body language, your past with you, and so on.

This is just communicating with one person. Think about thousands of people communicating with others every day.

When the information you express is passed through the company, various factors will cause it to become blurred until it becomes different from the intention or information you originally expressed. Just like the megaphone game that many people participate in.

Therefore, it is important to understand and accept that the process of information being diluted.

03. Avoid information being diluted

How can I prevent information from being diluted? It can only be repeated over and over again.

This is the most effective way to improve the signal to noise ratio.

People receive a lot of information every day, think about all emails, chats, ads, face-to-face chats on any business day. Too much information, people can’t concentrate, they will forget the information in their daily routine.

The only information that can be noticed is what they think is important, that is, information that cannot be ignored. The leader who repeats the message is like a speaker, suggesting that his information is worth paying attention to.

People need to be reminded. If they see a message appearing again and again, they will notice it. In other words, they are more likely to remember duplicate messages.

Repeating messages may seem over-communication, but it helps to clarify the situation and reduce misunderstandings.

04. Create some memorable words and team “stalks”

In the beginning, these phrases may seem clumsy or hypocritical, but soon you will find that they become the team’s mantra and guiding principles.

These phrases will be accepted by your team and others and become their common language. As a result, others begin to repeat, naturally further strengthening the information.

05.Use multiple media

If you are discussing something with someone in person, remember to reissue an email to him and repeat the same information in the email.

After sending the email, ask them to repeat their understanding of the information, such as asking them to restate or explain to others. If the information is inconsistent, you have the opportunity to clarify the misunderstanding.

06. Information must be clear

Misunderstandings often originate from the understanding of the recipient of the message and the idea of ​​the sender. When information is incomplete, people fill in the gaps based on their own understanding, experience, and prejudice. Because everyoneDifferent, this inconsistent understanding can easily lead to misinformation of information.

This can be avoided by using precise vocabulary and language. Therefore, the information must be clear. The general language has too much room for interpretation and misunderstanding.

For example, for a bad purchasing decision, don’t just say that it is a “poor decision,” but say “it is not wise to decide to buy this because it doesn’t fit our current budget.”

The first statement would make people think about bad reasons, while the second statement specifies the reason and avoids others continuing to make the same mistakes in the future.

07. It’s not a good thing to say good things alone

Be dare to say bad news. Sometimes, because the information you will express will disappoint others, you feel uncomfortable.

Weak leaders will avoid these issues and hope that they will not be able to. They worry that any negative thoughts and thoughts will hurt the team, so try to avoid this problem.

They often don’t directly say bad news, but try to be the pistachio of everyone, understate the negative information, and ultimately can’t be frank.

This is not true: the problem won’t disappear because you don’t solve it. On the contrary, sometimes the most positive thing you can do is to say the negative problem directly.

08. Silent non-gold

Silence itself is a kind of information, and people will automatically fill in the gaps caused by silence and relay to others, which will lead to poor communication. I believe that you have also spread unconfirmed rumors and wonder what the potential changes might be – layoffs? Or reorganization? And these rumors can damage the efficiency of the organization.

In the absence of detailed and unambiguous information, ineffective communication will inevitably occur.

Want to stop rumors and prohibit people from talking about rumors is useless, and can only face up to and solve problems that people are talking about as soon as possible.

Remember to repeat the message you want to convey repeatedly. If something goes wrong, be sure to resolve it as soon as possible before the rumors.

The longer the time drags, the more likely it is that communication will be less effective.

09.Don’t make a sandwich

People often use a method called “sandwich skills” to convey criticism from management and others.

The first step is to say positive feedback, then to convey negative feedback, and finally end with some positive feedback. The purpose of this approach is to reduce the impact of negative feedback and make negative information more acceptable.

Don’t do this.

The contradictory statement can be misunderstood because it distracts the attention of the recipient of the information, so that they cannot focus on the information they want to convey.

Many people are very surprised when they are fired, unless they have long known that they are underperforming.

The problem is with an inexperienced manager. They often use “sandwich skills” to inform employees of their poor performance, so the problem that employees think is not a big problem has become the last straw to crush the camel.

In this case, people only pay attention to positive news because they believe that negative feedback is not important in front of positive feedback.

Sandwich techniques also abuse the rules of human memory, because it is always easier for people to remember the first message received and the most recently received message. Negative feedback is placed in the middle, which makes it difficult for people to remember psychologically, because the human brain is born like this.

Therefore, it is necessary to pass detailed and unambiguous information directly and consistently, and do not make sandwiches.

10. Overcoming communication barriers

Even if you think that you have a good relationship with someone, but because of your authority, his opinions will always be reserved.

Communicating with leaders is inherently difficult, so don’t artificially make communication harder.

The following methods allow you to slow down the conflicts that people who communicate with you feel.

Set up an open policy. Tell everyone in public and private situations that you want people to approach you and offer some feedback, or go to your office to chat with you.

Recognize the shortcomings of the open policy. For a variety of reasons, such as being shy and busy, many people will not take the initiative to find you. Therefore, in addition to the open policy, we must arrange a specific time to listen to other people’s ideas and opinions. In promoting communication, you must not deal with it passively. Open policy is just the minimum thing you can do.

Remove physical obstacles. After employees are willing to walk into your office, the desk is the second biggest barrier to reducing communication efficiency. The typical office is laid out in such a way that there is a table in the center and a guest chair on the side of the door. This layout creates a real physical barrier between you and the other party, and other objects on the table—usually monitors—will further reinforce the obstacle.

So you need to break this barrier. Place your desk against the wall, and the next time you enter your office, you can sit in front of you and communicate with you. Also, remember to put the coffee cup aside.

Get out of the office. People generally regard other people’s offices as the other’s territory, and they are psychologically reluctant to cross the border of the door frame, as if they were in the tiger’s den.

In the office, the owner has obvious authority, and communication is like a layer of transparent glass, which can only be barely carried out.