Leadership and Sales BLOG

A supervisor of mine exchanged emails with me awhile back. We were a week away from my annual review. She said "We need to discuss your communication skills. There have been some complaints!"

Yikes! Here I am, a nationally recognized expert in the area of communications, and I have issues! I immediately emailed her back and said "Tell me more! What? Who? When? How can I correct this problem?"

She responded "I don't have specific examples, but the last time was about six months ago."

I was floored. For the previous six months, she'd kept valuable information from me. Information that I could have been using in the interim to get better at my job and better at my communication skills. Not only that, but a barrier had existed between a colleague and me for that half-year. A barrier I wasn't even aware of. 

Obstacles in communication like this crop up every day in business, and it drives everyone involved batty. The communication problem in this case centered around two principle issues. One, I was conveying a tone of arrogance when I spoke with my colleague. Two, my colleague seemed to interpret all my communication, written and oral, as coming from a place of arrogance. While I could recognize instances where I should have worded my messages more effectively, this filter meant I had to communicate with lots more gentility! I vowed to do better, and hopefully I have.

Getting people to communicate tough messages can be like pulling teeth. My supervisor could have eased the situation by bringing the problem to my attention right away. Instead, it was left until my annual review.

No organization moves forward without addressing underlying issues. I call these issues "Hallway Conversations" or "Bathroom Breaks" because they're the things we talk about in the hallway during meeting breaks. If getting past these issues is holding your organization back, call me today at 720-851-5208. Bringing those issues to the front of the room and talking about them may be the best thing your business ever does.