This post was written by Hannah Morris, Director of Assessment & Advancement at The Latimer Group.
As we near the holidays, and prepare for time away from work, let’s take a moment to think about a different application of our communication skills.
In our training, coaching, and consulting work, we teach persuasive communication in the business context. We empower people to advocate for their ideas, their teams, their organizations, and for themselves. What some people realize right away, and others may over time, is that everything we teach goes far beyond the office, the conference room, or the shop floor.
Communicating in a way that shifts our focus outside of our own perspective is not only valuable, but very healthy, in all other realms of our lives.
It helps us relate to our partners, our children, our friends, our siblings, our parents, our acquaintances, and total strangers. It helps us foster and maintain stronger relationships. It helps us navigate challenging conversations and interactions. It helps us make people feel heard and valued.
Some of our favorite workshop memories come from moments where the people we’re working with have these breakthroughs in the personal realm. We have had parents share that they used these tools in a conversation with their teenagers and have finally “gotten through”. Others have used these techniques in a conflict in their volunteer work and gotten closer to resolution. And some have used our listening approach with their spouses with surprising results.
In fact, each of the skills we teach develops best when practiced consistently in varied environments. This means that if you are looking to upgrade your communication, you should take every opportunity to practice in all realms of your life. By applying even just a little more attention and intention to a conversation, you can take more in, be more aware, make thoughtful choices, and stimulate greater connection and understanding.
So, as you prepare for time away from your desk, consider taking the mindset and toolset of great communication with you. Focusing on outcomes and audiences is portable and will serve you well wherever the holidays may find you.
Does your team:
– Take too long to make decision?
– Fail to ask for what it wants or needs from you?
– Make things too complicated?
– Deliver unconvincing or disorganized presentations?
– Have new hires who are unprepared to communicate in the workplace?
We transform teams and individuals with repeatable toolsets for persuasive communication.
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