Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Communication - Or rather the lack of it!!

One of my responsibilities as a HR Professional is also to counsel people on occasions.. This also gives me an opportunity to look at situations from multiple perspectives.
However, one thing which clearly stands out in most of these situation where there have been problems is the communication - or rather the lack of it!! This is not restricted to issues at the work place but also in our personal lives.
What is it that causes us to not communicate clearly what we want to convey??? One of the primary reasons most often is the lack of ability/skill required to convey. Lack of trust keeps us from conveying information too. A sense of insecurity drives us. Remember this situation wherein a newly hired manager walked up saying he is unable to manage his subordinates. This, coming from a seasoned professional who was in a similar role elsewhere was a shocker. A few adhoc coffee meets with the subordinates and out came the reason. Having worked with their previous manager for a long time and used to their ways, they were unsure about the new manager who had not been promoted internally unlike in the past. He was an external entrant and hence the challenge. That was an easy fix by getting the manager and group in a room and facilitating a conversation.

However, when we think about our personal lives, what is it that actually keeps us from communicating?  A question by my brother a while back if I was actually being open in discussing things with him started this chain of thoughts. We often hear, if we love our near ones, its really easy to be honest and talk to them. Is it actually the case? So often, the insecurity of hurting our loved ones is what keeps us from being open and honest! Would it hurt them more if we are open and communicate clearly? or would it hurt them more if we are not open and they only get to know the actual scenario much later?? The fact remains is that what we have to say, needs to be communicated at some point of time or the other. I realised, for once, I had struggled in the past in holding crucial conversations with people who are really important to me. But with that one question my brother posed, did I learn anything? The answer is YES. It is extremely important for us to communicate clearly what we have to communicate. It is not necessary that everybody else subscribes to your thoughts or looks at it from the same perspective  as you. It only ensures you have been open and clear in communicating and if opinions differ, so be it.

It is always easier to live by agreeing to disagree on something rather than being unaware whether we agree or disagree. Whatever happens, I would only advice "COMMUNICATE CLEARLY"

regards,
Kiran

1 comment:

  1. Dear kiran, for professional purpose I would like to get in touch with you, can you get in touch ? Thanks

    ReplyDelete