Communicate, smunicate?
15 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment
in Life's lessons, Uncategorized Tags: idiots, learning, relationships
There are several different styles of communication, and not in just the textbook way. It’s become apparent that the way I communicate isn’t necessarily the way you do. Now, its been years since I’ve taken a communication class (at least 5 since I sought admission to the Rutgers School of Communication & Library Studies) and I may be out of touch, but lessons on communication are in every training I’ve received for work and in classes I’m interested in for graduate school. The MOST important part of effectively communicating is active/effective listening.
In a mandatory training for my job last week we discussed the importance of actually answering the question that is asked because even though we may think we can predict the question that’s not always the best case scenario. And we discussed the importance of emotions in emails. What say you? That’s right, emails don’t have emotions: the people reading the emails have emotions. Which is why it may not be best to throw in what you may think of as a joke in a serious conversation.
Point of this? Lately I’ve dealt with some personal issues that have stemmed from communication. Personally, I talk about what’s going on in my world, it actually helps me sort through my emotions and actions. Most of the time I’m not seeking advice or an answer.. When I want that, I ask for it. The other person in the scenario wasn’t a talker. In fact issues they were dealing with outside of me led to conflict between us. I think if they had of given me a clue as to what was going on in their world we’d have avoided conflict. My grandmother and I both communicate differently, she communicates in anger and I’m more rational. She likes to write you letters telling how she feels (I have found some of these letters stuffed in books) and with her, well I just let her be until she calms down. We communicate differently with different people, do you think this is true? I do. Think about it, you communicate differently with your friends than you do with family and its completely different with a potential lover/boyfriend.
I guess the point is that communication is vital, and I’ve learned from my last experience that its important to make your communication style known early on.
