Communication & Interpersonal Skills

My Thought Partner

We are talking about communication and how to set yourself up with success and set the right expectations. This is one of the simplest things to adjust and yet, has a very large impact.

Understand Yourself

• Can be frustrating to work with others who don’t have strong communication skills
• Have to set the bar, create communication plans, let others know the expectations
• This episode may be for you if you are either a strong communicator and irritated with others, or if you’re not so great with communication and interpersonal skills and want to up your game

Foundation of Building Relationships

• Trust - can do this through transparency
• Adapting to the needs of the person you’re working with
• Remembering little things about the other person, what they’ve said, who’s in their family, etc. This is a little thing but it goes such a long way in building a relationship with a colleague.

Communication Skills and Tools

• Organization can ease a lot of tension and anxiety. Send out an agenda ahead of time, and wrap up each meeting with decisions made, next steps, and who’s responsible
• Matching the person you’re speaking with. Nicole excitable; MDD confidence not dominance. We can be a lot–it’s important to match the other person’s energy, posture, etc.
• Be naturally curious. Ask lots of questions to uncover needs, how you can align, etc. Start with a list of questions or a questioning pallett, but feel free to go off script to build deeper connections and uncover more.
• Set the tone and expectations for how you communicate, and check in with others. We talked about adaptability in building relationships–this is how you put it all together with communication, too. Inviting feedback and input from others–”how is this working for you?”