When you think about it, a lot of the stress that we face at work involves difficult communication in some form or another.
We aren’t so worried about how we do things because we all try to be the best we can be in our work. We tend to worry more about how we communicate what we are doing, and what others might think of us if we communicate it poorly.
Whether it is communicating with challenging customers, handling difficult colleagues, running meetings, or presenting to a large audience, these things all involve communicating.
To have good communication skills you not only need reasonable grammatical knowledge and confidence, but you you also need to control your emotions during these conversations.
To control your emotions you need to control your thoughts. That is what I learned to do effectively and efficiently as a crisis negotiator. To control my thoughts, which controlled my emotions, so that I could quickly and successfully engage with a person in crisis.
Here are a few quick communication tips that may work for you:
👉 Don't say the first thing that comes into your head when emotional because it will always be wrong.
👉 Take a long, slow, deep, quiet breath to control your adrenaline before meetings and during difficult encounters. Breathing out slowly will also reduce your heart rate.
👉 Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Slow things down so that you remain calm and in control.
👉 Address difficult messages early in conversations. Avoid using the 'praise sandwich' approach, as it can lead to confusion and dilute the impact of important feedback.
👉 Refrain from sending emails when you are emotional. Walk away, grab a glass of water or go for a walk and come back to it when you are feeling calm.
👉 Be quick to apologise if you made an error of judgment in something that you have said or sent.
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Quick Communication Tips