The Challenges Of Communication

Strong Leadership and Good Decisions require high levels of communication.

I often think about how wrong we all get it as a society.

We often think that to speak is to communicate.

That is a dimension, sure, but it can still fail to truly lead to communication.

Failures In Traditional Spoken Communication

I think about the number of people I've met who have been able to speak, yet never really "communicated" with me or others around them.

Leaders who spoke their minds, but failed to see how awful and painful their words were (even if completely unintentional).

Leaders who failed to see when others wanted to speak, or say more, or dive into deeper topics, but didn't allow for the communication to continue or pushed their own agenda.

So often, so many Leaders fail to Lead well because they fail to communicate with their teams and customers.

It isn't that people don't "want" to communicate, they just find themselves in situations where they are not allowed or are ignored.

On top of this, speaking isn't the only way to communicate.

Failures In Traditional Written Communication

I find that often, writing can also be a beneficial way to communicate, I use it daily to teach Leadership lessons.

Writing doesn't require speaking, but it does allow for communication.

However, writing is not perfect.

I was having an online discussion about how often "written" communication leads to misunderstandings.

I talked about how the three words, "I like it" can mean (at least) three different things depending on context and how it would be said verbally.

If it is said with excitement, it could mean you truly do like it!

If it is said in a monotone voice, it could mean you are indifferent, but don't want to be negative.

If you say "like" with sarcasm, you could imply that you actually don't like it.

This often makes written communication difficult.

But it gets harder when traditional methods of communication are impossible.

Failures In Non-Traditional Communication

For someone who is blind, they may not be able to use written communication and instead may need brail for communication.

For someone who is deaf, they may not be able to use communication based on hearing and instead need mouth reading or sign language to communicate.

But what if we go further than that?

My brother-in-law has non-verbal autism.

How are we to understand and communicate in those situations where written and verbal communication seem impossible?

My father-in-law recommended a book called, Ido in Autismland.

It is written by a boy who had to use a letter board to communicate (though over time he upgraded to an iPad).

This means that he had to physically point to each letter to create a word, to create a sentence (while his body was actively working against what he wanted to do), that someone else had to write down for him, in order to communicate his thoughts.

The boy is brilliant, and he sheds so much light on the inner world of someone who has challenges with traditional communication styles.

It is heartbreaking to hear how he could understand so much going on around him, but because people failed to find ways to communicate with him, for so long he felt isolated.

All because people failed to truly seek to communicate with him.

My Final Thought

This is what I find so difficult.

Most of us do not have anything impeding our ability to communicate, yet we fail to have any true communication.

What excuse is there for that?

There isn't any.

The only answer is that you don't truly care.

It's a harsh truth, but I think even some good-hearted people need to hear it sometimes.

The best Leaders in the world ACTUALLY care about their teams and customers.

That's part of what makes them Legendary.

If you don't truly communicate with your teams and customers, you aren't showing true Leadership.

You may be good-hearted, but you are failing to show it until the people you are communicating with acknowledge that they have been communicated with.

We, as a society, need to change this.