How do you communicate? What is your communication style and who are you attracting as a result? For me, I communicate directly, or as I normally say, “I’m clear and direct.”
The clients and people that I have worked with and currently work with understanding that. They appreciate my style, they want information shared with them in this manner, and they don’t want fluff or indirect feedback. Is that how you communicate? What is your style?
Have you asked your team recently how they perceive your style of communication? Does it match your intentions?
All of these questions are important for you to answer. By knowing your communication style, you will know the type of people you will be successful working with/leading. If you speak directly, but you work with individuals who like to be given information indirectly, or want time to digest the information vs. immediately act, or need to be made to feel good no matter your message, you may have a hard time communicating in a way that makes them feel supported.
Now, I can tell you that while I have always been a direct communicator, I had to learn how to make people feel a bit more comfortable with my directness. I had to work on making individuals feel comfortable because after college when I would meet friends of friends, the feedback I always received was that people didn’t like me. They didn’t like me because I was confident, strong, and I didn’t need their approval. I carried that confidence into the conversations, and they were intimidated by that. That isn’t something I need to apologize for, I know myself, I know what I bring to the table, I’m proud of who I am, and so I am confident in a way that some people are bothered by that. That’s just a fact.
However, I had to learn how to make people understand out of the gate that my confidence and directness were a part of me that shouldn’t be perceived as targeting to make them feel “less than.” I had to learn how to warm people up to my communication style and my confidence. Note, I didn’t apologize for it. I simply met them with a style they were comfortable with.
If you are direct, you get that the other person will be “turned off” by your style. It happens both in and out of the business world. But here’s the thing, if you are direct and like direct, you will be “turned off” by indirect communicators. It goes both ways.
So today, answer the question: how you communicate? Who you are attracting to work with you as a result? And remember, be prepared to communicate differently if you have people on your team that prefer a different communication style. Use this knowledge to move you forward in your leadership.
Be Legendary!