Communication is important, who needs to communicate anyway?

Who needs to communicate anyway?

“You are not born with great instinct. It’s the culmination of education, trial and error, upbringing, history, knowledge, and acquire taste—and all that together creates a cauldron of information from which instinct grows” ~ Michael Eisner former CEO of Disney.

 Communication is an accumulation of experiences from our past that affect current and future communication with others.  Emotions are a big part of the process, we all have emotional situations that affect how we process what others are sharing with us.

   Cinthia Hiett MC, LPC  state’s “feeling are very real, but not always true” 

 

We like to believe communicating takes little or no effort! Some people make it look easy while others are constantly saying things that should have been filtered.

In the Contracting business we must communicate with different personality types.  We work with the sub contractor, Employees, REALTORS, Lenders and most important the Homeowner.  Building a new home or remodeling your current home, emotions tend to run high. This is our home where  families memories are being built. Here at Knipp Contracting, while we do not claim to be perfect we strive to keep an open communication and set the proper expectations.

Setting the proper expectation is key when starting a relationship, when this is not done anger and frustrations about the process as well as suspicion and lack of trust occurs.  How we say our words is just as important as what we are saying. I saw a cartoon recently that said;

Let's eat Frank. VS.  Let's eat, Frank. both use the same words, however how we say it makes a difference.  

 What are steps in setting the proper expectations? 

According to the Author Cheryl Hamilton Communication For Results there are four communication styles: Closed, Blind, Hidden and Open. Understanding these will help with your own personal communication style when communicating with other.  I recommend reading the book for other ideas and understanding of communication techniques. 

 The Closed Communicator Style tends to seek little feedback from others and disclose information.   When in a situation with a closed communicator they feel mostly disappointed with sales people they would rather be lead and feel to embarrassed to ask.  These are individuals who do not like to look like a fool. They would more than likely never use your services again and you would never know why. Closed communicators generally are nervous around people.

The Blind Communicator Style: “These are individuals who thrive in situations in which they can demonstrate their expertise and experience” who share everything, this because they know everything. Giving advice even when its not wanted. When dealing with this type communicator putting everything in writing and going over it line item at a time will offer the confidence to the seller. Be aware that the blind communicator will like and even enjoy being argumentative. These are communicators that have no problem expressing frustrations to everyone. 

 These loyal and expressive people are open and will ask questions about the short sale process.

 The Hidden Communication Style:  This style is what I would call the pleasing person. They like to hide feelings and are usually liked by everyone.

Because of there desire of social acceptance be discrete when discussing issues about them in front of others.

They want other social salespeople to help them and need feedback at all times which means they are good listeners but not so much on sharing.

Open communication Style:  They are open and share information freely. In fact they may share too much information. They will require feedback and explanation more often then most. Making calls, texting or emailing a little more frequently is desired. (Hamilton: Communicating for Results)

Communication is a two way process, with a sender and the receiver.  When discussing a situation we should not assume they know all the details. The receiver does not know what we know, our experiences and what we have knowledge about.  Listen to what they are saying and repeat back to them to ensure understanding is met. We also have the out side noise source, these could be an illness, actual noise in the back ground or a situation at home that is affecting the communicator.