We as human beings
are in need to communicate one to another, this for us, is a way to achieve our
goals in the work-space.
Effective communication,
is a very dynamic and ruled by a lot of complicated rules and actions.
Certain ways might
work for some individuals, but not for others.
The following skills
are just three of some of the basic skills that in my opinion are required in
order to be able to efficiently communicate in the work-space.
Listen.
This is probably the most complicated and hardest of the skills
to learn and be proficient at.
Listening is not the same as hearing; learn to listen not
only to the words being spoken but how they are being spoken and the non-verbal
messages sent with them.
We have to consider the fact that most of our communication
is not verbal, so besides the information being transmitted to us via voice, we
also need to look at the body language, there is a lot of information being
pass to us via mannerisms, tone, and posture.
All this means that in order to correctly receive the
message that someone is trying to convey to us is necessary to pay careful and
constant attention to this individual, don’t wander off, on your thoughts. Don’t
think about how you are going to answer until you have received the whole
context of the message from the person that is communicating to you.
It is consider very rude not to listen and or not pay
attention to anyone that is trying to communicate a message to you.
When you listen people, they will start to also listening to
you, this is very important, to have the trust of your coworkers, and this will
allow you to become more successful in the workspace.
Treat People equally and fairly.
By having favorites and or giving special treatment or
favors to some individuals in the workspace, you will create a hostile working
environment, which is an environment where individuals do not feel safe about
expressing ideas and opinions.
If you are the supervisor, and you have a “favorite or
favorites” in the office it will become very hard and complicated to discipline
such individual in case of any problems.
People will lose respect for you as a supervisor and as
person.
One of the worst thing that you can do in the work-space is
having favorites, always treat everyone the same, when you treat people as your
equal and also equal to each other everything is better, you develop trust and
respect between coworkers.
Never antagonize coworkers, after all one day, you might
need help with something, and this person might be the key to solve a problem.
Always treat people the way that you want to be treated.
Always maintain a positive attitude
A positive attitude is contagious, the same can be said
about a negative attitude.
For this reason, is imperative that when you get to work,
try always to have and maintain a positive attitude.
People tend to react differently based on the attitude of
the person they are communicating to.
If you are known as the office ogre, always in bad mod or
always arguing with the rest of the work center, after a while no one will speak
to you, either because they don’t have time to listen to your rants, or they
just do not want to get involved in an argument with you.
If you have any issues at home, before you get the office,
if you are not able to solve such issues, leave them at home, bringing such
issues with you to the work space will only complicate matters more, after all
if everyone bring their issues to the workspace, they will have very little
time to accomplish any task in the work-space.
Always try to be polite to others, you will have a lot more success
in your daily dealings with your coworkers.
By always having a positive attitude everyone in the
work-space will look at you as if you are in control of the situation, this
will create a sense of trust around you, and when there is a difficult
situation, they will approach you more easily, at the same time you will get to
know your co-coworkers, more deeply, creating this way harmony and cohesion in
the workspace.
