At work we can be accused of poor communication when something is not followed through or we don’t approach a project just like our superior expected us to. We may have unintentionally hurt someone’s feelings or even given conflicting orders to the people we oversee.
If any of these have happened, here is one simple way to avoid these pitfalls and start to improve communication skills.
Write it down
Turn that thought into words. This is a very simple concept that I touched on in Follow Through that has helped me tremendously in more phases of my life than just accomplishing goals. We have millions of thoughts per day ranging from what food to eat to what is on our to-do lists to sexual desires to why some squirrels can fly and some can’t.
We cannot always control our minds and these thoughts will happen. However, we can clarify some of these thoughts by writing them down.
It is easy to have a thought, we all do this each day. The next step in clarification is verbal communication – I’ll touch on non-verbal communication another time. It is harder to have a conversation or even talk to ourselves in the mirror than it is to have thoughts racing through our brains. We don’t need any conscious use of our brains, random thoughts will happen whether we like it to or not, but speech forces us to hone in on that particular thought. And when we can speak it, we have a much higher quality of clarity than when it’s rattling around in our brains with the other million thoughts.
Still, even more difficult than speaking our thoughts is to write them down.
When we write them down we don’t use the words ‘like’ and ‘sort of” and ‘um’ are added to give us time to clarify points, we are forced to put in a focused effort so our writing is clear. If you don’t believe me, you can check out this interview (interview has been taken down) that I did over the phone and then had transcribed (via Fiverr for $5) to see how difficult it is to read verbal communication.
When we consciously transform our thoughts into written words, we have to really focus on what we’re saying in order to make that message clear. This is the most focused form of communication we can offer to those around us. 
Enough about theory, let’s talk about how to apply this to our work (and home) lives. First off, we need to learn to recognize when clarification is needed.
Picture yourself leaving a meeting with 14 new objectives to accomplish and you’re not sure where to start. Although I hate email, this is the perfect place to clarify thoughts with one. Email the person that was running the meeting or the person giving directives with a message that states what you took away from the meeting as well as what you perceive your follow-up actions to be and ask if this is correct. If you’ve done a good job listening and writing our your objectives, you will get a simple “Yes, that’s correct. Thanks for following up,” back AND you’ll have yourself a nice, clear to-do list for your own personal use.
Way too often we forget that a hand-written note goes a million miles further than an email or a text does.
No I’m not referencing sticky notes, I’m referring to thank-you cards and apologies. The art of the hand-written note has been lost over the years so when we receive a hand-written note it stands our in our minds.
Next time someone at work (guys this goes a long way at home, too) does something very helpful for you, try using a hand-written note to say thank you. Your impact will be great than ever, and they won’t soon forget that! And the same goes for apologies, if an action was very hurtful an email isn’t the best way to express regret.
Finally, when we write our goals down we create a sense of accountability. It’s easy to dismiss our ambitions as thoughts when we have so many each day, but not when we have them written down. Not when they’re sitting on our desk, or refrigerator, or bathroom mirror.
When we define our goals, we know what path we want to be on in life and our actions will reflect that commitment. For example, when I write down that “I am going to put away $250 each month into savings for a year” it’s an easy decision for me when a buddy asks if I want to fly to watch a football game next weekend. That will cost more than $250 plus I wouldn’t be working, meaning that doesn’t align with my goal of saving $250 each month. Easy decision, I forfeit that trip. Sacrifice is not easy, but we do it so that we can enjoy much great things later on in life.
Learn to write things out and you’ll learn to improve communication skills in the office and at home. Do you have any written communication tips?
—
Leave me a comment or chat with me on Twitter, I’d love to hear from you. Have a great week!
—
