Communicate more effectively

Get a better understanding of how you're communicating in under 10 minutes. Having trouble viewing this email? Click here As a leader, communication skills rank near the top of our list of important skills. Because of their importance, these skills are talked about and written about a lot and much training takes place every day to help improve these important skills. One of the reasons communication is difficult is that not everyone communicates in the same way, with the same tendencies or styles. This isn’t news; you already knew that. The existence of these style or tendency differences hasn’t been lost on the assessment, training, and learning communities over the past 50 years.  There are a wide number of effective and useful tools that provide assessment takers with acronyms, colors, letters, animals, or other designations to identify their personality and communication style. These assessments are popular training tools – After all, who doesn’t want to know more about themselves and why they behave and communicate in certain ways? The problem with these activities doesn’t lie with the assessments themselves. While they have different strengths and weaknesses, any of them can add real value for individuals, leaders, and organizations.  The problem lies in the focus of the application of these assessments. At best, they are employed to be all about the individual and their self-awareness.  At worst, they are used as fun time fillers and seem almost like black magic to the participants (e.g. how could that assessment peg me so well?). Where does all of this leave a leader in regards to understanding and using these assessments to become a better communicator? Let’s start from the beginning – For real communication to take place, one must send a message in a way that it can be (and is) received effectively by the other person. When we remember this basic starting point, we have the basis to understand the biggest value in communication and personality style assessments. Whatever tool/assessment you use, the greatest value comes not in understanding your own tendencies, though that is helpful.  The greatest value comes from understanding the various styles well enough that you notice them in others, so that you can communicate with them in a way that makes it easier for your message to get received. If you haven’t taken an assessment of this type (or haven’t in a long time) I recommend starting with the free version of our assessment. (There is an opportunity to upgrade to a more complete and detailed assessment and even get coaching if you choose.) If you don’t have access to training for yourself or your team to use these tools to accelerate communication success, you can start here. Whatever your first step, take one.  Take action today to learn more about how others communicate, so that you have a better chance of getting your message received.   Kevin Eikenberry Chief Potential Officer The Kevin Eikenberry Group   p.s. Get insights into how you're communicating and how to do it more effectively in under 10 minutes. Learn more here. In no more than 10 minutes, you’ll have a better understanding of why you communicate the way you do and insights into how you can communicate with others more effectively. Learn more here!     You are receiving this email to this address: alanrussell@princetoncap.com   8021 Westover Drive, Indianapolis, Indiana 46268 United States | (317) 387-1424 Update My Contact Information | Unsubscribe