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We all need to work on our communications skills

“I talk, you talk. This is communication?” was the title of a seminar presented to my staff by Dr. Candice Coleman during the 1st Annual Brownfield Network Programming Retreat. Candy owns Say It Well! Inc. Presentations, coaching and learning tools, especially for those in the broadcast journalism business, are her specialties. She also gave a presentation designed to help us all improve delivery, but that is not the point of this column.

I brought all of my staff together at company headquarters for a 48-hour intensive re-tooling and bonding session. There are 8 farm broadcasters on my staff, 1 awesome assistant, 1 Affiliate Relations Director, and me. Diversity is the word I would use to describe this group when you put us all together in one room. Although most of us come from production agriculture backgrounds, that is where our similarities end. One of the highlights of the week-end came when Candy shared with us the results of behavioral assessments that we had taken on-line, in advance of the seminar. The purpose: to help us understand one another’s behavioral patterns, so that we may better communicate with one another.

Apparently, I am high in both dominance and influence dimensions, which means I like to take action to achieve the results I desire, while at the same time, I seek contact with all types of people and look for opportunities to generate enthusiasm from those around them. I’m okay with that. Words used to describe my behavioral pattern (not my personality pattern) are decisive, self-assured, generous, trusting, stable, outgoing, independent. . .and the not-so flattering words like critical, discontented, rigid, and opinionated.
The gist of it all – there are potential strengths and weaknesses in every behavioral pattern. For example, being decisive sounds like a good quality for a leader to possess. However, the decisive person has to be careful not to run roughshod over the feelings of others or become stubborn when they don’t agree with MY way of doing things.

The results of the behavioral assessments were no surprise to me. I hired these people, and I’ve observed their behavior patterns for some time. I did get a large charge out of watching the expressions on my staff members’ faces as they read through the detailed description of their behavior. They were all nodding in agreement and smiling to themselves as they recognized their behavior in the written word.

Now I’ll get around to the gist of my column today. Most people do a poor job of communicating with one another. At Brownfield, we are in the communications business, yet I find myself shooting an email from my office to the person whose desk sits not 2 feet outside of my office. We’re all busy and in a hurry to rush off to the next project (at least those of us who fit my particular behavioral pattern are that way.) Sometimes I grumble that one of my broadcasters takes too much time to finish a story, or that another needs to have everything defined for him and does not take the initiative to “just do it.” Instead of grumbling, if I really believe they have what it takes to be on this team, then I need to learn to understand their behaviors and their motivation. Then I need to adjust the environment to help them be happier and more productive.

I’m not very good with “needy” people at work. If someone has something on their mind, they need to tell me because I am not going to try to figure it out. I do not like conflict, but I’m not afraid of it. I do not reward average. I expect people to seek out information to help them re-tool. I am interested in the personal lives of all of my staff members and I do honestly consider them friends. However, I don’t like to sit and chat about what happened on the way to work this morning when I am in the middle of a project. My office door is almost always open, but if I look busy and you just want to chat, I would prefer you come back when I am not typing frantically at my computer while wearing headphones and editing an audio file (an interview) on the computer.

We all need to work on our communications skills, whether at work, as I’ve been promoting, or in our personal lives. There are times when, at the end of a long day or when a big project has been completed, I am incapable of completing a thought, let alone a sentence in conversation. There are times when I put the peanut butter in the freezer, and the laundry soap in the refrigerator. My poor husband just shakes his head (my husband, who would more than likely profile as analytical and high in dominance) and says “And you are in the communications business?”

I hope to see you at the Illinois State Fair this week. I promise not to assess your behavior while there if you promise not to assess mine.