Communication Needs Care

Communication Requires Care

Communicating has never been faster or easier. We have cell phones, pagers, voice mail, e-mail, faxes, videoconferencing, and Internet chat rooms.

With all this technology, we can now communicate with almost anyone anywhere at any time.

But are we communicating any better? In our workplaces, groups are frequently hampered by conflicts resulting from poor communication. Misunderstandings occur. Misinformation spreads. Issues arise. Problems grow.

Everywhere we go, we find so many problems that we would have to agree with that famous line from the classic movie Cool Hand Luke, "What we've got here is [a] failure to communicate."

And many of our failures are because of how we communicate. It has never been more important to succeed at communicating than it is now.

Solutions to many unnecessary and serious problems lie in improving our ability to interact with others--in communicating more effectively. To manage well, you must communicate well. It's as simple as that. Managing is all about working with people, about helping them fulfill their responsibilities, about helping them collaborate or at least coexist successfully.

The objective of communication is quite simply to create, maintain, and/or develop a connection between and among people.

The objective of this book is to help you do that better.

And it's not just about you. Because you manage people, you have the opportunity to apply management by modeling. Like it or not, you're a behavioral model. The people you manage expect more from you because you're a manager. Among other things, they expect you to communicate well. If you do, you can inspire them to communicate better. If you do not, you will influence them in other ways, with negative consequences.

Read with an open mind and an open heart, and put what you learn into practice. You will be communicating more effectively.

"When you're in a position of leadership--be it first-line supervisor or chief executive--you're a behavioral model. Employees look up to you and take cues from you."