Mindful Communication: The Key To Becoming An Effective Project Leader
05. Jan, 2010 
17 Comments
This is what I am trying to explain for 3 years:
“Simply put, effective communication is the extent to which a message is interpreted by its recipient with the intended meaning from the sender. Communication is more effective when both the sender and receiver use the same frames of reference. However in intercultural communication this is often untrue and interactions with strangers can in turn prove more difficult.
When people communicate mindlessly, they tend to utilize broad categories and stereotypes to predict behavior. As mindfulness increases, the categories become more specific and typically more accurate predictors. Since being mindful makes us open to more information we are more likely to correctly identify the receiver’s frame of interpretation.”
Isn’t it great when something has a label? When there is actually a word for it?
Mindful Communication!
Wow. I know!
By being aware of your own communication, by being aware of the responses from your conversation partner, by being educated in other world views then your own, your communication will become awesome!
And how can you start?
Kimberly Wiefling wrote a fabulous blog post yesterday. She explains how she is trying to become more aware of her own communication.
“.. understanding the importance of good communication skills and positive relationships to project success, I’ve decided to recommit myself to improving my relationships through improved communication skills.”
That is some great advice!
Image by emilio labrador.
Bas,
I thank you for linking us to the post of Kimberly Wiefling. Indeed, it shows how important it is to uncover our communication styles.
Truly, it amazes me when we say how important communication is; yet when a sound article like yours is published it draws few or no comments. We claim the importance of communication is high, but look at the low performance we give to it.
Is it the mistakee of bloggers who most of the time ignore any reponse to the readers? Is it laziness by the readers to put pen on paper? Or is it something else?
Communicating with awareness is great even for life in general! would be good to have such project leaders.
Good comments. Not enough is written about the soft skills required to execute good project management. See also my posts at http://quantmleap.com/blog/?p=648 (titled “Importance of Project Communication”) and http://quantmleap.com/blog/?p=126 (titled ‘It’s about communication – stupid).
Cheers, Shim.
Hi Ali, great and difficult question. That will take another blog post. I think, mainly because it’s a difficult topic to talk about, to explain what people exactly have to do. It’s easier to describe how to create a chart.
The people who need the conversation about communication are the people less likely to have a blog or being active commenters I guess.
Anyway, I am going to spend a couple of months trying to explore the topic of “executing improvements in communication”, so the do-part. I postponed that topic for soooooo long
@Shim: thanks for the comment and the links. Great reads.
@Priyanka: so true!
Thank you, Bas for your reasoning. I look forward to your post due in 2 months
Shim, I read your two postings. Honestly, they have up-to-date information that is very well explained. I thank you for the links, which I encourage every one to read
Having a solid understanding of your communication style is very important. Equally important is being able to identify the communication style of others, so that you can tailor the content of your message to appeal to their style / preference increases the probability your listener will receive the message
Thanks very much for the article.
The fact that good communications depends on a shared frame of reference can explain why often times communicating with vendors (external people) is so much more difficult than communicating with associates (internal people). Take care to communicate mindfully with vendors.
Hi Michael and Mike, thanks for your great additions. Appreciated!
Projects are for people and by people.
Project management is all about communication.
Gilad
Ain’t that the truth, Gilad.
Projects Are About Humans. Deal With That!
Thanks for dropping by.
By the same token, ain’t blogs for people and for people? If that so, effective communication is needed to bring this fact into reality
Thanks for the mention in your blog, Bas! I’m now into my second week of working on improving my communication, and have stumbled upon an extremely valuable tool – SILENCE! I find it works wonders and allows me to listen. This surely must be the most important mindful communication tool! What do you think? – Kimberly in Kobe
Hi Kimberly, you’re welcome. Silence is essential for a relaxed head and listening is needed for input… so yeah… makes sense