Foundation: Professionalism and Communication

Communication Essentials

Communication can be easily compromised. Here are some tips to mitigate this:

Refrain from making assumptions. They can cause havoc with the communication process. Be with the individual in front of you. Be curious and respectful. Check in with the individual and ask open questions.

Strive to be consistent and congruent with your:

• message, 
• nonverbal communication (body language), and
• paraverbal communication (how you deliver your message).

This instills trust (from a Canadian anglophone perspective)—trust builds collaborative working relationships and/or potential career opportunities. It is hard to trust a person when their body language and tone is incongruent to the content of their message,

Ramp up your radical listening (Heneghan, 2015) skills. Listen with empathy and ask open questions.

Zenger & Folkman describe six levels of listening in their article, What Great Listeners Actually Do :

Zenger & Folkman (2016, P. 4)