Business Fails When We Do Not Talk

You may remember being told as a child, "Keep quiet!" "Children should be seen, not heard," and "You talk too much." You were a "good" kid if you kept quiet. However, being quiet when you are little causes big problems later in life.

As an adult, you may have been punished for communicating. For example, if you admit you committed a crime and are sorry about it, no one cares. You still go to jail. If you honestly tell your spouse you are thinking about an affair, your marriage suffers if your spouse is not very understanding. If you tell someone you feel a little crazy, who knows what might happen. So you learn to keep your mouth shut.

However, businesses fail when managers do not talk to employees or employees do not talk to customers. Everyone mistakenly believes telepathy is working. "I thought you knew I was unhappy with your performance." "You should have known I was overworked."

Marriages are ruined by poor communication. Rather than openly discuss sex, money, body problems or whatever, couples hint about their concerns or simply say nothing. But without support and understanding from your primary teammate, you do not go as far. In fact, a bad marriage can ruin everything in your life. Both parties in a successful marriage are able to give and receive communication from their spouse on any subject.

Life is miserable if you have no one to openly communicate with. Friendships are based on communication. The lack of friends or a spouse to communicate with often leads to mental problems.

So the first communication skill you need is to get out there and talk.

Unfortunately, on some topics, you've learned to watch what you say, to keep it under your hat, to zip it up.

"So that is the basic lesson that anybody learns in this universe. They learn to keep their mouth shut, and it's the wrong lesson. When in doubt, talk. When in doubt, communicate." - L. Ron Hubbard

Whenever you have doubts about something, COMMUNICATE! Talk, talk, talk until the problem resolves. When you feel stress, disagreement or resistance between you and someone near you, the wrong thing to do is ignore the problem. Instead, start communicating.

When you know you should say something, say it! For example, an employee knows another employee is embezzling money and so says something to the employee and/or boss. A doctor knows he must talk to a about the patient's rude behavior to the office staff. An employer knows she must discuss poor performance issues with some employees.

Take the bull by the horns. Move ahead in life. Spit it out.

If you're worried about the consequences of saying something, you can ask first. Examples:

"Lisa, I want to say something about your driving to help keep you out of accidents, but I don't want to upset you. Can I tell you what I think or should I keep my mouth shut?"

"Boss, should I tell you if I think you are giving me bad advice?"

"John, our marriage means so much to me I don't want to say anything that would jeopardize it. But I have done something wrong and I'm sorry I did it. I think it would be good for our relationship if I told you. Don't you think it's best if we are 100% honest with each other?"

"Can you listen to something unfortunate I have to say and remain calm? Are you ready?"

In the long run, you are always better off by communicating. Take responsibility and talk. Staying silent solves nothing.

Copyright © 2004

Fernando Soave CEO CUTTING EDGE MLM http://www.cuttingedgemlm.tk Free Cutting Edge MLM Newsletter. Fernando Soave is the author of "Cutting Edge MLM News." He has been in marketing for 20 years and is helping individuals succeed online. Visit his site to find out how you can get free reports. http://www.cuttingedgemlm.tk or Subscribe to the Free Cutting Edge MLM Newsletter and receive your +$585 MLM Value Pack. http://www.cuttingedgemlm.tk mailto:mnet@followup101.com?subject=SUBSCRIBE

---

Managing the Human Resource Project

We obtain strategic results by aligning HR mission, vision and... Read More

Innovation Management ? Diversity Can Make All The Difference

Companies are welcoming a diverse range of employees (The Sunday... Read More

Enhancing the Motivational Climate of Your Workplace

It has been well documented that employees' productivity and job... Read More

How Invisible Communication Barriers Kill Productivity

Many kinds of interferences or disturbances can confuse a message.... Read More

Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Human Resources at Work

This article relates to the Human Resource Functions competency, commonly... Read More

Business is About Making Money

Ask most people why they are in business and they... Read More

Get Down With OCP: Evaluating DBA Job Applicants in an OCP World

Not long ago, weeding through DBA applicants with a tech... Read More

Motivating For Higher Performance

Employee motivation is probably the most important single manageable factor... Read More

Dividing The Loot

It is when the going gets better, that the going... Read More

Hows Your Company RQ (Reputation Quotient)?

In light of recent corporate scandals, from Enron and Global... Read More

Innovation Management ? Reducing Hierarchy

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Too Much Time Treating Symptoms

A man drives down the highway each day on his... Read More

Why Employees Are the Best Source of Cost-cutting Ideas

Cost cutting has become a necessary and important reality in... Read More

Experiences of Management Coaching (Part 2)

In our experience, we have found that there are several... Read More

ISO 9001 What Records Does My Business Need To Keep?

Which documents must I keep for ISO 9001?In addition to... Read More

Get More Impact From Your Annual Conference

How can you get more attention for your conference and... Read More

Learning To Let Go

If you have the entrepreneurial spirit (which clearly you have!),... Read More

Plan for Business Success - 6 Reasons to Succession Plan

Succession Planning provides many valuable assets to your business. Yet... Read More

Turnover is Not a Problem

"Ha!" you say. "For someone to make a statement like... Read More

Knowledge Management - Capturing And Structuring Knowledge Into Reusable Assets

Many organizations have an approach for identifying and recording lessons... Read More

Listening Strategically

Usually, we're most interested in communicating outwardly; getting our messages... Read More

Effective Meetings Begin With a Real Agenda

Everyone knows that an agenda is the key to an... Read More

Where Businesses Fall Short

1. No vision. Successful businesses have a clear vision or... Read More

Resolving Needs - What Your Employees Wish For!

For your people, they want to do a great job... Read More

Classifying Motivational Needs

While there exist several useful definitions of motivation, for our... Read More

Bye-Bye Boring Meetings! Make Yours Remarkable!

It's the middle of the night. You've woken up with... Read More

Quick Tips On Bringing Out The Best In People

Want to bring out the best in people?Edward W. Smith,... Read More

Telephone Techniques: Boost Your Productivity With Effective Phoning

One of the things that most impacts people's productivity is... Read More

Hire The Person, Not The Resume

"? [get] the right people on the bus, the right... Read More

Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Creating a Culture of Empowerment

This article relates to the Culture & Climate competency, commonly... Read More

Think it Over

You can't solve a problem with the... Read More

Project Management - Preventing Project Slips

Can Project Managers prevent projects from slipping?Ask a techie to... Read More

Magnificent Meetings - 5 Tips for Success

Your impact at meetings will determine in a big way... Read More