Communication Skills Create Clarity

communication  While exercising at the club the t.v. show The Kardashian’s was on. The episode was about the mother getting photos taken of her while she was in a pool not wearing much. She was teaching her daughters, by example, how to be self-confident and open-minded no matter your age or figure.

When her family arrived during the shoot they were shocked, disgusted, embarrassed, and confused as to why the lack of clothing. This was not the reaction she thought she would receive, as this was a bold and confident shining moment for her. She left the shoot with hurt feelings from their reaction.

“I thought you would be proud of me” she cried to one of them. Her daughter explained why their reactions to what they had just seen.The mother explained her purpose of the photo shoot was to non-verbally teach a lesson of confidence and beauty, yet it was perceived as reckless. The daughters didn’t mean to non-verbally chastise their mother with their shocking expressions, yet it was perceived as so. This is a great example of the importance of verbal and non-verbal communication.

It is said that 93% of communication is non-verbal, which means that there can be a lot of misunderstandings by how we respond to a situation. We can unknowingly send the wrong message, as well as receive it incorrectly.

Here are three items we need in order to be understood:

1) Speak up- Learn to express thoughts and feelings accurately.

2) Listen- Patiently hear the other point of view.

3) Cooperate- Be willing to work with one another in understanding and empathizing.

Non-verbal communication can create misunderstandings that then need to be sorted out verbally. If we can practice clarifying our non verbal meanings as well as our verbal we will have a better chance of our message being received the way it was intended.

Leave a reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s