​Boost your communication success with these key strategies

​Boost your communication success with these key strategies

Have you ever had an employee complete a project with totally different results than what you expected, even though you thought you communicated what was needed? We've all had that moment and wonder, “Is it them? Or is it me?”

It’s probably both.

We all learn to communicate differently, and even though we may speak the same language, we may not be speaking — or hearing — the same things. Many of us have been raised in Western culture, where the burden of understanding is on the speaker. If we see a quizzical look on the face of someone we’re speaking to, we usually have no problem saying, “Do you understand what I just said?”

That’s not true in other cultures, where the listener has to figure out what the speaker is saying based on body language, status of the speaker, and the context of what’s being said. Whew! See how complicated this all gets?

SEE ALSO: Dealing with difficult people? Remember, it's not them — it's you

The way to assure understanding as both speaker and listener is to use what’s called "reflective listening." It’s not a difficult thing to learn and it doesn’t take long. But it does take practice. Here’s how you do it:

1. As the speaker, ask questions

Pause now and again when speaking and ask the listener, “Can you tell me, in your own words, what you understand from what I just said?” Or you could try, “Just to make sure we’re both clear about this, how are you going to do X?” The more complicated or detailed the conversation or instructions are, the more often you should stop and ask the listener to tell you what he/she understood.

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