The Personal Touch in Your Communication

People lack the personal touch in communications today. How many times have you heard the statement, nobody communicates around here?  With all of the new technology, research says people are communicating more but it’s less effective.

A Manager Changes

A manager I know does a good job, but recently his team gave him feedback that nobody communicates around here. It shook him to his core because he worked hard at engaging his team. While there was communication going on, something was bothering his team.

As a result, after a little investigation on my part, I found it wasn’t an earth shattering problem but it was important. The team felt that they needed a vacation calendar to see who would be on or off. Recently someone was off for two weeks, and it wrecked havoc with their customer experience. They wanted to know who was off ahead of time. Consequently, they could gear up mentally, plan together and prepare to pick up the slack because it was extra work for all.

In addition, they also felt that communication had to better in the am when people were absent so they could decide who would pick up the pace with the person’s accounts. Again, it was extra work for all. They used a scheduling software app to take care of that and for their team meetings.

You see they wanted regular team meetings, too. They were hit and miss based on how busy it was. They felt out of touch. The team wanted to know the details of what’s going on with the organization and to touch base.

Real Communication Requires the Personal Touch

Communication is at the core of our relationships at work (and the heart of employees’ experience and disengagement) but it seems so hard. It often comes down to empathy for the other person’s situation. As well as, listening to others concerns or ideas or problems.

Communication takes constant diligence, and more than a text or SnapChat message to really to do that. Imagine if that was the prime way to talk to your significant other or family. People are using technology as as crutch to hide not to engage others. Real communication is more intimate and requires a personal touch. It requires more face to face interaction.

However, as one executive told me, “What if I don’t want to be empathetic?” Duh? I think George Bernard Shaw is right, “The biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

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