Authentic Communication
Sanjay Goel
Soft Skills, Behavioural and Leadership trainer, Outbound/ Experiential trainer, DiSC trainer and assessor, Coach, Counsellor - NLP and Hypnosis Practitioner, L&D specialist, Learning Consultancy, Sales Consultancy
In our previous article, we discussed about principles and values, and how they impact our lives. Beliefs and values closer to principles results in satisfaction, happiness and success. Authentic communication and behaviour is one way of living closer to universal principles.
Let us understand authentic communication.
Authentic communication is?characterized by honesty, integrity, empathy, and self-awareness. It is communicating with dignity and respect for self as well as for others involved. It includes expressing your feelings but also includes actively listening and understanding others feelings. Authentic communication helps in building trust with internal team members and customers.
Authentic communication is the basis for successful relationships at home and real effectiveness at work.
Authentic communication is
·?Being true to yourself and other people, i.e. your colleagues, seniors, team members, customers at workplace and the people you are communicating with.
·?Being open and honest and not avoiding the difficult conversations, which will encourage your audience to do the same. This leads to successful outcomes.
·?Being comfortable to negotiate and say no which will result in you giving your audience an opportunity to consider alternative options that will preferably benefit everyone.
·?Being comfortable with giving and receiving honest feedback. Honest feedback will help each member of the organization to grow individually and professionally.
·?Finding your voice and having your say, while respecting others point of view and their beliefs. This ensures your audience listens to you and respects your belief.
Ground rules for authentic communication are,
??Be authentic with yourself first.
??Consider others point of view, their beliefs and their needs.
??Recognize their differences.
??Don’t make assumptions during communication. Be open minded
??Don’t fake authenticity. Be genuinely interested in others.
??Avoid closed ended questions (questions which have an answer in either yes or no). Use more open-ended questions.
??Listen actively. Focus completely on speaker. Note body language facial expressions, gestures, eye contact and tone of the speaker’s voice (For more on listening skills, please read newsletter no. 40 dated 5th May 23 on listening framework)
??Use the “sandwich method” while giving feedback. It involves highlighting positives and then sharing areas of improvement. (For more on sandwich method, please read newsletter no. 43 dated 8th May 23 on Assertive Communication).
Impact of authentic communication. Authentic communication creates a positive influence on everyone and it is long term.
Benefits of authentic communication are,
??Listeners are more prepared to listen to you, understand and accept what you are discussing, it will be easy to get your message across.
??When you are communicating changes or expressing your view point entirely different from the listeners or when giving individual feedback, it will accepted rather easily.
??Authenticity is very important when you are trying to resolve a conflict or disagreement.?Reaching a win-win agreement will be easier.
??It builds trusts, dependability and deeper relationships which really last long.
Let us look at couple of situations and how authentic communication and behaviour can create long term impact.
1. Authentic communication and customer centricity
You had committed to a client that you will share a draft of the project by 3PM.
As you are working on the draft, at 12:30PM, you realise that there are some factors which you had not noticed before. You are sure that you will not be able to complete the draft by 3PM. You need at least 3 hours more.
What will you do?
2. Authentic communication and general behaviour
You and your colleagues go for lunch in a restaurant. It is your turn to pay.
While paying at the counter, you give the cashier Rs.1000/-. ?He gives you change believing that you have given Rs.2000/-.?
He has given you Rs.1000/- extra.
What will you do?
3. Authentic communication as a team member/employee
You have made a big error in a project you are working on with a client.
You are sure, when client finds it out, he is going to really upset about it.
This will be escalated to your seniors and you fear they will reprimand you.
What will you do?
Authentic Communication (answers to the situations)
1. Situation one with customer, you will call the client as soon as you come to know that the draft would be delayed (12:30PM in this case) and not wait for the deadline to pass.
2. You immediately return the excess money to the cashier. This action will build trust not only with the cashier but also with your colleagues. This trust will be extended to other colleagues who were not present.
3. You immediately talk to your manager about it. He may get initially angry but will realize your honesty and it will build stronger relationships.
There are many more long-term benefits of authentic communication.
Every employee in any organization should learn authentic communication and its impact. This will help organizations build transparent and open culture which will lead to higher trusts level, more productivity and higher returns to the organization, and high employee satisfaction.
Thank you for reading.