Interpersonal Communications
Interpersonal Communication Skills - G Is For...
We are launching a series about communication that focuses on family interaction, rather than on workplace dynamics...
Of course, many tips and guidelines that help you develop family relationships can be carried over to the workplace environment. Learning to get along with the most important people in your life can help you get along with others, most of whom don’t play a major role. We have so many communication ideas and so much relationship advice that once again we are starting an alphabetical series. However, we don’t promise to handle the letters in strict alphabetical order, nor even to do all of them.
G is for gutsy. Go ahead, take a chance. You’re fairly young and you have a bit of money to invest. You can try putting part of it in a growth stock, one that may take years to realize its potential. But don’t bet the farm. I remember an engineer I knew who told me that he had an early offer at a local high-tech company that later was riding very high. He turned the offer down. Then he completed the story. Several years previously when his kids were quite young he took such an offer with another high tech company that went belly up. The way he looked at it, once was gutsy and twice would have been foolish. Obviously armed with a crystal ball he would have said no to the first offer and yes to the second. Let me know when you find such a crystal ball. I’ll be gutsy enough to use it.
Watch out for that next step, it's a big one.
And now for some of the things you want to avoid.
G is for get over. Don’t bring up past unpleasantries again and again. Nobody wants to be reminded of what they did wrong X years ago. Guess what, dredging up such incidents may jog their memories of your past errors. You say you don’t have any? Get over yourself.
Maybe it's just a gas pain.
G is for grumpy. You don’t have to be the life of the party but don’t be grumpy. What turns people off more than a sourpuss? If you can’t deal with an issue now, suggest talking about it later. We have an unwritten rule in our household, no decisions or surprise announcements just before bedtime when people tend to get grumpy. When it is discussion time come out from your corner smiling. That may fool them for a minute or two.