Aid Decision Making with Clear Communication

You well know that people don’t always say what they really mean. Very often, in fact, they’re two different things entirely. In many communication streams, both personal and professional, you have to pay close attention to learn the true meaning of the message.

You don’t want to make a decision based on false assumptions, mixed messages or misunderstandings. And when the decision making affects your work, it’s vital that you develop a keen sense of when you not only need to hear the messages being conveyed, but also read between the lines.

Are You Talking to Me?

In a world rife with the communication obstacles of political correctness (PC), many business professionals rely on words that don’t really convey their true intent. This is especially true in larger corporations, where every email and memo carries with it the risk of offending someone. And the last thing any business owner wants is a lawsuit.

Decision making based on veiled comments or misguided attempts to hold the business’s Human Resources PC line can lead to faulty conclusions and bad business deals. Others who may be offended by incorrect word choices and incomplete communications include:

• Managers
• Employees
• Vendors
• Customers

What Did You Mean by That?

A few years ago in The Business Journal, writer Terry Brock suggested that engineers and techies would do well to develop a program that allowed you to see what people are actually thinking when they speak or write — kind of like Google does when it asks, “Did you mean…?” The real message could blink on the speaker’s forehead.

However, that may only happen in a science fiction show. In real life, it’s best to learn how to read between the lines, taking into account many more aspects of a communication besides just the words. For example, look for clues in the:

• Timing. Are you getting a request from corporate the week before Christmas? Is a client asking for changes to his website the day before it’s supposed to go live? Is your best employee talking about leaving while he’s going through a bitter divorce? Taking into account the timing of the request affects your decision making on many fronts! But between the lines, it’s pretty safe to figure out the request comes fraught with haste, fear or stress.
• Body language. Communication is 85 percent tone of voice and body language and only 15 percent words. This makes person-to-person contact so vital in business whenever possible. You’ll glean much more from your communications if you can see the speaker’s fidgetiness, avoidance, excitement or anger attached to the words being spoken. Your decision making then becomes more on-the-money.
• Past interactions. If past performance is any indication of future proclivities, then you get a pretty good idea of what’s really going on. When considering various communications, remember what happened last time you got an order from that client, a direct memo from the home office or a standoffish comment from a staff member.
• Other factors. People don’t live in a bubble, but instead are complicated, multi-faceted creatures. Sometimes, truly understanding another person means you have to do a little digging. Perhaps social media can give you some clues. Discreetly asking around may give you some insight into the motivations of another.

Decision Making 2.0

Whether you need to decide which project to take on, what deadlines are reasonable, who you need to fire and who just needs a little coaching, or what kind of response is needed, you do your best decision making when you’ve collected as much information as possible. You may never get it right all the time, but you definitely increase your batting average. You may even find that decision making becomes a little less stressful when you’re armed with an amped-up skillset that lets you successfully read between the lines.

A few added tips to hone those skills include:

• Sleep on it. Before delving into vital decision making scenarios, wait a while to see if any new insights bubble up.
• Read it over. Don’t reply to emails when you have an emotional reaction. And read your reply a few times before hitting Send.
• Listen well. This is especially important during phone conversations when tone of voice conveys a lot of meaning to the words being spoken.
• Listen to your gut. If something feels “hinky” or not quite straight-up, it probably is. The situation, and your decision, requires further investigation. Trust your instincts and ask questions.
• Ask questions. The most straightforward, and very often the most useful, approach to getting at the truth is to just ask. You get nowhere fast when you rely on half-baked instructions or communications. The old adage, “garbage in — garbage out,” applies to even the best-intentioned communications that don’t really tell the whole story.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business to succeed. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters, and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.