“Communication breakdown, it’s always the same
Havin’ a nervous breakdown, a-drive me insane” – Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin
Business is about relationships. That is the bottom line. It really doesn’t matter if you sweep the floors or head the board, everything leads back to relationships. All relationships, whether personal or professional, require communication of some form or another. In my experience, good relationships are built on good communication.
Seems simple, right? My experience also teaches me that it is not always that easy. In fact, it can be one of the hardest parts of any relationship. Communication provides information for all sides of a relationship. We, as rational and sentient creatures, use the information that we have to make decisions, formulate opinions, and take actions. Information is not created equal but our minds will do with it what it will based on what have access to or have been provided at the time.
It’s a pretty simple equation; bad information = bad thoughts and opinions and bad thoughts/opinions = bad decisions and actions. Simple equation but hard to follow. Why? Because we do not always know that the information we have is incorrect or limited. How many times have you been given some information that was not the entire story? Did you form an opinion or even take an action based on the information that you later regretted? I think we have all done that. I bet most of us have even looked back in hindsight after receiving the “rest of the story” and realized that we would have taken a different course of action had we had all the information at the time.
The real questions is have we learned from these lapses in judgment? Have we learned to verify the information we have before making major a decision and saying or doing things we later regret? I have. Don’t get wrong, I am not saying I do this all the time but more often than not, I pause and take time to evaluate the information and situation before I react. This allows me to respond accordingly. I must admit I have only learned this by doing the wrong thing over and over.
In the last part I discussed how the prospective buyers had gone silent. That led us to think they lost interest. Further, that one of the main communicators in this deal on our side had pushed a bit too hard and closed the door. The reality was there was a miscommunication. We thought one thing and they thought another. They were waiting on something from us and we were for something from them. We were locked in a holding pattern on different pages. The good news is we cleared things up and got back on the same page and have moved closer to finalizing a deal.
Communication is the key. Without having good information, or providing good information, the human mind is left to fill in the empty spaces. In my experience, I have often filled those spaces with “worst case” type of information. That usually does not end well for any party involved. If you want to build something great in business or your personal life, focus on your relationships and strengthen them with good communication.
Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator
You have to leap if you want to live
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