You’re a seasoned professional, and you know that communication is fundamental to the way you work. You may have even taken skills development courses to help you learn techniques for improving your communication style.
Have you considered, though, that your communication – at work, home or anyplace else – is actually an expression of your greatest self and highest inner truth? Your communication can never be separated from the totality of who you are – an emotional, physical, intellectual and spiritual being. Even hard-edged business negotiations are an expression of your rich and nuanced humanity. Can you imagine, then, that your communication might help you experience deep internal shifts and can actually change how work works? That becomes possible when you treat communication as an act of Love. You might think it’s strange to bring up the topic of Love in a series about business issues. You might feel uncomfortable or vulnerable talking about Love in a work context. But Love is present in every aspect of life and is perhaps most apparent in our relationships – in all of our relationships – even the ones we have at work. Without nutrients and tending, plant roots get sick, and that can cause the entire plant to wilt or even die. In the same way, communication that is an act of Love supports healthy relating and flourishing relationships. And, since all business is built on human connections, thriving relationships mean better outcomes in any team, company or organization. But communicating this way needs attention and care. It needs your focus, time and attention. Every day the news offers up stories of division, hostility and fear around our world. There is an urgent need for more of us to realize the true and inherent power of communication as an act of Love. Through your communication you can expand (or diminish) the experience of Love in any environment. At work, at home – or on an even more expansive scale. When you start to embrace communication as an act of Love, you bring more integrity, power and cooperation to every aspect of your life. You get real about your humanity – about being a person who has feelings and seeks ways to relate to other people who also have feelings. When you embrace communication as an act of Love, you launch yourself into a fuller and more authentic expression of yourself. When you develop your own communication from this perspective, you shift the bedrock of how things work. You start to see how tuning, improving and practicing Authentic Communication can make everything about work work better. You see Love as your biggest competitive advantage and the most efficient way to address every business challenge. You create a more transparent work environment with productive, creative, thriving collaboration. You express your highest and best self at every meeting. You get things done with alacrity and joy. You name, claim and attune to what’s needed to obtain greater visibility and influence. You become the true boss of your future. You master Authentic Communication. #AuthenticCommunication #LovingWork #CommunicationIsAnActOfLove
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You might think that “communicating” and “relating” are basically the same thing. It’s good to get a sense for the finer distinctions between these two business-critical concepts. They can help set you on a path to solving productivity, management and operational issues – whatever’s getting in the way of you and your team delivering your very best work and thriving while you do it.
First, though, let’s revisit the idea that communication is radically relational. The word “radical” comes from the Latin word for “root.” When we say that “communication is radically relational,” we’re affirming that communication is at the root of all of our human interactions. Communicating is fundamental, essential and vital for our capacity to relate to one another. The concept of “relating” is a big-picture way of thinking about how human beings connect with each other. There are myriad influences and nuances in every single relationship, and their special combination makes each relationship unique. But every relationship requires communication, and, ideally, good communication, for that relationship to come into being and continue to grow. It is a primary means for nourishing all our connections. Simply said, communication is at the root of human relationship. Like the roots of a plant, Authentic Communication nourishes, sustains and uplifts our relationships. Because we communicate with absolutely every person with whom we interact, and all of us communicate all the time, when we acknowledge that our life and work are comprised of relationships, when we see that a relationship can only flourish with strong, healthy communication, we can begin to take steps to ensure that we are communicating in optimal ways for our relationships to blossom, our connections to deepen, our work and our lives to thrive. #AuthenticCommunication #LovingWork Most of us think of communication as a technique for expressing ourselves. We use a consensual code known as “language” to convey our insights and opinions, to tell our stories, to generate ideas. We also communicate through our bodies – an eye roll or a hug can often say much more than words. We even communicate through images. We’re almost always communicating something somehow to someone.
What’s remarkable about communication is not that we do it, or that we do it so constantly. What’s really juicy is that all forms and fashions of communication are radically relational. And so is business. Every organization, company, and team is a group of human beings trying to do something together. It’s a group of human beings who are in relationship with each other. So, whatever’s coming up for you – the stress of overwhelm, some vague sense of underperformance, a deep sigh of resignation – it’s not just about you. It’s also about every other human being around you and how you relate to each other. Your relationships are directly impacted by how, what, why and when you communicate. And the quality of these relationships has a direct correlation with teamwork, management skills, deliverables and client satisfaction – not to mention your own sense of meaning and love for your work. Watch for future installments of "Loving Work" to learn more about how Authentic Communication makes work work better. #AuthenticCommunication #LovingWork |
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