I had a baby!
Well, not me personally but my beautiful wife Arielle did.
It was amazing.
And the reason for my writing hiatus.
So thank you for your patience in between blogs.
They’re coming back Tuesday September 21st and will be dropping every other Tuesday at least until the end of the year.
Thank you again for all your amazing support as I share Breakthrough Communicator strategies with my amazing community :)
Get the Decision-Maker to Open Up and Share: Breakthrough Communicator Tip #7
Breakthrough Communicators determine who they work with and who they bring into their personal and professional community by modeling the behavior they wish to receive. When we share our authentic, vulnerable child in charge, those individuals we want to surround ourselves with will accept that authentic self and share theirs in turn.
But then how do we get the Decision-Maker to open up and share even more?
Ask open-ended questions.
If you want your other to engage, ask questions which penetrate the protective shielding that is looking to dismiss and shut down trust-building opportunities.
Be A Breakthrough Communicator For Yourself
Breakthrough Communicators elevate their interactions and build genuine rapport by utilizing strategies such as being clear and specific with our action-based intentions and expectations, committing to inquiry-based listening, and being gentle but firm when sharing our expertise, ideas, passions and goals.
But there is one more commitment I want you to make.
One more skill which ensures Breakthrough Communicators develop the loving, secure communities they desire.
That skill?
Take every Breakthrough Communicator strategy you have learned and apply it to yourself.
Don't Be A Nag: Breakthrough Communicator Tip #20
Raise you hand if you enjoy being nagged.
No you don't, put your hand down.
No one likes to be nagged.
By a partner…
A parent…
That guy at work who wants to borrow your truck next week to move a couch…
No one likes to be nagged.
Which is why Breakthrough Communicators don't.
Harder than it seems.
But Breakthrough Communicators avoid nagging by understanding three crucial aspects of nagging:
1) It comes from a well-intentioned place. Your parent/partner/the guy from work needs something. And if the need is great enough to nag, it's probably pretty important. But nagging is so detrimental to our well-intentioned purposes because even if it best serves our other, the risk of shutting down the child in charge and triggering self-defense mechanisms makes it a really ineffective form of persuasion.
"It's Not Valuable if We Don't Understand It": Breakthrough Communicators Tip #15
Before I started Speak Into Action, I was a theatre professor at the University of South Alabama. Part of my academic responsibility was theatre scholarship, and believe me, if there was a five-syllable word that fit the article I was writing, I used it.
But changing careers didn't change my need to use five-syllable language. And even though I was responsible for teaching others to communicate their needs more effectively, the language I chose made it a struggle to communicate my own value.
Breakthrough Communicators have ideas, feelings, and needs we want to share with others. Those ideas have influence because we've demonstrated ourselves as a trusted relationship and built genuine rapport with our other.
But we can run the risk of undermining that trust, rapport, and value if we don't commit to this Breakthrough Communicator skill…