How to Communicate for Impact: Share Your Ideas & Be Understood

In communication, many disagreements are caused by different perceptions that created different realities. It can be very frustrating thinking that you have said or done the “right thing” only to find that the person you’re communicating with doesn't see it in the same way. The good news is that when you know your own priorities, and recognize the other person’s priorities, you can reduce miscommunication and develop more productive relationships.

Everyone has a dominant priority system and communication style – behaviors that we’re more comfortable with, and use most frequently. People tend to prioritize their world based on a combination of four primary priority systems (or priosys®):

1. Process-Oriented
2. Results-Oriented
3. Relationship-Oriented
4. Recognition-Oriented

Once you understand these perspectives, it becomes much easier to recognize the associated behaviors in other people. To build rapport and facilitate better communication, you can flex your communication style and adapt your priorities to more closely align with those of the other person.

This will help to make interactions more comfortable for them – which might be counter-intuitive to how you may have previously approached communication; e.g., how can I get the other person to change? To be clear, communication style flex and priority adaptation suggests changing HOW you communicate – not suppressing your point of view, nor avoiding difficult conversations.

To learn more about how to flex your communication style or better understand priority systems (e.g., take the priosys® online assessment) contact me HERE. This article is a summary of my recent workshop for the Bergen County Professional Women's Network (BCPWN) on the same subject.

How Co-Founder or Team Conflict Isn't as Bad as You Think

How often have you put your best foot forward only to have it stomped on by someone?

There you are, every day, with so many people making demands on you:

• Team members looking to you for answers you aren't always sure of
• Clients thinking only of what they want and not of you really at all
• Founders or senior leaders challenging you with increasingly demanding expectations

Then, there is everyone else, who needs something -- usually sooner than you are able to easily provide it. And, there you are S-Q-U-E-E-Z-E-D in the middle, being pressed on all sides…

It can be very frustrating thinking that you have said or done the right thing only to find that the other person doesn't see it that way. When the other person doesn't respond in the same way as you would, it's irritating and can cause lots of anxiety. And, this anxiety can affect your ability to be most effective at what you're creating.

It leads us to one overriding fact … work relationships are confusing! [Don't even get me started on personal relationships!]

But, what if it could be different?

PRIOSYS® on Vimeo.

When there is team conflict or a lack of rapport with a colleague, we tend to get judgmental. We begin to presume things about the other person. Instead of remaining open minded, we tend to close ourselves to other perspectives.

What if, instead, you viewed team conflict or lack of rapport as an OPPORTUNITY to see issues from perspectives other than your own? 

We all manage our everyday demands differently depending on our priorities -- what we feel to be important at that time. 

If you could figure out how to quickly recognize and adapt to your team members’ priorities, you would be less frustrated when communicating, and more able to overcome your differences. IMAGINE what that would do for your own productivity (and sanity) ... not to mention the productivity and camaraderie of your team. 

How much more could you create and innovate with that level of morale? 

"If two people on the same team agree all the time, then one is useless.  If they disagree all the time, then both are useless." -- Darryl Zanuck

Share your comments and questions below. Or, contact me if you're ready to get started and would like a demo of priosys®.