Unfiltered Conversations
“The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.” Peter Drucker
Relationships are built on the quality of communication.
To have unfiltered communication, one needs to do away with filters and masks. In the world we live in today, that is becoming a rarity.
One can only communicate well if they are keenly listening and paying attention to the conversation at hand. To listen, one needs to reduce the level of internal chatter and remove personal biases.
To do this seemingly innocuous step, they would need to have a high level of self-awareness to become aware of those two.
My best 1-1 conversations are when both my direct report and I can bring up issues openly and not immediately jump into problem-solving mode.
I firmly believe that everyone can solve their problems. The manager's role is to help them remove the personal barriers that they may be experiencing to make that happen.
Creating the space for your direct report to explore the problem space requires the conversation to have a certain level of trust and a feeling of safety. Safety is created with the actions we make rather than the words we use.
Teams that communicate well tend to have a massive edge over silo driven organizations that struggle to stitch multiple groups of people together.