Considerate Comms
In Western terms, it was William Wilberforce, the 19th century champion for the abolition of the slave-trade, who coined the phrase and terminology “manners”, encouraging considerate behaviour towards others. In a purely social context, we generally prefer spending time with people with pleasant social habits rather than poor ones.
Manners and courtesy, of course, also relate greatly to what we say; the words we use and the tone and emotion behind how we say them. We have all experienced the lie that “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”, so it is a great question to consider what sort of a verbal culture we are creating in our workplaces and homes. We expect our employees to speak to us, as well as their colleagues and clients, with politeness and professionalism so we indeed need to treat them with the same considerateness.
‘Mindful Communication’ encourages us to really consider what we are about to say before we say it, ie. “Is what I am about to say to this person how I would like to be spoken to?” If we are not sure, then even writing a complex or potentially contentious issue down and playing with rephrasing it could save unnecessary offence, difficulty and upset. In this day of Cancel Culture we need to be particularly careful in our written and verbal communications.
Our words are so powerful in helping to create positive environments around us, our colleagues and employees and so make for happier workplaces and homes. Much has been said about the dangers of being misunderstood by poorly thought-through texts and emails, but this continues to be something for excellent leaders and communicators to think about with regards to our verbal communication.
