Communicating Your Way to Business Success.

 

       

“We write to you with words that are clearly understood and there is no need for you to try to read between the lines of what we write in hopes that you can completely and accurately understand our hearts.”

-Paul of Tarsus.

In the iconic story of the tower of Babel, we learn of the people who fail to reach their goal of building a tower that reaches to heaven because of their inability to communicate with each other.

Communication, especially in this age of instant messaging and social media, is a major factor in determining businesses or organizations that succeed and thrive against those that barely just scrape along or cease to exist.

Communication is more than just saying words – It is an art of conveying authenticity, meaning and purpose. It just so happens that words are most times the default vehicle. 

Have you ever looked at a picture that had no words and yet understood vividly the intent of the artist or illustrator? Well, that’s communication.

This is why most businesses struggle to connect with customers or target audience or prospects. 

They’re throwing a whole lot of words out there by the minute, and just hoping that something sticks. Their messaging is all skewed.

It is no surprise that a large number of employees who work in businesses or organizations with a history of less than optimal communication with customers, also complain of a lack of clear communication in their workplace. 

It is a menace that is first prevalent in internal communications in the office space and then is revealed in an organization’s communication with external stakeholders. 

Have you ever come out of a long meeting wondering what, in the heavens, the meeting was all about?

 I once sat in on a meeting where a supposed expert gave a PowerPoint presentation with all the customary slides, charts and graphs and about five minutes later, I was struggling to recall what he was even talking about– a quick survey proved that 12 of the 15 attendees were in a similar predicament and the remaining 3 could just barely remember the topic of the presentation. 

This expert had talked “at us” and not to us.

Great communicators like the individuals or corporate entities that have the ability to make us feel like we’ve known them for all our lives, even though we are just meeting them or reading their messages for the first time.

 They make us feel like we’re willing volunteers on the journey of a lifetime.

 They study their target audience and really get to know them and then fashion their messages around a way that ensures they’re well understood (like the African Parent that communicates with their child just by staring at them- Hello MOM!!)

The greatest communicators are purposeful and empathetic to the needs of those they seek to address and then, they fashion out the best vehicles to convey their thoughts clearly and accurately in a fashion that makes it impossible for them to be misunderstood. 

                                           

These are skills and tendencies that can be developed and honed to perfection. 

Be it Steve Jobs or Barack Obama, the greatest communicators have a way of capturing our hearts and attention in a way that we never forget.  

They make us feel like we’re the only ones being spoken to, even though we know and can see that this is untrue. 

Even long after we’ve forgotten the intricate details of what they said, due to the limitations of the human mind, we never forget how they made us feel while they spoke.

As one who intends to succeed in business, in whatever capacity, communication – clear, meaningful communication, is a necessity, not a luxury.

 

Chinonso Ohakwe.

Product Designer & Management Consultant.

hello.ohakwechinonso@gmail.com

+2349097174236, +2349091134000