What is your perception of communication?
Some time ago I had an opportunity to engage and work with a very interesting company on different projects. We started with a lot of enthusiasm from both sides, but that changed over the course of time.
Why did that happen?
When you start with something new - a job, project or just a change, most of us approach it with a huge spectrum of enthusiasm. Which is normal human behaviour? The problem that can and usually does happen is if you have a lack of information on hand or you don't gather all the necessary data and points involved, you will make mistakes.
If you don't have a clear picture when starting that new venture, most of the time that is doomed to fail. Which happened to me!
After starting with the company I got a certain amount of info which wasn't fully explained or we didn't have a full clarification of all the goals and agendas that had to be achieved. Besides that, I haven't indulged enough time to check everything and gather all the info required due to some unprecedented times that just rolled upon us, which brought misunderstandings and miscommunication between the company and myself.
After I finished working on those projects, I took some time to understand what happened and why was so hard to communicate certain points between the company and myself. I understood that the company was looking through one set of eyes and myself through the other. Both sides weren't happy with the outcome, as we both were working towards the same goal but weren't on the same page!
Which brought me to the point of realising that we had a lot of points not communicated correctly and didn't align our thoughts and ideas in the same manner.
So, if you want to succeed and achieve all the goals correctly have your "ducks in the line", which means:
- Gather all the info,
- Ask questions regularly,
- Don't be shy to express yourself,
- Communicate properly with everyone in the team,
- Never assume or presume that others will know what they need to do!
The best teacher was your last fail! But, we can't grow if we don't fail occasionally!
So, learn from your mistakes and continue growing!
Regards,
Srdan KO