Words Matter

That was the title of the sermon J.K. Jones gave at Traders Point Christian Church yesterday. While in this post I won't include the scripture references, I believe the five points he made are extremely relevant to all of us as leaders, team members, and professionals (and as human beings).

He suggests asking these five questions regularly:

Are my words true?
Are my words helpful?
Are my words inspiring?
Are my words necessary?
Are my words kind?

If you take the first letter from the key word in each question: true, helpful, inspiring, necessary, kind; you get THINK.

Asking these questions, and adjusting our actions accordingly will make us better communicators, better team members, better leaders . . . and better at just about anything else you can think of.

In short, words matter, so THINK.

Speaking Their Language

To be the most effective as a communicator, it is our responsibility to communicate in ways that work for the other person. We must become adept at seeing the other person's perspective, their skills and their style. One of the best short pieces I've read recently on this truth was written by Guy Harris (who calls himself the Recovering Engineer) this week.

This communication truth applies to us in all areas of our communication - in working with Customers, leading others, being a part of a team and more.

His article really hit home for me, and I believe it will for you too. It is titled Speaking Their Language, and I highly recommend reading it.

PhotoReading and Thoughts about Promoting, Selling, and Communicating

I am a customer of PhotoReading - a product of Learning Strategies. You can check out my reviews of both the book and the full system as written about in my newsletter, Unleash Your Potential.

I also recently, partnered with Learning Strategies to promote this product to our Powerquotes list . . . which is why I write this post.

A couple of my readers emailed me expressing concern about me "hawking" this product to my list. I replied to these readers with my thanks for their notes and I addressed their concerns.

I wasn't hawking a product, but promoting something I feel is of great value. I wasn't selling it to make a commission, though I will make one. I was sharing the opportunity with people because I see the value and benefits to them. If you are interested in learning more, you can go here.

The lesson for all of us is that it is important that we make our true intentions clear. When we are transparent and truly working from a position of providing value and benefit to the other person, we can't just assume the other person will see this perspective.

As you communicate with others make sure you message and your intent is clear, and you will have much greater success in the communication process and in building the relationship.