1. Care about being a good communicator
Ask people if they are good communicators, and most will answer "Yes." Yet many work-related problems are caused by poor communication. To get ahead, you need to be a good communicator.
Imagine that you say to a coworker, "I’ll meet you at the job site in a few minutes." If your coworker arrives in 10 minutes and has to wait for you another 20 minutes, he may be angry. Yet, you may believe thirty is a "few" minutes. A good communicator would have said, "I will meet you in 30 minutes."
Typical results of poor communication:
- Misunderstandings
- Confusion
- Mistakes
- Angering customers or coworkers
- Losing a project