There have been leaders of states who have moved an entire nation to action with a single speech. Lal Bahadur Shastri during the war with Pakistan called for funds from the citizens and such was the power behind his words that people rose to the occasion with women even surrendering their jewellery, the one thing that they hold dearer than their life.
/>But even forsaking such great superlative examples of speech, our words have great effect on others. Words are part of our communication, the carrier of our emotions and thoughts. Especially in today's times when you might find yourself not face to face with the other person but separated by thousands of miles and then some, connected only by means of wires, cables that run underground and underwater carrying electronic signal to their destination, your destination where you want your words to reach. Have you realized though, that it is not only your words but your emotions, thoughts and ideas being carried with them? Yes, of course, you have. But have you thought about the fact that between your thinking and your typing there is a distance, subtle but quite marked? If you do not take care in choosing your words and their order, what you are saying is not what the other person will hear.
/>And then there is the tone. Yes, just like a spoken conversation every letter, every email has a tone. But the important thing is to make sure that the tone being carried by your communiqué is the one you meant to express. It is possible to come across as rude and arrogant from an email that you typed out in a hurry without meaning to be rude. But the recepient doesn't know your hurry. He or she doesn't know if you were smiling or frowning when you typed this. It is important to use just the right words with all the niceties thrown in. Correct phrasing can mean so much.
/>It is possible to say "I hate you" in person or on the phone in a way that would make the receiver of this phrase smile, knowing how you mean it. In a written communication it is likely to be taken literally. The use of smilies helps a lot in such circumstances. A simple :-) can change the tone of a sentence from serious to light. There are many others that can be used as appropriate but this one is the most used one.
/>I once had the honor of working with a man named Sathya, he was the onsite-coordinator for my project and all of us, team leads and team members alike had to communicate with him on a daily basis, over email and phone. Actually, even the project manager and program manager needed to communicate with him daily. I have never known somebody so perfect in communication written and spoken, not only the tone, accent and manner of speaking but also the words. He always knew what to say and how to say it. Even in the times of stress when he had to take somebody to task he could do it in such a civilized manner that the person felt the impact of the situation without feeling bitter. Subsequently he and I both left that company within days of each other, but he still remains a source of inspiration to me and communicating with him is still as much of a pleasure at it was.
/>My target is to be that good in communication where people feel good after talking to me, good, inspired, motivated and uplifted! What's your target?
/>But even forsaking such great superlative examples of speech, our words have great effect on others. Words are part of our communication, the carrier of our emotions and thoughts. Especially in today's times when you might find yourself not face to face with the other person but separated by thousands of miles and then some, connected only by means of wires, cables that run underground and underwater carrying electronic signal to their destination, your destination where you want your words to reach. Have you realized though, that it is not only your words but your emotions, thoughts and ideas being carried with them? Yes, of course, you have. But have you thought about the fact that between your thinking and your typing there is a distance, subtle but quite marked? If you do not take care in choosing your words and their order, what you are saying is not what the other person will hear.
/>And then there is the tone. Yes, just like a spoken conversation every letter, every email has a tone. But the important thing is to make sure that the tone being carried by your communiqué is the one you meant to express. It is possible to come across as rude and arrogant from an email that you typed out in a hurry without meaning to be rude. But the recepient doesn't know your hurry. He or she doesn't know if you were smiling or frowning when you typed this. It is important to use just the right words with all the niceties thrown in. Correct phrasing can mean so much.
/>It is possible to say "I hate you" in person or on the phone in a way that would make the receiver of this phrase smile, knowing how you mean it. In a written communication it is likely to be taken literally. The use of smilies helps a lot in such circumstances. A simple :-) can change the tone of a sentence from serious to light. There are many others that can be used as appropriate but this one is the most used one.
/>I once had the honor of working with a man named Sathya, he was the onsite-coordinator for my project and all of us, team leads and team members alike had to communicate with him on a daily basis, over email and phone. Actually, even the project manager and program manager needed to communicate with him daily. I have never known somebody so perfect in communication written and spoken, not only the tone, accent and manner of speaking but also the words. He always knew what to say and how to say it. Even in the times of stress when he had to take somebody to task he could do it in such a civilized manner that the person felt the impact of the situation without feeling bitter. Subsequently he and I both left that company within days of each other, but he still remains a source of inspiration to me and communicating with him is still as much of a pleasure at it was.
/>My target is to be that good in communication where people feel good after talking to me, good, inspired, motivated and uplifted! What's your target?
2 comments:
Hi!
it felt very pleasant reading through this blog post.
I agree that societal manners, pleasant choice of words, courtesy are virtues which are universally appreciated.
For some people, these virtues seem to come naturally, others develop it. But, no matter how polished a person is , what appeals the most is if the person is genuine i.e if the person is himself/herself. Whatever the basic nature is in a human being - whether dominating, submissive, indecisive, conservative or anything else, as long as the person is pleasant and honestly expressive of their feelings in their best possible words, the world will be a nice place to live in. But, I agree that there is alway a need and a scope for improvement.
Hi LP,
Thank you for your comment. I agree with your point about genuineness of a person. My concern, though, is that sometimes the person is genuine, the emotion is real but somehow misunderstood just because it's not expressed using the right words. :)
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