I think the most important part of being a success in business can be summed up in two words. Those two words are effective communication.

Every company has problems, mostly because of the people that are working for the company. It is how you work through these difficulties which leads to success or failure in a company.

Recently I had an issue with my company and I thought about preparing my resume’ to see what else was available. I realized though, that the issue was not my companies’ responsibility. The issue had originated with me. So leaving the company would not eliminate the issue because I still had to put up with me. lol

I thought about how I had handled similar situations in the past and I have not had a stellar record of conflict resolution in my professional life. So I realized I needed to change something about me and how I handled issues in my career.

This morning I discussed the issue I had with a contact I have in the corporate office. This lady has always been a compassionate leader and is smarter than a whip so I respect her. We talked about my situation and she said she would take it up the ladder and it got resolved quickly.

I could have handled it differently and I did consider a different route. Last night when I was on my walk I thought about firing off a scathing email to one of the ladies in the branch office and putting her in her place.

What would that have accomplished? Me looking like a fool. I am so glad I did not handle it that way. It would have seeded enmity in that relationship and I had no right to attack anyone in the company, much less her.

I thought about how I have handled things in the past when I held on to them too long and I exploded with anger because I did not address the issue when it first appeared.

I realized that I have several things which I need to work on in the area of effective communication and I hope you don’t mind but I am going to list them for you, in case you need help as much as I do.

1. Tackle a problem when it is molehill because when it is a mountain it takes explosive effort to tear it apart. In other words head conflict off at the pass.

2. If you are blessed to have a corporation that has an accomplished and effective communicator target them to learn from them how to handle difficult situations. I have learned so many things from my corporate contact.

3.If you have a hard time getting in touch with someone via one method of conversation try another. For instance my branch manager has a difficult time returning my phone calls. The sweet lady is always swamped with work so every time I leave her a voice mail message I should also follow up with an email so she has two pathways to communicate back to me.

4. Always try to retain respect for the other person which means communicate before you get to the point of anger. When I am angry I seldom retain respect for the person I am angry at. This may be why the counsel of the Bible says for us not to go to sleep when we are angry.

Let me know if you have any other suggestions. I am always open to other’s opinions and commentary on my ramblings. 🙂