8.14.2007

Masterful Communication: Our Way is the Better Way

We hear all the time there are two sides to every conflict - your way and their way.

Expert Leaders understand the power of seeing all three sides to every opportunity to create solutions:  your way, their way and Our way.  When we think, speak and act with Our way in mind, it drastically improves our ability to reach better solutions and reach them in a better way.   Our way also places more importance on the relationship than on the results.  Expert Leaders see leadership as a team sport and relationships are always their most important trump card.

Start with Our way today in your conversations.  Here's how...


1.  Actively listen first.  (Learn more here)

2.  Seek to understand their position first in concrete terms.  Gain a solid understanding of where they are coming from and why.  You know your way intimately.  However, if Our way is going to come to fruition, you need to deeply understand their way.

3.  When you give your opinion and viewpoint, make certain you give it in terms of you, not other people.  Own your way.

4.  Truncate the time you focus on the problem and expand the time you work on solutions.  Problems are the past.  Solutions are the future.  My way and your way are about the past.  Our way is about the future.

5.  Give more credit to the other person for Our way than they deserve.  This type of resolution system is just as much about fostering the relationship as it is about developing a creative solution.

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