Managing the Mayhem

 

 

What can I say about this year other than it seems like a bad joke and a serious advertisement for the Mayhem Man and that anything that can go wrong did.  So where do we go from here?   

Obviously we are attempting to establish some sense of normalcy.  Wearing masks is now the new norm. Fist bumps and elbow tags are the new norm. Video chat is now the new meeting norm. So now the real difficulty begins. In my seminar on "Working Smarter "  one of the key tenants is Effectively Communicating and in delving into how we communicate 93% of our communication is non-verbal.

As an example every married guy knows exactly what his wife is saying when she gives him the "look".  The other cues that we glean is openness, truth, seriousness, humor, and tons of other idioms.  That is why most foreigners have so much trouble with our language because on top of words meaning multiple things we can also infer additional meanings or signals with our facial expressions.

Now we introduce masks into the equation and you can't tell if the person sitting across from you is happy, sad, mad, postal or depressed. Body language accounts for 55% of our communication, tone accounts for 38% and words account for 7%.  Different studies will show slightly different numbers but hey I went with Forbes Business School.

So now that we have figured out why we can't effectively communicate and are totally frustrated what do we do?

(1)  Keep it simple and direct.

(2)  Try to be polite and professional.

(3) Re-read all written correspondence for tone and ambiguity.  Have someone else read it to make sure it says what you really mean.

(4) Don't send massive emails - One paragraph max.  Bullet points are even better.

(5)  Be clear about deadlines. Set intermediate deadlines to review. 25%, 50%, etc.

(6)  Be reasonable and understanding.  Family life is now even more of a struggle with schools doing virtual learning.

(7) Use reminders to prompt people (don't nag or harass them) especially about appointments and deadlines.

Don't forget to smile, take a deep breath, take a walk and remember to go with the flow. Eventually we will all get through this. I don't know about you but this is November and this sums up how I feel about 2020.