About a year ago, we coined the term "E-ideal" to denote characteristics of a new millennium in which technology commands and enhances almost everything around us. The marriage of all things "e" to various spheres of our lives has caused significant and fundamental changes to the way we live. From e-mail to e-commerce, e-business to e-banking, the humble letter "e" has thus far signified a radical move from traditionally accepted practice toward a vision of the future where everything will be virtual, paperless, remote and technologically very far advanced.
The central tenet of this ideal is communication, strongly related to the concepts of common sense and change.
Jill Hamlyn, MD of The People Business
Taking it one step further, "e" also came to signify qualities such as enthusiasm, energy, excitement, and even eggs, all used when dealing with the world around us.
As the year progressed and the economy slowed, the currency dipped and the market became more and more depressed. As our current situation stands, these are lean times indeed. In certain respects, however, there have never been more opportunities than there are now. One of these opportunities is the space and time in which to get back to basics. Hence the "C-ideal".
The letter "c" comes before the letter "e" in the alphabet and this in itself is significant as everything "e" up until this point is either related to or rests on the characteristics embodied by "c". So, what is the C-ideal?
The central tenet of this ideal is communication, strongly related to the concepts of common sense and change. At the end of the day, though, everything boils down to communication, a concept that is mentioned or discussed in a majority of business journal articles. It is generally agreed that communication skills are lacking in many individuals and that communication is something that we should have a lot more of. We now have more ways to communicate than ever before and there are signs that we are immersing ourselves in a frenzy of communication activities.
Less is more?
Unfortunately, more is not necessarily better. In fact, unless the parameters of communication are clearly defined, more can be significantly worse. There is a vast difference between communicating at people and communicating with them.
In accordance with the communication-ideal, I propose a model of communication related to the individual in a business environment and the people that are affected by this. Of course, this is a general model that can be taken out of the business environment and applied to other environments.
Within this model, there are three factors that need to be taken into consideration. The first is the individual, who forms the core of all activities and who grows and changes. The second is the personality of the individual and the third is the way in which the individual communicates. Communication takes place on three arms: upwards (communication with people in a higher position to the individual), sideways (communication with peers), and downwards (communication with those in a lower position to the individual). The core, growth and change experienced by the individual are profoundly expressed through his or her communication strategies. These communication strategies are flexible and can be altered to suit different situations.
Of course, there is always a difference between good communication and poor communication, and we are all encouraged to aspire to be the best communicators we can possibly be. In order to reach a point where we are good communicators, we need to start at one very simple point, which is to know yourself.
Having a good, thorough knowledge of who you are and how you express yourself and come across to other people is the very first step towards improving your communication. The fundamental tenet of this self-knowledge is that in knowing ourselves and how we communicate, is an ease of insight into changes needed, if any, in the way we communicate and the methods we use.
If you really know yourself, everything else falls into place. However, it must be said that knowing yourself is a process, rather than an end result. It must also be said that various tools can be effectively utilised in order to create an environment conducive to self-knowledge, of which personal coaching is probably one of the most powerful. We define ourselves in relation to the people around us, and create ourselves through the words we use. There is a grand narrative that runs through all our lives. We communicate through what we say and, sometimes, through what we do not say. It is to our advantage to be able to communicate ourselves authentically in situations, to say what we mean and mean what we say.
The C-ideal is the foundation on which "e" rests. It is time to get back to basics and sort out the fundamentals. Communication based on knowledge of who we are is one of these. Without it, progress stagnates and movement forward takes place in a fog of misunderstandings and miscommunications. We cannot really afford this. Communication is power and this is the time to elevate ourselves, and our communication skills, from the average to the powerful.
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