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13-09-2021

Tips for effective communication

Written by: Olena Husak

If you decided to pursue a career in life sciences you most likely on the way of getting your bachelor’s/master’s or PhD’s degree. Or maybe you are already beyond these stages and you are working in some small or big company. Anyway, by now you must have realised how important the effective communication at your job. It does not matter whether your environment is characterised by the flat hierarchy or you feel trapped in regulated layers of ordered social community. Effective communication is complex and multifaceted matter, though here I uncover a secret ingredient to make your communication to be the driving force of your professional success. Very often we need to get some help from people that are busy and simply are higher in hierarchy and we just simply have a little or no influence on their decisions. So, what to do? Below I describe three simple ways to get what you need through effective communication. Dear reader, please bear in mind, effective communication is different from manipulation. While manipulation is always the way to make person to do something by very complicated scheme without actually saying what you indeed want. Effective communication - is an open way to make things happen, at least to give it a fair chance to happen. So, these three simple ways of non-violent communication are asking, suggesting, and being proactive. Let’s break-down these methods in more detail:

Asking
If you need the help or that your colleague or boss does something for you or your project the first and the simplest and straight forward strategy is to ask. Majority of people like to be helpful so it would not be a problem for them to assist you. Moreover, by asking you show your vulnerability and trust in others, which again will influence your communication in a positive way. One very important detail, it is crucial to give the space to a person you ask to say “no”. Otherwise, you asking can be regarded as the demand and you definitely do not want that.

Suggesting
This strategy requires a little bit more of preparation from your side. What is interesting, people tend to respond positively to suggestions since some work was done for them. Be thoughtful while suggesting, think how what you suggest can potentially help to achieve the goals at the level of your team or even at the of entire company. For sure, your suggestion must be beneficial for you and your project itself but don’t forget other people also have to see the value in the actions they going to apply.

Being proactive
This is the next level of responsibility. This way of getting things done is the riskiest but also the most fruitful and profitable. Let’s imagine you encountered the problem in some process at your work. Of course, you can ask for help or suggest some solution but if you truly believe in your idea you can become more proactive - solve the problem or even inspire other people to join you to implement your initiative. Surely, your solution can be wrong, but the risk - this is the price one pays for the plausible big gain.

It is up to your which method of effective communication to use to do something what you cannot manage on your own. In the end, it is super challenging to achieve big success without collaborating with others. Others matter and it is good to know how to make things happen through communication that works.

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