‘Tis the season of challenging communication.
We’re tired from moving from zoom meeting to zoom meeting. We’re making plans to meet with friends and family – outside or in small gatherings. And, what about the new year? With all of this and then we add family and intense business discussions as we strategize for better outcomes…
A quick reminder: Communicate with kindness.
Naughty or nice? How about kind? We know about kind. There’s so much written on it —
And then at the holidays we hear all about naughty or nice. Seems innocent enough – it’s in a children’s poem after all. It’s just words – And…. Words matter – how you talk to yourself and others matters. The tone you use with yourself and others matters.
Be courageous – be kind.
Nice is about you. Kind is about the other.
The test: If someone has eggnog on their shirt, do you tell them or private message them on zoom? Or do you find yourself saying, “oh goodness, I wouldn’t want them to feel embarrassed,” or “I’d feel badly.” That’s being nice: nicely ignoring something that would be better for the other to know in the long run. But isn’t it polite? Oh, that tricky “polite” excuse.
If you find yourself excusing your action or inaction as being more polite, or not embarrassing to the other person, you might simply be taking the nice road out. Nice can be surface, glossy, easy. Kind often drops in more deeply, vulnerably, and it takes courage.
