Communication Got You Down At Work? Try Some Empathy.
Being stressed out at work is not fun. Sometimes that stress can be caused by communicating, or miscommunicating, with coworkers. You might like to be more direct, but your coworker takes your directness as lack of support or consideration for their feelings. Constant miscommunication like this can lead to power distance between team members and can really start to impact the culture of a company if not recognized. But maybe there’s something you can do about it; have you ever stopped and thought about how personalities relate to your communication at work?
Recently I read an article in Wired about a company called Crystal that helps people write more effective emails based on the recipient’s personality. Crystal apparently scoops up information about you on the web, analyzes how you speak and then determines how you’d most likely want to be communicated with according to your personality. It does the same for your recipient. After writing an email Crystal will generate a button next to the send button with suggestions on how to better tailor the email to the person you’re sending it to. Sound crazy? Maybe it is, but it could be just the futuristic tool businesses have been missing to bridge the communication gap between employees and also potential clients.
How important is it to analyze and identify different personalities in the workplace? There are tons of different tests and techniques to help individuals discover and use their unique personalities in their careers more effectively, but have you ever thought about how the personalities of your coworkers might affect you?
Currently there’s a waiting list for Crystal, but with the boom in technology related apps based on communication at work, I’m predicting that Crystal will be sticking around in the near future. Who knows, maybe adding a little empathy into our messages wouldn’t hurt.
Content contributed by Valyn Reinig, IASourceLink. IASourceLink is a proud affiliate of U.S. SourceLink, America’s largest resource network for entrepreneurs.
