Exercise: Why Does it Matter?

Think about events in your life in which the quality of your communication was important to the outcome. Maybe presenting as a subject matter expert, reporting on a research topic, relating to colleagues, building interpersonal relationships, or navigating a complex set of personal interactions in a leadership role.

Each of those situations involve communications with other people through an objective, appropriate set of skills.

Any communication with an identifiable objective can be looked at through the strategic framework.

The purpose of a strategy is to produce a concrete outcome, but that concrete outcome is achieved through the patterning and application of soft skills.

Identify the types of situations where you are most comfortable communicating.  

Are you able to define how and what you do to make that communication comfortable? The circumstances? The Intentions? The Outcomes?

What do you do in that moment physically, verbally, or cognitively that feels effective and natural to you?

Take a moment and reflect upon how you specifically employ your communicative toolset: breath and thought, body and gesture, voice and articulation.

Now consider situations in which you are less comfortable as a communicator. How does the way you feel when you employ those same tools change?

There’s no right or wrong answer, just bring that awareness with you as we move through our introduction to strategic fundamentals.