What is one communication skill that will instantly make you more valuable to over 3 billion people?
In our discussion of communication, we’ve seen that directness of communication can be related more to the delicacy of the relationship than the situation, we tend to judge others based on our own Communication Comfort Zone, and we can all find ways to expand our Comfort Zone.
What I’m going to propose next goes against nearly everything taught about cultural communication for years: learn to be more indirect.
Indirect communication gets a bad rap for being subversive, weak, hiding, lying, etc. If you’ve ever sat through an intercultural communication course, the following assumptions are painfully obvious:
- Direct communication (Western version) is superior to indirect (Asian).
- We need to fix people who speak indirectly.
- You should be ashamed of yourself if you don’t say exactly what you mean all the time.
- We would all be better off if everyone spoke more directly (Western version).
Why is that? Because these courses are sponsored, created, enjoyed, taught, and demanded by those who are more direct in their communication.
What if we rejected all those assumptions? What if instead of seeing indirect communication as a professional flaw, we hailed it as an advanced communication skill? What if instead of trying to fix other people, we actually learned something from them instead?
Sound interesting to you?
