“Communication Breakdown, it’s always the same. Having a nervous breakdown, you drive me insane.”
– Jimmy Page
We were onboarding a new client last year. We began with high-impact personality/motivator assessments for the 6 executive leaders, then scheduled 1-1 debriefs to teach them the tool. But mostly we did a lot of listening. Everyone on the team said the exact same thing, “Our real problem here is communication.”
One meant… No one listens to me.
One meant… No one knows what the others are doing.
One meant… We don’t have a clear plan.
One meant… I’m not sure what my role is anymore.
One meant… We have broken relationships.
One meant… Somebody should be fixing things, no one is.
They were stuck. Beyond stuck, this team had ignored the problems, built silos, and accidentally became painfully dysfunctional. The fog of the communication breakdown was costing them millions of dollars of profit. I was having a nervous breakdown and it wasn’t my money.
This month, we will share wisdom gained through thousands of SMB interactions. Communication misses that are the seeds of dysfunction. Common practices designed to fix these problems that generally create more fog. Then we’ll show you simple changes that create real breakthroughs.
One practice that will help you communicate more effectively today: Ask great questions and do a lot more listening. This can seem impossible if we are already maxed out on time and attention. If you are serious about change, start now.
Check out this download. Nine questions, see how many yes answers you get when you have this conversation with your team. If you don’t get many your communication might be broken. Follow our content closely this month for simple fixes.