Communication: Quality versus Quantity

I believe in transparency and openness. I believe a manager should share almost as much information as possible with their teams. I believe the manager should always explain their motives and drivers of decisions they make.

In short I believe in much talking.

Sometimes when a meeting is finished I don’t feel as if I convinced my interlocutor to a decision I make. That’s fair. That’s fair as long as I tried. This basically means a lot of talking.

However, I learned a lesson today about talking much. After my lengthy tirade which I wanted to explain myself with I heard a response:

“You should have said: ‘trust me’ in the first place instead of all that.”

Ouch. That hurt. I mean why haven’t I thought about that? Yes, it is a simple message but a powerful one. The message which makes or breaks the relationship. After that you either live up to expectations or there’s no chance of building trust whatsoever. Yet, as long as you actually plan to do the former, it will yield better results.

My lesson is: yes, transparency and openness are important but it doesn’t necessarily mean more words. At the end of the day it’s about communication quality, not quantity (if you can’t go with quality go with quantity though).

And this is the lesson I’m thankful for.

By the way: we often follow our emotions instead of facts. I don’t say it’s bad. It’s just something to remember when dealing with people.