Early on in this series I shared how our childhood can impact our communication style. It may be that some of the communication we use isn’t top notch and we’ve got some habits that need to be broken. That’s ok! You can always develop better communication skills.
The first step in dropping a bad habit is recognizing it and owning it. You may be unaware that you’ve got some poor communication habits. You can’t change what you aren’t aware of. The good news is there’s plenty you can do to identify, break, and replace your bad habits with healthy ones. Try these steps-
- Assessment
- Evaluation
- Planning
- Implementing
- Practicing
Step 1. Assessment. Assessing your communication habits will help you identify if there are some bad habits you’d like to drop. Start by asking yourself how well you think you’re doing when it comes to effective and healthy communication. Some good questions could be-
- How often do I find myself at odds with other people?
- Do I often feel misunderstood or can’t get my point across?
- Has anyone told me that I am difficult to communicate with?
- Do people easily offend me or push my buttons when we are communicating?
If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, you may need to identify and drop some bad communication habits.
You can also poll the people in your sphere of influence. Asking people for feedback about your communication style and how easy it is for them to communicate with you will help you see your communication style through their perspective. This can alert you to bad habits you may want to drop.
Step 2. Evaluation. After assessing and getting a handle on what habits aren’t serving you, it’s time to evaluate what causes you to react or behave in the manner you do. This evaluation can help you identify what skills you need to improve your communication and get to the root cause of your bad habits.
Step 3. Planning. Having a solid plan to drop your bad habits is important. It takes time and talent to drop bad habits and it helps to plan for the various contingencies along the way. Mapping out a plan will help you focus on changing your bad habits into better ones. Learn what isn’t working when it comes to your communication style. Discover what your triggers are that prompt these actions or reactions and make a plan to overcome them.
Step 4. Implementing. It’s one thing to plan and another to do. Take the action steps needed to drop the habit. Hold yourself accountable and do the work. It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier over time.
Step 5. Practicing. You won’t have it all worked out immediately. It takes practice to drop a bad habit. Stay the course and keep doing the right thing. Soon your bad habit will be a thing of the past. Keep a journal or get a buddy to join you for accountability.
Don’t stress yourself if you’ve got some bad habits when it comes to communicating. It’s not uncommon. You can drop those bad habits and learn to effectively communicate in very healthy ways. Follow these five steps and you’ll identify your bad habits and rid them from your communication style.
