Texting can be a wonderful tool. It can be simple and quick. It can be very convenient to send simple, short messages to relay a brief thought such as “Will you please pick up some bread and milk on your way home?”, or “I love you.”. or even “Happy birthday!”
However, it can be a bad, even a dangerous method to successful communication.
You may ask, “Why is that?” Texting is not a good medium for long conversations. It also doesn’t work well to communicate complicated subjects or give directions. Most definitely it does not serve well to communicate emotions and feelings.
You see, texting only uses one of the three of our communication skills. Depending on how we are communicating, there are three forms of information used. For the best communication all three are used by the communicator and all three are interpreted by the recipient. Besides our words there is also the auditory – our voice, (tone, volume, speed, pitch), and there is visual – our body language, (posture, facial expression, tension, movement).
Much of successful communication depends on not only the words we use, but how our voice sounds and how our body state is displayed. Our voice and our body will reveal important parts of the story we are sharing. Words alone only tell part of the story. If we use texting for complicated or emotional matters, very often our message is not received the way we intend.
We need to be aware of the impact of words, voice and body language have in all our conversations. When we are in the physical presence of our conversation recipient, they will be listening to our words and they will be interpreting the sound of our voice and the mannerisms of our body to try to get the full message we are delivering.
If we are not careful, we can easily send conflicting messages – one message with our words, a second message with our voice tone and even a third message with our body language. No wonder great communication is so challenging!
When our conversation takes place over the telephone, there is only our words and our voice – no body language. It’s funny though, even our body language in this situation will somehow come through in the tone of our voice and the listener will be able to pick up on it.
Strive to Pursue Great!, in communication by being sensitive to all three ingredients when you are delivering your message.
Consider what you want to say before getting into the conversation. Is it a topic that is simple and straightforward enough to be by words and voice only (phone), or maybe words only (texting, writing). Or is the subject matter suited better for an in-person conversation with the availability of all three components? This is important to decide beforehand for the best outcome to your conversation.
If you sense the conversation is not going well and the method needs to be changed, don’t be afraid to let you listener know that you don’t feel that you are able to properly convey what you are trying to express in the current method and you would like to continue the conversation later in a different way.
Don’t underestimate the power of your voice and your body language in great communication. They might make the difference between a successful outcome or a misunderstood message!