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- Add emojis (but proceed with caution). Emojis can help us express tone, meaning, and emotional cues. If Liz adds a can undermine your professionalism.
- Realize typos send a message. Typos reveal that we were in a rush or heightened emotional state when we hit send (or that we’re the boss, and don’t need to care about typos).
- Emotionally proofread your messages. Typos are not the only thing you should be proofing your messages for. Brian Fetherstonhaugh, the Worldwide Chief Talent Officer at The Ogilvy Group, told us that he frequently asks employees if they have ever successfully defused an emotional issue via email.
- Punctuation marks matter even more for one-word or very short sentences. Responding “Okay.” with a period can come across as more negative in tone than “Okay” without a period.
- Overview
- Half Listening, Listening to Respond, Or Not Listening At All
- Passive-Aggressive Communication
- Hostile and Aggressive Communication Is Definitely Stress-Inducing
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Healthy relationships can feel so good and even bring us some much-needed stress relief.
When communication is open and clear, small problems are dealt with quickly and easily, and the relationship moves on.
Sadly, toxic relationships are totally different. In fact, these relationships can be the biggest creators of stress. Often, toxic relationships (toxic friendships exist too), involve lots of poor communication. When communication is less healthy, stress ensues, small problems can become larger problems and resentment can grow.
At a Glance
Bettering our relationships often starts with working on our communication skills. There are some communication strategies (like tuning each other out) that should be avoided completely and others can make us feel more validated and heard. Implementing healthier communication strategies can improve our relationships and relieve stress.
There are several forms of poor listening, and they all wear away at relationships in one way or another.
A few types of poor listening include:
•Half listening (aka lazy listening): This is the listening-but-not-really-listening style of someone who isn’t really paying attention but is politely saying, “Uh-huh…uh-huh.” This is only mildly detrimental, but it can damage a relationship when it's one-sided or chronic, and when one partner realizes that much of what they say isn’t really being heard or remembered. This can make a person feel less valued than they should feel.
•Listening to respond: More damaging than lazy listening is the type of listening where an important discussion is taking place and one person is merely waiting for their turn to talk rather than really hearing what their partner is saying. This creates a situation where listening isn’t really happening, therefore, understanding cannot take place. This wastes both people’s time and brings them no closer to one another when personal details are being shared, and no closer to a resolution when done in an important discussion.
This form of communication can show itself in many ways. One partner can undermine the other by agreeing to do something and then “forgetting,” or seeming to agree, but saying the opposite the next time the subject comes up.
Passive aggressiveness can also show itself through constant disagreement over small issues, particularly in front of others.
Aggressive communication involves overtly hostile communication, including criticism or even name-calling. It devalues the other person overtly, leaving people feeling defensive and leaving no veil over the overt conflict.
This is a form of verbal abuse and is something that no one should ever tolerate in a relationship.
If you or a loved one are a victim of domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential assistance from trained advocates.
For more mental health resources, see our National Helpline Database.
Apr 15, 2024 · Overall, the findings from the survey indicate that miscommunication online occurs frequently as a result of a lack of social cues, including tone, emotion, body gestures, and facial expressions.
Katherine Hampsten describes why miscommunication occurs so frequently, and how we can minimize frustration while expressing ourselves better. (Lesson by Katherine Hampsten, animation by Andrew Foerster)
Feb 18, 2021 · We provide illustrative examples as to how each of the 6 core principles were and were not used by various public health authorities and government leaders in the first 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, through October 2020, and the consequences of those successful or failed applications.
- 10.1089/hs.2020.0190
- January/February 2021
Apr 1, 2010 · The total number of all reported written complaints in 2020-21 was 170,013. This was equivalent to 300.6 complaints per 100,000 head of population. The proportion of complaints being fully upheld are 33.8% for primary care and 26.8% for HCHS.
Why is miscommunication common in the virtual workplace? Lack of context. And it’s not just that e-mails and phone conversations lack a person’s visual reaction to what you’ve said.
