Importance of Communication

I am new to blog sites so this will be an experience for me as a whole.

As I read through the chapters for this week, many things came up with regard to communication. As I child, I remember my mother sharing/teaching us how your tone can change the way a conversation goes. Later, teachers, friends and even strangers, made it clear how the non-verbal cues can also change how a message is sent and how it is received. I feel effective communication is so important to successful relationships - with friends, family, coworkers - anyone. With so many different styles, that can be very difficult. Understanding the theories and foundations might help everyone to come together in the end.

About an hour ago, something happened in my office that resonated with me from what I read already in our book. I had sent an email with an attachment to someone my boss has been working with. I recognized the attachment document as one of our consulting agreements. This is usually sent to people we are going into partnership with. My boss had signed it on behalf of our company and I was sending it back to the the sender for him to counter-sign. I have emailed with him in the past and just pulled up the email address I had. I wrote a brief note about what I was sending back to him and copied my boss. About 30 minutes later, my boss called me into his office over the phone - his tone was angry. Appartently, I had sent that email to this man's business email and it was a HUGE mistake. I immediately apologized but really it was an honest mistake. My boss didn't seem to care, put his hand up, indicating I needed to leave his office. The back story is that my boss and I have a great relationship and communicate well together. This was first mis-communication we have ever had. It is not sitting well with me.

My initial reaction is to defend myself for not knowing any different and for him not including me in what this document was all about. I know that doesn't always lead to a positive outcome; actually, rarely does that lead to anything good but pointing fingers. I guess the outcome of this story is still to come.

I am excited for this course - for what I will learn and for what will be stuff I know but can see differently.