Address to the Nation: Communication

Today I want to talk about communication. When you’re talking about a team, or if you’re talking about anything that involves you and someone else, whether that would be one person, two, three, ten or twenty, communication is key.  Communication is a pillar in an organisation, it’s a pillar for a team. If trust is the foundation of a team, or any type of group, then communication is the cornerstone.

See, communication keeps everything out in the open; communication keeps everyone in the know; communication is how you guys move as a unit. There’s so much power in communication because it automatically brings unity in some way, shape or form. Even if your communication deals with a disagreement, at the end of it there’s unity because you understand what the other person is thinking, you understand their values, you understand what’s going on in their mind.

See, when we close off and we don’t communicate the things that are inside, we can’t expect others to respond to it well because they don’t know what’s going on. They have no idea. Though sometimes it might be daunting, although sometimes it might be a task or an obstacle we need to get through, on the other side of that, communication also brings so much relief and freedom. It brings so much more vision and positivity.

Coaches: take the time to communicate to your players. And, communicating with your players isn’t just yelling at them in practice. Communicating with your players is pulling them aside and actually knowing what their day looks like and understanding who they are as a person. And that’s more than just once in a year sitting down, writing your goals, and then at the end of the year did you nail them. Communication is sitting down, understanding where they’re at that point and moment in time, understanding each and every facet of their life.

See, you can’t over-communicate. You can’t. There’s not a point that you can know so much you don’t need to know anything more. You can always know a little bit more; you can always get a little more insight. So right now all I encourage you to do, whether you’re that coach, whether you’re that player, communicating to your teammates, whether you’re in that relationship, whether you’re in that business or that team: communicate, open up, tell that other person what you’re thinking, what you’re feeling.

And if you feel that you’re not able to communicate, or that you’re not able to be yourself in that environment, then there’s something wrong. Period. Because you should be able to communicate, you should be able to say what’s on your mind, and you should be able to express that to another individual or another teammate. Know you may get feedback. But if you’re ever in a situation where you don’t feel like you can communicate, something is wrong there that you need to address right away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

— JFK