The Crew behind this newsletter is a mostly asynchronous team.
Some of our Crew members are native English speakers from the US and the UK. Others are second or third-language English speakers from countries in Europe and Asia.
And we all express ourselves differently. Some people are blunt and direct, some people are friendly and upbeat—and some people are everything in between.
Now, done wrong, setups like this can lead to unnecessary tension and conflict even if everyone’s from the same place…
How to make it work?
Anytime you feel frustrated or upset by someone you’re working with, reframe your thoughts from: “This is a bad, immature person” to “This person isn’t communicating effectively, and may not even realize it.”
Remind yourself that you’re on their team.
You both want to get things done. And you’re both good people. You’re just experiencing a failure in communication.
It could be due to language barrier, culture, conditioning… there are a thousand variables.
Think about effectiveness
The important thing is that Everything boils down to either effective or ineffective communication.
If communication is ineffective, it’s just a problem to solve, like everything else you do at work.
This is easier said than done, though.
What can you do?
Try to remember that poor communication does not signal bad intentions.
Understand that, approach the situation with a level head, and work together to solve any breakdowns in communication. You’ll save yourself a lot of headaches.
