Introduction
Communication can either build trust or it can break it - it’s that powerful.
We know so little about communication. After all, we weren’t taught it in school other than perhaps to articulate well or to argue and debate our POV. So here we are, unschooled in probably the most important part to any relationship, trying to wing it based on what was modeled of us as children.
Communication is a subtle art form, a spiritual skill, and ultimately a practice of surrender.
There’s all sorts of communication: The kind you use to market and sell a product, or the kind you use to teach on a subject, the kind you use when writing, story telling, public speaking, or even just small talk. But there's one common thread that ties all effective communication together: Trust.
When you build and strengthen trust through your communication, then you create and deepen intimacy. What has to happen to create intimacy and trust? You have to understand the person with whom you are communicating. You have to see them. Feel them. Make them feel acknowledged and heard.
“Your work, is in fact, the difficult work of empathy. Of finding a thread that helps you understand somebody else’s narrative so that you can work with them and dance with them and inspire them to take the actions that you want them to take.”
—Seth Godin.
