One of the most
desirable skills in work or social life is the ability to communicate clearly
and concisely.
When we say
“communication” we usually imagine that we are either writing or speaking, but
that is not all it encompasses. It also includes the extremely important
and often overlooked (and under-used) skill of
listening.
The circle letters (a, o, the circle
part of g and d,) show both listening and talking. If you think of the circle
as being the mouth: when the mouth is closed no speaking is happening, so
hopefully listening is.
When the mouth is open words come out –
so speaking is happening. “Speaking” on paper, i.e. writing, comes across in
the same way as actual verbal speaking in writing, so when the circles are open
the writer is speaking, but we don’t know if it’s verbally or in writing.
In most
relationships,
no matter how personal or how casual, we need both listening and speaking, so
the ideal to find is a good balance of both open and closed circle letters.
All open?
Watch out! You have a talker, talker, talker.
All closed?
Not too communicative.
Of course, in
some circumstances anyone will speak more or be quieter, this is a generality as
to how the person usually behaves.
Next you can
find out how much feeling will come with the
communication.
The farther
right the slant the more emotion will be expressed.
The more
upright / backhand the less emotion will be audible.
Neither is
better than the other, but each is better suited to a particular situation.
If an accountant is discussing budgets and balance sheets it is, we hope,
totally factual, so a lack of emotion is perfectly fitting … however if that
same accountant is with his significant other who wants him to whisper sweet
nothings in her ear, cool, calm and calculated is just not going to work!
Great
speakers and motivators usually show a right hand slant and it is their emotion that
connects and gets others on their side.
Is the
information clearly delivered?
For this look
at two things: firstly look to see if there are lead-in strokes to the
writing, or do the letters just start bluntly?
Blunt starts,
with no lead in stroke is clear thinking, straight to the point and … well,
blunt! This can be good when our accountant is giving his budget.
There we want fact clearly presented.
But put him
again with his significant other who wants to know if she’s the only person in
the world he can ever love ……. and does she really want a totally blunt, direct
answer? Bluntness has an upside and a downside.
The other thing
to look for in clarity is
organization, and here we will look
at whether the lines of writing run into each other.
If the tails of
the upper line overlap the upper extenders of the lower line, then the trait of
confusion of interests is present. It’s hard to explain things clearly
when you yourself have so many things going on you just can’t get a good handle
on any of them. This is always a negative trait, so if it’s you, start
deliberately spacing your lines farther apart.
There are several more traits which
affect good communication, but we don’t have room for them here. However the
ones discussed above will give you a good start on identifying the
good communicators
around you.
