"In order to improve communications with others, a good first step is to understand your own communication style.  Ask yourself:

1. What motivates me?
2. What gets in the way of my communicating well?
3. How do I like to receive information?"

                               -Sherry Bluffington, Ph.D.

This quote really has me thinking about how important it is to put yourself in someone else's shoes, especially when it comes to communication.  It also has me thinking about how important it is to know yourself, and to understand the way you share information and communicate with others.

Do you know what your preferred method of receiving information is?  Let's say you call someone and they are away from their desk.  You know they respond quickly to email, but take longer to respond to voice messages.  You have a choice, at that point, of leaving a voicemail or shoot them a quick email asking them to return your call.  Let's assume that you are in somewhat of a time crunch and need to an answer relatively soon, and that the response should be fairly brief.  Which do you choose?

If you know they are likely to check their email before voicemail (or if that Blackberry is attached to their hand), you can write a quick email asking them to call back when they are free.  Or, you could leave a voice message, knowing they might not get around to checking it for a few hours. 

I suppose much of this also depends on the depth and degree of the information you are in need of, but if it's a high level request and you can put yourself in the other person's shoes, you might get a faster response if you think strategically.

Do you know what your communication preference is?  What is it?  Leave a comment & let me know!