An Effective Communicator...

One person in my life that I have always viewed as an effective communicator was a previous director of mine. I was young and of course, bullheaded, when it came to receiving feedback and understanding the operations of a high quality childcare center. Back then I viewed this person as a nitpicker, as I thought she was targeting me out of the group. I can now look back and appreciate the ways she communicated feedback with me, and I now even utilize some of her methods with my own staff. First, she never belittled me in front of a group or even one-on-one. She also made it a point to always communicate what she liked to call "the why" behind everything she corrected me on. She also modeled a lot for me, demonstrating how things should be done instead of just telling me or expecting me to know. I always reach out to her and let her know how much of an influence she was on me, and we both laugh because we realize how unaware of all of this I was back then. I can now appreciate and even reflect what she taught me and how she communicated with me with others, which is such a benefit for me.