What Is Communication?

My blog this week is on a family member who demonstrated competent communication within a particular context.  The family member is my uncle who once had a misunderstanding with another senior member of the family and the other person got so worked up that he started yelling at the top to his voice, but my uncle remained calm and allowed the yelling to subside then he just said in a low tone, “…but brother, your are speaking with me here, we don’t need to shout to be heard….”.  That was the magic phrase and the yelling stopped totally.

I would say that even though the situation looked as if it would turn violent, my uncle exhibited what I can call assertive behavior, that is, he was clear with what he wanted and, without being nasty, stated it  firmly.

I often model some of my communication behaviors after my uncle because this kind of communication helps the other party to check himself/herself; it also helps to avoid physical combat, thereby building matured people in a matured society.