This article is by Deborah Grayson Riegel, president of Elevated Training Inc., a communication skills training and coaching company. She is the author of Oy Vey! Isn’t a Strategy: 25 Solutions for Personal and Professional Success.
Goldilocks would have a field day with my 11-year-old twins. Their chairs, their beds, and their oatmeal are just right, but their communication styles can be extreme. My daughter Sophie tends to be very straightforward and direct, employing a miser’s economy of words. “How was your day?” is answered with “Fine”—full stop. If I want more, I’m going to have to work for it. Her brother, Jacob, is as generous with his words as his grandmother is with hugs for him. “How was your day?” is answered with “It was great! Do you want to know what happened? Well, first, we had a fire drill and everyone got soaked in the rain. And then do you know what happened? We had a math quiz and nobody was prepared. And then . . .”
