If you look around your work, your school, or your social groups, you’ll notice a phenomenon repeat itself everywhere: We surround ourselves with people like us.
That isn’t a surprise, of course. People like us grew up in similar environments, liking the same things, and having similar experiences. We have similar tastes in humor, entertainment, politics, etc.
Often (but not always) this means our cliques are filled with people of similar ages. We know how to communicate with those people.
Talking to people our own age is easy. There’s no barrier. There’s nothing to figure out. Jokes, references, satire, innuendo… They are put out and picked up easily in conversation. Even body language and posture are understood comfortably.
But life doesn’t allow us to isolate ourselves amongst similar people. Often, we have no choice but to work and live alongside people who are older or younger than ourselves.
That’s a good thing, really. We should venture outside of our comfort zones if we want to grow. When you surround yourself with people who are different, you gain a unique perspective. Diversity breeds innovation, they say.
Without similarities to rely on, however, communication with different people can be challenging. There is no familiar ground to fall back on. Communication errors can happen. People might be confused or offended. This happens a lot when we talk to people outside of our age group, especially when there’s a large gap between parties.
There’s a lot of advice we can give you about dealing with each generation. We could tell you that Millennials are strong with written communication, so they prefer emails and text messages. We could tell you that Baby Boomers respect formality and appreciate having options. We could tell you that Generation X likes receiving and giving feedback.
But those are just generalizations. They’re true for some people in each generation, but what happens if you come across someone who doesn’t fit the stereotype?
The truth is that if you want to communicate with someone, you must learn their language. You can’t expect them to learn yours. Don’t assume you speak the same language just because you both speak English.
There’s a funny anecdote that was floating around when Facebook became really popular and everyone’s grandmother was signing up. It’s hard to tell if this story is true, but the message is valuable nevertheless.
An older woman was reprimanded by her family because she frequently posted “LOL” on sad content, such as posts about death, cancer, or missing kids. She thought “LOL” meant “lots of love” and was expressing her positive feelings. She was a new social media user. She didn’t speak the language that was dominated by younger people.
To communicate with older or younger generations, you have to learn their language. Not the generation’s language, but the language of the specific people you’re working or living alongside. The best way to do this is through constant engagement with other people. After all, the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it.
Furthermore, you need to self-reflect regularly. If you didn’t understand something (like why that 20-year-old sends you text messages rather than walk across the floor to speak with you, or why that 60-year-old wears a tie every day), you should ask in a non-threatening manner.
If you keep an open mind and accept that everyone else’s language is just as valid as yours, you’ll develop skills to communicate with everyone.
Communication, after all, is the most important skill any of us could have. Everything else is built on top of it. Regardless whether we’re talking about our career, our studies, our relationships, or our community, we need strong communication skills if we want to grow ourselves and our organizations.
Speaking of communication, we would be remiss not to mention the Dale Carnegie Course, which is the premier workshop for people who need to improve their communication skills. It will help you or your team strengthen interpersonal skills, which leads to enhanced productivity and less stress for everyone. Check it out.
For more information, visit our website!
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