Kindness in communication

What a carousel of emotions these past two weeks have been! And this is good, no shame about it; we tend to hide our emotions as if it’s something we should feel ashamed of, or a sign of weakness.

Two of my team members left, and even though we worked remotely, we managed to foster a great team spirit, respecting and supporting each other, and throwing in a good joke from time to time to lift up the spirits. That’s positive work environment for you, in a nutshell. 

On the last day of the second team member, we made a top of the most used emoticons in our chats and the words we most used in the last two years. One of my colleagues used some of them to make this collage and ended it with “soare” (which means sun in Romanian), because working together means one has to find ingenious ways to communicate. Especially when the language we work in is not our mother tongue. 

These days, we are all communicators. We are forced to do it (by technology, society, you name it). That’s why we must show kindness and understanding when we communicate. And not assume that the other reads one’s mind. Go that extra mile to create the bond of communication. Use kindness because it works every time. Quoting one of my now former colleagues, kindness is a choice. Choose kindness in your communication because it builds a positive work environment which positively influences your team members, your mental state, and your life entirely.