In a recent episode of the Help Me With HIPAA podcast, Donna and David interview Tamika Bass who is the Chief Information Security Officer of the Georgia Department of Revenue.  No, they do not talk about taxes and how to keep your information confidential.  They actually talk about how and why it is so important to have effective communication skills. During this crazy time of COVID, political discord, and everything else 2020, I think everyone can take nuggets from this episode and use them both, professionally and personally.

I am sure everyone reading this is thinking “I communicate just fine.”  But do you really?  Communication is a two way street and most people only think, “I communicate fine”, which is only one dimensional.  It is really important to build relationships, both in your professional and personal life.  Building these relationships will improve understanding and collaboration.  Tamika talks about how she came into a new role and gives great tips on how she focused on building relationships to make her and her team successful.  Tamika also shares how she sat down with her daughter and explained the T-H-I-N-K method.  Before you speak, think to yourself if what you are about to say is, True, Helpful, Inspiring, Necessary, and most importantly Kind?  David just wanted to make the method the T-H-I-N method, but he got in trouble.

Listen to Effective Communication Skills Matter (episode 279) and get some fantastic and real life experiences to help you.  I personally have learned that if you talk at someone you will get nowhere.  Think how you respond to someone telling you what to do and just walking away.  How fast are you to jump on that and get it done vs. someone asking you to do something and taking the time to explain how and why it needs to be done.  How much longer does it really take to do this?  Odds are, not that much longer and everyone is better for being kind to one another.