What Works: Speaking Their Language

I'm successful as the CEO of Conference Calls Unlimited to the extent I can speak the language of everyone in the company. We all speak English here in the company, so that shouldn't be a problem, right? Right?

Maybe.

I have to speak the language of IT when I collaborate with our IT-Guy Extraordinaire. We speak different languages, I swear. I speak the language of an impatient user. He speaks the language of an IT professional. Regularly, we have to stop and translate for each other.

The same goes with our Accountant. She speaks the language of accounting and tax rules and itemizations and accruals as defined by QB Pro, I might add. I speak the language of...what, the quasi-entrepreneur, the CFO/CEO who's looking for data in a particular way...today, why not. We, too, have to stop and  translate. And thankfully, she's incredibly patient as she's had to repeat it several times, many times. (It doesn't help my native language is the artist.)

The same goes for Customer Service and Sales. I speak maybe marketing or operations languages. They speak the language of customer conversations, and reality-meets-the-dream. They're patient, too.

Vendors, partners, customers and prospects...we all speak a different language. For us to get along, we have to speak the others' language at some point, at least understand some working phrases.

And the same goes with any relationship. The cliche' about men and women not communicating particularly well with both parties convinced it's the other's fault...is true. (That's why it's a cliche' of a duh-like depth.) I can't tell how many times my wife and I've stopped and translated back to the other what they heard with both of us laughing. Usually, nearly, all the time. Full disclosure and all. Definitely eventually though. 

I digress. So, seeing that some businesses are encouraging their employees to learn Spanish, at least emergency phrases...is a good thing. For communication to occur, you have to speak their language.