Champion Communicators

All of us wear different hats throughout the course of our days. Worker. Friend. Child. Neighbor. Citizen - to name a few. With each "hat," comes a set of communication challenges that are often unique to that specific role. When Barrack Obama, to give one example, puts on his presidential hat each day, there is no doubt he faces an endless array of communication challenges. The same is true for those public servants who serve as the mayor of any municipality - large or small. And let us not forget those who work as school teachers. But if I had to select one role that brings with it the most difficult communication challenges, day in and day out, then I would have to go with parents. Not only is what they do enormously important, but the complexity of the communication challenges these men and women face only seems to increase with each passing day.

Just the other day, for instance, I was in a museum in Washington, D.C. when in the quiet of this environment came the blast of a child's screams. A number of us turned toward the sound to see a little boy, still in his stroller, who was not being shy about making known his profound unhappiness at that moment. The boy's parents busily collected their belongings and moved themselves and their upset child out of the room. As a parent with memories of this sort of incident, I know evacuating the immediate premises usually represents step three in the universal drill of dealing with a screaming child. (Step one is making sure there is nothing physically wrong with the child. Step two is attempting to reason or, in some case, negotiate with the child to get them to stop screaming.) Once out of sight, I have no doubt the parents moved into step four, which included more attempts at "reasoning" and perhaps even taking the child out of the stroller and holding him.

For the parents, this particular moment represented a tiny portion of a day full of emotional swings on the child's part that tested each parent's resolve to deal with each moment, yet do so in a way that continues to reassure the child he is loved and safe. As this particular child ages, he will carry with him more communication challenges for his parents to face. As they do just that, the parents will also be working to provide their child with the skills to deal with his own problems in ways that are wise and successful. Further, they will be doing so in ways that perhaps give this same little boy the skills and fortitude to be a responsible adult and citizen and perhaps go on to make significant contributions to our world. As an imperfect parent myself, my hat goes off to the Mom and Dad I saw in action at that museum. They faced this particular communication challenge, managed to get their child and themselves through it in one piece, and seamlessly readied themselves for the next one that was waiting in the wings. And in doing this, day after day, in their own quiet way are striving to make our world a better place. They are the champion communicators.