Interpersonal vs. Situational Communication^®

There is a fundamental difference between Interpersonal Communication and Situational Communication^®. The latter is what leaders find themselves engaged in on a daily basis and it takes knowledge, experience and skill to master the art of Situational Communication^® in order to achieve desired results.

Is Interpersonal Communication the same as Situational Communication^®?

In a word, “NO”.

What is Interpersonal Communication?

We can all agree that any communication involving two or more people is some form of interpersonal communication. Right? But let’s try to define it a little further…

Interpersonal communication is the process by which people exchange ideas, feelings and thoughts using verbal and non-verbal massages. People usually engage in interpersonal communication to generate shared meanings and accomplish social goals. Typically, it’s a face-to-face interaction because both spoken and body language are used to communicate.

Take a look at the following chart. Notice that interpersonal communication can take place in a business or personal setting and is generally thought to be more social in nature (and doesn’t usually deal with business or professional issues). In other words, it tends to be more spontaneous and informal – without a planned payoff in mind. Think of it as a thoughtful engagement that’s most often effortless.

What is Situational Communication^®?

Situational Communication^® is fundamentally different from Interpersonal Communication. It’s a clear, concise and focused communication and relating strategy that maximizes a minimum amount of time to achieve successful results and effective relationships. Although it’s often used in personal settings, Situational Communication^® is mostly reserved for business and professional interactions (especially those that are challenging, where the points of view, interests or preferred solutions of the communicators are different or in conflict). Situational Communication^® is precisely the kind of communication leaders must be capable of planning for and executing in order to be both successful and effective.

These interactions differ enormously from your run of the mill interpersonal interactions that are generally effortless, thoughtful engagements. Situational Communication^® represents thoughtful engagement – with a purpose. In this case, there’s a planned payoff. These types of interactions are more formal, structured and well planned, requiring significant energy and focus.

Pareto’s Law

Situational Communication^® is Pareto’s Law in action. 80% of your most important leadership interactions come from 20% of the situations you’re involved in. And these situations are the difficult, high-risk scenarios where both your results and the relationships involved are extremely important.

Finding Commonalities in Difficult Situations

Take a moment to think about the important interaction topics that arise between you and your superiors, associates, subordinates, clients and others. Now ask yourself, “Why are these topics challenging and often difficult to achieve the results I want with, and not at the expense of the relationships involved?” What you’ll find is that all these interaction topics have something in common: the participating parties have different or conflicting points of view, interests or preferred solutions.

These are the types of interactions leaders face every day.

Even when you do know how to plan and execute them successfully and effectively, these conversations are challenging, high risk and difficult. And when you don’t know how to manage them to positively influence the outcome, it becomes an impossibly frustrating and negative experience.

To be Successful…

Leaders must be able to make things happen by facing these kinds of issues and interactions head on, by focusing their capacity to produce a desired result in a way that values, includes, supports, listens to and gives fair-minded consideration to the views of others. And they must do this in a clear, concise and focused way.

To be Relevant…

Leaders must be able to handle these situations and conversations successfully to consistently produce results.

To Last…

Leaders must be able to manage these conversations effectively to develop important, collegial and collaborative relationships. They must be the kind of leaders who can step on your shoes without ruining their shine.

They are successful/effective leaders.

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To find out the differences between Successful/Effective and Successful/Ineffective leaders, keep your eyes open for our next blog.

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Dr. Don MacRae is the author and passionate leader of Situational Communication^® and the CEO of Lachlan Enterprises Incorporated (The Lachlan Group).

Do you know the primary reason leaders and potential leaders fail today? It’s not because of what they do but rather how they do it – in other words, their people skills. Find out “How To” improve both your success and communication effectiveness by taking advantage of the FREE version of the Situational Communication^® website/webinar.