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PO Box A524
Sydney South NSW 1235, Level 11, 227 Elizabeth Street Sydney NSW 2000

Telephone: 1800 812 164

© 2024 Opportunity International AustraliaABN 83 003 805 043

Working with Heart and Head: Communication, Connection, Confidence

By Karyn Lisignoli

Living and working in the modern world requires many skills and competencies and one of the most important is communication. And to communicate effectively we need to know who we are and how to embrace the many aspects of ourselves.

We all have, and can draw upon, our heart and head values and skills. Our head provides our knowledge, decisiveness, intellect; our heart provides our intuition, compassion, empathy. Neither are more important and both are essential. Both are required to build self-awareness; both are required to work with, communicate and engage others.

The journey of self-discovery and self-awareness is one requiring enormous amounts of courage, vulnerability, compassion and grit. It requires ‘heart’. And it requires ‘head’. It requires intellectual interpretation and analysis of what you discover.

Only when you understand your core values; your purpose; your deep drivers, will you truly understand how you think and why you react and respond in the way you do. Once you have this knowledge, once you have looked deeply within, then you can ‘look out’ effectively with confidence and compassion and engage and communicate with others, whether work colleagues, or friends, family and partners.

As Stephen Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People advised, it is our self-awareness that empowers us to ‘shape our own lives, instead of living our lives by default, or based on the standards and preferences of others.’ Our self-awareness enables us to live fulfilling, purpose-filled lives.

And it helps in our business environments too. Several studies have concluded that an employee’s engagement within their organisation is the single biggest factor in business success . And it is largely heart values that build that engagement.

Build the confidence to communicate powerfully and effectively. Build the confidence to embrace your heart and head without feeling pigeon-holed into one or the other. Everyone has both heart and everyone has head. Utilising and recognising both will help us all to live happy and productive lives.

Karyn Lisignoli, a business and community development consultant and leadership mentor, will speak at Opportunity International Australia’s Women4Women conference on 9 August in Perth.

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