Last week we held our latest Balancing Work & Cancer webinar last week. CAC's own Nicole Jarvis led the second part of our Communicating Effectively series. The sessions covered tips and techniques on communications in the online space, during the job search as well as having conversations at work.
One of the best techniques you can use to communicate effectively is to plan ahead. Working after receiving a cancer diagnosis can be stressful and anxiety can be caused in anticipation of certain conversations. If you choose to disclose at work this could be anything from telling your boss about your diagnosis and needing to take time off, asking for a reasonable accommodation, addressing comments from coworkers, etc. But even if you don't choose to disclose, treatment side effects like brain fog or memory loss may make something like giving a presentation or even a casual check-in with your team more difficult than it was prior to treatment. Planning ahead and rehearsing can be helpful for so many different scenarios.
Sit down before you know you will have any of these conversations or presentations and write down in a note book or one your phone/tablet what you want to say, and how you want to say it. If you can, get a friend or family member to rehearse with you. Saying it out loud can help catch yourself saying things you may not want to or can help identify phrases that don't sound natural in your own speaking voice. Then if possible, bring those notes in with you when you have the conversations. It doesn't need to be a word for word script, but it can help you remember to hit all the points you want to make, and not leave out any critical information. This can also be important to help you not accidentally disclose information you have decided to keep private.
For more techniques, you can find the archived recording of the webinar here. Join us next month when the Balancing Work & Cancer webinar series continues with Setting Boundaries on Wednesday, October 9th at 6pm ET/3pm PT.
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