By Athalia Monae Whether you’re leading a startup or corporation, open, honest, and effective communication is a must. We get so busy with our daily tasks and the unexpected things that it’s easy to communicate ineffectively, but we have to make it a priority. A lack of effective communication can ruin personal relationships just as well as business relationships. When I launched my brand, I hired a patent attorney early on in my journey to file a patent application for my hairbrush pouch design. After not receiving any communication from him a month after I hired and paid him in full, I first contacted him by phone and left a voicemail, stating “I’m calling to check the status of my case.” A week after not receiving a response, I emailed him. He never followed up after that either. I went through a few other channels before successfully connecting with him, …