The ability to communicate the vision for the company and how the company will reach its goals may be the single most important quality of great leaders. The way in which they communicate draws people in. These leaders inspire others to believe in their initiatives. They create a following.
A visionary is just a visionary if they don’t have the ability to ignite their team and focus the team’s efforts to make that vision a reality.
So, how do you do this?
Master these 12 Steps to Great Leadership Communication:
- Know yourself
- Know the recipient
- Know the topic
- Know your purpose
- Determine the best format
- Be authentic
- Connect
- Listen
- Be Clear, and Concise
- Write Well
- Project Optimism
- Recap
Let’s get into the details of each of these.
Know Yourself
Know what your strengths are as a communicator, and know your weaknesses. If you don’t know, (and many don’t because they can’t see themselves as others do) ask a peer or cohort. If you genuinely want to know the answer and express that to the people you ask, they’ll likely tell you.
We discussed building on the strengths of your employees in another post, but that also relates to you building on your own strengths. Being aware of your own weaknesses enables you to avoid them as much as possible.
An example? You may be excellent at concisely formulating your message one-on-one, but in a group, when all eyes are on you, you may get nervous which leads you to be too wordy.
If you know this, you can make an effort to calm yourself before speaking in groups, and consciously avoid talking too much.
“Accept yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses, your truths, and know what tools you have to fulfill your purpose.”
Steve Maraboli
Know the recipient
Know the types of personalities you’re addressing, the diversity within the group, various levels of positions they may hold, their motivations, and communication styles. Why? One of the single most important factors in effectively communicating either verbally or in writing is knowing the audience so that the message can be shaped for them. This is true for both verbal and written communication.
The University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Communication states that “Taking an audience-centered approach is important because a speaker’s effectiveness will be improved if the presentation is created and delivered in an appropriate manner.” (1)
An online division of The University of Utah states, “Knowing your audience is the first key to an effective presentation.” (2)
The Writing Center at the University of North Carolina says, “Keeping your audience in mind while you write can help you make good decisions about what material to include, how to organize your ideas, and how best to support your argument.” (3)
Know the topic
In a previous post, we’ve discussed the 7 C’s of Leadership, and competence is one of them. Knowing your topic not only helps you put together the most necessary pieces of information to relay, but it helps with the way it’s actually communicated. Your confidence—or lack of confidence—often comes through loudly and clearly to the recipients of the message.
Know your purpose
This may sound overly obvious to some, but getting your thoughts around the purpose of a message helps the messenger stay on topic, be more concise, and pack a bigger punch. Those who don’t keep their purpose in mind as they write or speak can end up delivering a message that comes across watered-down, lacking passion, importance and / or urgency.
“Purpose-driven organizations bound by values are stronger than profit-driven organizations bound by rules.”
Alexander Den Heijer
Determine the format of communication
What’s the best form of communication to deliver your message? The format depends on the message itself, the urgency, and the potential barriers to receiving the message clearly and with the appropriate impact. Should the message be delivered in-person (one-on-one or one-to-group), email, phone, instant messaging, video-conference, social media, or some other method of announcement, like a newsletter?
Often, leaders who do well at considering all of the many differences of their audience, purposefully vary their method of communication in order to be most effective at communicating the message to the most people.
Be authentic
Authentic communicators have audiences that believe they are genuine. They may have an understated confidence that causes those they communicate with to believe they’re trustworthy without coming across as arrogant or disconnected. Authentic communicators have audiences who believe that they walk the talk… and they lead by example.
“Example is leadership.”
Albert Schweitzer
Connect
Aside from the main purpose of the communication, connecting with recipients is key to effectively getting a message across.
Many of those in leadership positions spend a great deal of time and money going to public speaking classes to learn the art of delivery, and connecting with their audience. You can have a powerful message to deliver in a group forum, but without the necessary eye contact, body language, passion and genuineness in delivery, the message may not resonate, or at least not to the degree you want.
If the communication is written, it’s one dimensional; that means that the words used have to get all of the elements of the message across by themselves, without help from voice inflection, eye contact, body language and personal energy.
How you go about connecting with your audience will vary based on your ability to work with your own personality and your strengths to engage them. Some use humor, but humor doesn’t come easily to everyone. Many use examples. Examples are always good because they’re fairly easy to come up with, through either your own experiences or those of others.
And then there are stories. Stories are examples, but with a little more color to them. They may be real and they may be fictional, but they’re believable. And they help the audience envision your points.
In an article about storytelling in teaching by the Association of Psychological Science, they state that “Characters are an important element of any tale, and indeed, stories can also make material concrete and memorable by putting a human (or animal) face on theories and issues.”
A well-placed story that supports the purpose of the communication sells. A prime example? Look no further than an engaging pastor.
However your method, connect with your audience.
Listen
Listen A LOT. There’s an old saying, “We all were given two ears and one mouth for a reason… so that we would listen more than we talk.” Listen well, and objectively. This might mean opening the floor for feedback.
Asking questions shows that you care, that you’re open to opinions, and that the employees’ thoughts matter. And it’s an easy way to connect.
Asking questions changes the dynamic and energy in a room, from the audience being “talked to” to being involved (and as we know, getting and keeping employees engaged is a common business struggle.)
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”
Stephen R Covey
Be Clear and concise
Always keeping the purpose in mind, be specific in communicating. Why? It eliminates potential confusion, and it’s easier to keep the audience’s interest.
Steve Jobs gave one of the most listened-to commencement speeches of all time – in 14 minutes and 33 seconds. Less than 15 minutes. That’s it. He used stories – examples from his life. He connected. He was clear and concise. Want to see for yourself? Click here.
Ted Talks suggests keeping ANY talk to 18 minutes or less in order to maintain attention and make the biggest impact.
Write well
With today’s technology, writing is an essential of communicating in business and in our personal lives. But because of the ease, it’s very abundant. Much of it is noise. We become desensitized to a lot of it.
That’s one of the reasons why it is so important to write well. Be direct. Be clear. And make it grammatically correct with correct punctuation.
Directness helps eliminate the possibility of the message being diluted, and also misinterpreted. Directness gets the message across quickly so that it keeps the reader’s attention. Using our language correctly shows a respect for the language, the reader and pride in your product.
In emails, it’s particularly important to make your communication succinct. People receive SO many emails – some important, some not as important. Recipients generally scan emails.
Here are some tips for writing a good email:
- Have a good subject line. “Hi Team” doesn’t cut it. The subject line should quickly show the reader what the message will be about. It’s important. (How often do YOU scan through your email subjects to decide which ones you should open first, or open at all?)
- Start with an appropriate greeting. Dear Dr. Williams, Mr. Jones, etc.
- Use a direct opener.
- Keep the body succinct. Don’t use filler words.
- Use bullets, if there is more than one point to make. They make the points easier to scan.
- Use full words, not the shortened words often used in text messages.
- Try to keep the email to a total of 3-4 paragraphs. Remember, recipients frequently scan emails.
- Use a professional, cordial closing salutation.
With that said, proofread as if you’ve never seen the writing before. Correct errors and always double-check recipients are correct before hitting “send.” (Have you ever been the recipient of a message with content that wasn’t meant for you? Depending on the content and the recipients, it can cause a whole host of problems, aside from embarrassment.)
Even with the abundance of written information available to us today with the push of a button, the written form of communication, written well and with the right placement, can be extremely powerful.
Ever heard of the power of the pen? what about “the pen is mightier than the sword?”
Project optimism
Remember the point about connecting? We talk about the importance of being a positive leader in “10 Steps to a More Positive Team.” Negativity is a turn off, and you want to engage.
“It is the hopeful, buoyant, cheerful attitude of mind that wins. Optimism is a success builder; pessimism an achievement killer.“
Orison Swett Marden
Recap
Aristotle taught that in speaking, you first tell the audience what you will be telling them; tell them; then tell them what you told them. His reasoning?
- Tell them what you are going to tell them: You set the stage by telling the audience what you are going to communicate up front. Additionally, you’re giving them a heads up on what you want them to take away from your communication.
- Tell them: this is where you make your point. Build your case. Tell them the importance, with conviction. What are the benefits? What are the benefits to them?
- Tell them what you told them: this ensures that those who didn’t catch the message get the key points. It’s also a way to emphasize the importance of your points. It’s another opportunity for the audience to buy-in to your message, and you.
Want Some Additional Numbers to Demonstrate the Importance of Communication?
Let’s look at some stats collected by the Economist Intelligence Unit after conducting an extensive survey on business-related communication.
Over a 2-month time frame at the end of 2017, they surveyed a collection of 403 Senior- and Mid-level managers, as well as junior workers of US companies ranging in revenue from <$10 million to >$1 billion.
Summary of their results:
- Regardless of revenue level, ineffective communication is having a dramatic effect on US companies.
- Differences in communication styles is a key contributor to that ineffectiveness.
- Many of those surveyed thought the communication vehicles used are not those which are most effective.
- Consequences of poor communication vary depending on the level of position the person holds within the company.
The Details:
Here’s what they found regarding the consequences of ineffective communication at work:
When respondents were asked to choose 3 answers of those provided, here were the results:
52% said there was added stress
44% said that there was a delay / failure to complete assigned task
31% claimed that it caused low morale
20% said that it caused obstacles to innovation
18% stated that it caused an inability to close sale
13% said there was slower career progression
13% claimed that they lost a client
That means that 89% of respondents said that poor communication, at least sometimes, causes them stress!
Here’s what details emerged from their survey regarding the Top 4 causes of ineffective communication.
The top contributor to poor communication, according to those surveyed, was different communication styles!
We’ll touch on communication styles in a different post, but this statistic demonstrates the importance of delivering messages in a way that resonates with the audience.
“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.”
Tony Robbins
Summary
Will mastering the 12 steps above make you an excellent leader? Of course not. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have developed an entire site devoted to the nuances of becoming a great leader.
But we know that becoming a great leader cannot take place without exceptional communication. With that, we’ll leave you with some thoughts on leadership from some people you may have heard of:
“The difference between mere management and leadership is communication.”
Winston Churchill
“Great leaders communicate and great communicators lead.”
Simon Sinek
“If you want to be a leader of people, then you need to be a master of words.”
Robert Kiyosaki
Do you have thoughts on this post? We’d love to hear from you!