Leadership 101: Communicating Effectively
If you’re in any type of leadership/influencer position, you understand a basic reality: you spend most of your time communicating with others in some way. You might not consciously realize just how much time you devote to activities like talking with others, listening, making presentations, asking questions, participating in meetings, reading and writing. But being a leader at any level means you do a lot of these types of things!
What’s the Point?
In his book “The 8 Essential Skills for Supervisors and Managers,” management consultant Paul Knudstrup noted:
When you communicate with others, you’re usually trying to accomplish one or more of the following objectives:
- • To be understood – get something across to others
- • To understand others – find out someone’s point of view, seek information/opinions, clarify something
- • To gain acceptance or agreement – gain a sympathetic hearing, persuade, sell an idea/product/service
- • To get something done – move people toward action
Stated like this, communication sounds pretty straightforward. But clear, effective communication is actually very difficult in a world overloaded with confusing and conflicting babble. You’re constantly giving off and receiving messages of all kinds — verbal, nonverbal and even through your appearance. So are you making the best use of all the various forms of communication in your leadership role? Or are you just letting it happen or taking some aspect(s) of how you handle your communications for granted?
For example, you might be a very good speaker or writer, but you don’t really actively listen to others. So you sometimes miss what’s important. Or you could be exceptionally well dressed and groomed for every occasion, but you don’t understand how to make networking consistently turn into actionable intelligence. Is it time to be more conscious about your communications and take things to the next level?
Developing Better Communication
You might not be aware of how much others watch how you behave and communicate as a leader. But you’re “on” all the time, so it makes sense to build your leadership presence and effectiveness by polishing your communication skills. Here are five suggestions to help with that process.
- Make sure there’s an authentic alignment between your own and your company’s purpose and values. Then show that alignment as you interact with others. For example, if you value others’ time and your company values not wasting time, start and end meetings on time and run them efficiently. Done consistently, this communicates the values of respect and effective time management.
- Pick one communication activity you want to use better, and then invest some time in learning how to do it more effectively. Because communication is embedded in almost everything we do, this could be anything — e.g., developing skills in active listening, writing more simply and clearly, or dressing appropriately for conferences.
- Be aware and consistent in your messages and how you’re seen by others. Align how you think, look, speak, write and behave in a way that feels professional but authentic to who you are. We all have personal quirks/preferences and that’s fine. But all of your communications should lead others to trust that you’re going to offer consistent, reliable leadership over time.
- Actions do speak louder than words, so walk the talk. If your behavior is in conflict with what you say, people will believe your behavior and discount the rest. For example, if you say that you value other’s input but you consistently interrupt people when they’re speaking, they’ll learn to stay silent.
- Finally, bring some humor and lightheartedness to the workplace. It needs to be appropriate (of course!). But if COVID-19 taught us anything, it’s that life is short and people appreciate leaders who can put situations into proper perspective with a light touch.
It takes conscious attention and work. But becoming a more skilled communicator can help you become a more effective and respected leader. You’ll find that you have fewer misunderstandings, happier coworkers and — well — just more fun! Do you have tips from your own “learning to communicate better” journey? Please share them with us.
