Communicating as a Leader: Going Beyond the Essentials of Communication
In any leadership role, communication skills are essential for success. There are core skills that need to be in place, and there are also more advanced skills and tools that you can provide.
We are now going to focus on these advanced skills and tools for more experienced leaders.
The Essentials of Communication: Are These in Place?
It is worth spending a few minutes to consider if the following essential skills are already in place for your leaders before moving onto advanced skills.
You could consider re-visiting these areas for your leaders before moving onto the next level of skills.
Advanced Communication
We can now look at the advanced communication skills and tool set.
Self Audit
A good place for leaders to start is a quick self-audit. You can tailor these questions but we like the following for senior leaders as a way to get leaders thinking:
| TO WHAT EXTENT DO I? |
|---|
| Inspire and convince different target groups, and communicate clearly and explain the reasons why? |
| Create an environment of mutual collaboration across my organisation, encouraging respect for different attitudes and cultures? |
| Manage stakeholders pro-actively and incorporate their views, and anticipate conflict and mediate them with an appropriate level of assertiveness? |
Be Self-Aware
Moving on from this self-audit, a good next step is to be aware of our own motivations.
These will have an impact on how you approach a situation and how you react to a situation. They impact on what motivates you at work, what you find frustrating and also can affect how you may perceive a situation.
Equally, everyone in your team and peer group will also be motivated by different things.
Even without knowing how they are motivated but by recognising that they have different motivations from yourself, you will be more open-minded about how you approach a conversation and how you react to a situation.
Be Clear on Your Outcomes
By outcome we are referring to your desired goal or objective. It sounds obvious, but in our experience, it is easy for anyone, including leaders, to enter a situation without clear outcomes. This could affect a conversation on a one to one level, a group meeting or a department or company briefing.
What is a Clear Outcome?
The starting point is to be clear on what you want from the conversation and to then state it in a positive way. You are more likely to get a constructive conversation if you start with a positive outcome.
Secondly, be clear on what the outcome looks like for you. What are you happy to accept and where are you happy to compromise?
SMART objectives are well known and often referred to. They are also a very useful tool which provide a good sense check for us and they can help you clarify what outcome you want.
Who are you Communicating With?
In our leadership development programmes, we use a number of different tools to help leaders better understand themselves, their team and how this affects their relationships.
With this information, you can then better understand how you are likely to behave and how those around you might behave.
One example of such a model is below. With a bit more information and insight, you can approach situations and conversations differently to work towards a better outcome.
You will behave in a certain way and so will the person that you are communicating with.
If you are aware of different behaviours then you can adjust how you are communicating to reflect how the person that you are communicating with seems to be responding.
Looking for Support?
If you would like help to build these points into your leadership development programme or you are interested in tailored and facilitated communication skills workshops, please get in touch.