Communication is considered 80% of every leader’s role. Are you building the right skills to be great at communication?
In today’s business world it seems like we have so many ways to connect with each other: email, phone, text, chat, meetings, videos and a million other channels but according to the statistics, leaders are still not communicating in a way that helps employees understand and create clarity on what success looks like and how they can contribute to the organization.
Let's dive into the leadership communication challengea bit more...
Why does it seem so hard to get it right with impactful communication?
Impactful conversations are the ones we all know we need to have. All our internal instincts are telling us something doesn’t feel right, and we need to address a behavior, comment, or an approach with someone on our team or in the organization.
First, many leaders are not trained, prepared or willing to have impactful conversations.
Impactful conversations are the ones we all know we need to have. All our internal instincts are telling us something doesn’t feel right, and we need to address a behavior, comment, or an approach with someone on our team or in the organization. Most humans naturally push off the conversation for another time when it becomes a “real problem.”
We convince ourselves that the problem will just go away or take care of itself.
Ask yourself how often it does take care of itself: rarely or never. As leaders we have a responsibility to lean into hard problems and impactful conversations for the health and culture of our teams.
It can feel like leadership communication is hard, but it doesn't have to be that way!
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Second, in thinking about impactful conversations, most leaders solely focus on the negative aspect of what could happen during one of these conversations.
Thoughts such as "What if the other person becomes angry, what if I damage our relationship, what if they quit?" are common. Well, I am here to tell you, all those things are already happening, but no one is addressing it.
This can be more toxic and detrimental to long term health and relationships than just having the impactful conversation.
Leaders also need to think through and prepare for all the positive outcomes that may result from these conversations. This is not naturally what our brains focus on in the conversation but can lead to better results. Our ability to lean into and execute impactful conversations is a foundational leadership skill that needs to be built, practiced, and supported for all leaders.
The Bottom line: If communication is considered 80% of every leader’s role...are you building the right skills to be great at communication?
Join us for our next leadership training:
Impactful Conversations: Influential Techniques for Positive Results.
Let us help you identify when an impactful conversation needs to occur and prepare for having an conversations that will move the needle with your team. Learn more now.