{"id":223,"date":"2019-05-06T23:48:26","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T23:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/?p=223"},"modified":"2019-05-06T23:48:27","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T23:48:27","slug":"jave-with-joe-when-it-comes-to-communication-ok-is-just-not-ok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/?p=223","title":{"rendered":"Jave with Joe: When It Comes to Communication, OK Is Just Not OK."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

 <\/strong>I\u2019m often asked, \u201cWhat are the most\nimportant skills a leader needs to have?\u201d Obviously, there are hundreds\u2026indeed\nthousands\u2026of books, articles, and blogs devoted to this topic, and while they\nare different in some respects, there\u2019s also considerable overlap. For example,\nmost \u201cexperts\u201d agree that leaders need to be good at making sense of what\u2019s\ngoing on in the business environment, at anticipating threats and recognizing\nopportunity. They need to be good at building high performance cultures, shaping\neffective strategies, and pulling the right levers to enable their\norganizations\u2026however large or small\u2026to execute those strategies\nsuccessfully.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And of course, most people would agree that effective\nleaders must be able to persuade, motivate, and inspire the people around\nthem\u2026which comes down to the ability to communicate effectively. If you can\u2019t communicate\nyour ideas in a clear, compelling way, you\u2019ll never fully engage your employees,\nand if you can\u2019t do that, your success will be limited\u2026no matter how much\nopportunity is available, no matter how brilliant your strategy may be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that in mind, here are a few ideas that might help you\ndevelop your communications skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tailor your message.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your goal is to persuade, motivate, and engage, you need\nto connect with your audience, and that means you need to tailor your message\naccordingly. And to do that effectively, you need to know your audience. You\nneed to walk in their shoes and figure out what they care about. What gets them\nexcited. What scares them. What they already know and what they need to know.\nRemember, communication is not a one-size-fits-all proposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listen more; talk\nless.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can\u2019t get to know your people by talking at them, no\nmatter how important your message. So you might want to spend more time\nlistening instead of talking. Ask questions. Be present. Ask if you can take\nnotes, to make sure that you capture and retain people\u2019s ideas.  The more you listen, the better your own\nideas will become\u2026and the better you\u2019ll be able to convey those ideas in a way\nthat resonates with others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beware of information\noverload. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a particular problem when you\u2019re delivering an\nimportant message via a formal presentation (as opposed to a conversation with\none or just a few other people). We\u2019ve all sat through Power Point\npresentations where the slides (probably lots<\/em>\nof slides) were jammed with bullets, graphs, charts, and data. How successful\nwere those presentations? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today it\u2019s easier than ever to gather information. Sometimes\nit seems as if we\u2019re drowning in data. The real challenge today is how to\ncreate meaning from all this information and complexity. What goes into your\nmessage and what gets left out or put aside for another day?  What does your audience need to know right\nnow? Again, knowing your audience is critical here. That\u2019s what allows you to\nmake the right choices…put the data and information into the most appropriate\ncontext\u2026and focus your message most effectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prepare and practice.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whenever you\u2019re delivering an important message, whether\nit\u2019s in a one-on-one conversation or a presentation to a thousand people, never, never wing it<\/em>\u2026even if you\u2019ve\ndelivered a similar message many times. Again, you need to think carefully\nabout your audience and tailor your content accordingly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if you want to really engage with your audience\u2026if you\nwant them to stay with you all the way on an exciting, compelling journey\u2026you\nneed to practice what you\u2019re going to say. In detail. Out loud. Over and over\nagain, so that any unnecessary content gets weeded out, the narrative smooths\nout, and all the dots get connected. Too many leaders think \u201cI\u2019m a good\npresenter,\u201d and rely on an outline of key points to get them through a\npresentation. For most of us, the result is that we ramble, we lose the thread\nof our message, we go down too many rabbit holes that leave the audience\nwondering how much longer it will be before they can break for lunch. That\u2019s\nnot good enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deliver message.\nRepeat message six times<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most frustrating things for leaders is the sense\nthat they delivered their message effectively and got great feedback, but\nnothing seems to have changed.  People\nare still doing the same things. They\u2019re not following the new direction.  The message\u2026apparently delivered\neffectively\u2026seems to have been a waste of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here\u2019s the thing. Very few people will listen to a\npresentation and then immediately begin to make changes to their work or\nbehaviors. The fact is that in most cases we all need to hear a given message\nseveral times before it really sinks in and we\u2019re ready to act on it. My rule\nof thumb is that after listening to a message twice, people will hear it. After\nlistening to the message twice more, in a different environment, they will\ninternalize it. After hearing it twice more, they will get engaged and act\ndifferently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, finally\u2026here are a few questions for you to consider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you rate\nyour communication skills? Would your people agree?
\nWhen was the last time you asked for some feedback on your communication\nskills?
\nWhat might you start doing today to grow your skills in this critical area?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 I’m often asked, “What are the most important skills a leader needs to have?” Obviously, there are hundreds…indeed thousands…of books, articles, and blogs devoted to this topic, and while they are different in some respects, there’s also considerable overlap. For example, most “experts” agree that leaders need to be good at making sense of what’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions\/226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}