4 Signs that its time to Sharpen Your Leadership Communication
Hello There!
There are four obvious signs that it’s time to sharpen your communication as a leader. I know often time we feel that we are communicating clearly, but it’s not as clear to other people.
Four hints that you could improve somehow in communication includes:
Team members, direct reports, peers, or otherwise tell you that you’re not communicating clearly. Be humble enough to receive feedback from others. Even if you don’t take the feedback at face value, at least explore that feedback for yourself in an honest manner and collect feedback from additional people. That way you get a fair share of other perspectives to see if that is a general perspective regarding how you communicate.
You are often asked to repeat yourself. If you are often asked to repeat yourself by various people, that is a sign that you are not speaking clearly and/or loudly. Try recording yourself and listening to the volume and clarity of your voice. You can review your video materials repeatedly to pick out different ways that you can deliver your messaging in a better manner.
Pay attention to how often you are asked to elaborate on what you’re saying. Some people may say “Can you elaborate on that?” because they really didn’t understand what you were saying. The other more direct meaning is that they need you to provide more information; You didn’t give them enough information in order to either digest the meaning of what you’re saying to understand it and/or to take appropriate action. Whether it is an assignment, deliverable or other need.
You often receive deliverables, work, responses that do not align with what you thought you said, or you requested. That’s a short indicator that you’re not as clear and comprehensive as you perceive your communication to be, especially if this is happening with multiple people and on multiple occasions.
There are ways you can improve your communication as I mentioned, you can take a video of yourself, you can review yourself speaking, and use a critical and introspective eye. You can prepare your messages, especially important messages in advance and review those messages in advance prior to sharing with others. You can get a preview of your messaging and obtain feedback from others who are not going to be the direct recipients of that information. This allows you to get their perspective prior to broadcasting it or giving it to the most important audience, the recipients. You can use different modes of communication, in verbal and in writing, so for example what is the town hall meeting, a group meeting, e-mail, you can mix and match these modes of communication when they are very important messages to give. For example, you can give a hint “Hey, this is what we are going to discuss in the e-mail.” and then more deeply into the meeting so that they prepare to ask question. This helps you and them. Depending on what that messages are being given will obviously determine which ways are more appropriately done. You can give them an overview verbally and follow up with an email. You may say “Hey, this is a recap based upon what we said at the meeting or what we said on the phone conference call. And that is a way to not only clarify what you say, elaborate what you say but also to re-emphasize what you say. That also communicates that it is an important message.
Then of course, you want to practice and monitor and practice the communication some more.
I hope these help you or someone you know. If you think it's going to helps someone you know, feel free to share.
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Have a wonderful day!
