How to Avoid Being in the Bottom 87 percent of Leadership Communicators

 
Joel Schwartzberg, a leadership communications coach and author.

Joel Schwartzberg, a leadership communications coach and author.

Every person communicates yet not everyone has learned to do it successfully. It can be a challenging skill to develop and master, even for those who have risen to positions of leadership, prestige and authority.

In fact, according to Gallup research, "Only 13% of U.S. employees strongly agree that their organization's leadership communicates effectively with the rest of the organization.”

Leaders are likely much more confident in themselves, as individuals and organizations, that they are communicating at a high level, being heard and understood and considered skilled.

Yet the research says that is mostly overconfidence and false belief. Perception is not often aligning with reality.

“Leadership messages disconnect with employee expectations when a leader starts by thinking ‘what do I want to say’ versus ‘what do they want and need to hear,’” says Joel Schwartzberg, leadership communications coach, public speaking trainer and author of the newly released book, “The Language of Leadership: How to Engage and Inspire Your Team.”

“In taking that route, leaders run the risk of seeming self-centered and oblivious to important organizational realities.”

An error of ignorance, he says, is knowing what the primary responsibility is and how to execute it.

“Leaders need to understand that their top job is to engage and inspire their audience, not simply to communicate their thoughts,” Schwartzberg says. “I often suggest my clients consult with department heads to confirm those needs and wants.”

An additional error is not coming to clarity about the ultimate message takeaway your people will have after communication takes place.

“Another handicap that can lead to disconnection is when leaders share topics, themes, and ideas, but they don’t make true points. Only points—proposals of value and potential impact—have the ability to engage and inspire audiences,” Schwartzberg says.

“Anything less merely describes content, which any subject matter expert can do,” adding that “Employees want and expect their leaders to make clear and relevant points in speeches, emails, videos, meetings, and all other settings.”

A trait and tool that leaders are not aware can be a tremendous persuasive asset is their voice. When that is not a strength, that’s problematic, as Schwartzberg has written, “Yet all too often, our words fall flat; we get caught in our head, fail to truly understand our audience, or simply flub the landing.

“Some leaders make the mistake of thinking their high level of knowledge, experience, and insight means they can ‘wing it’ with communications—that their ability to communicate strong points is a natural extension of being an expert on those points,” he says.

That’s a big stretch of an assumption, a mistake and also dangerous.

“This belief is not true, and I’ve seen many epic fails based on that misunderstanding,” Schwartzberg says. “Leaders need to understand that their role as communicators is unique and relies on understanding principles of effective communication and practicing those principles with a variety of points.”

What is often missing in communication is puzzling because it’s what humans, in general, expect and crave. If this specific element is present in organizations, listening becomes better, messages get translated more effectively and persuasiveness is likely achieved.

“One thing every team wants to hear from a leader in every communication is gratitude,” Schwartzberg asserts, explaining “In addition to boosting the team’s morale and motivation, public recognition also reinforces that the leader is paying attention to and fully supporting their endeavors.”

Yet, it has to be done in a certain manner to be received in the most powerful way emotionally.

“But merely saying the two words ‘thank you’ doesn’t do the trick. It registers as polite but not substantially praising. To give your appreciation rich meaning and value, it must answer the question, ‘Why is this person deserving of thanks?’” Schwartzberg says.

This need for keen observation and skilled, detailed expression is critical to excellence in communication.

“Answering this question credits not only the achievement but also the level of commitment, ingenuity and hard work it took to accomplish the achievement,” Schwartzberg says. “Make sure your appreciation is specific, timely and unique to the person you’re acknowledging.”

He has a suggestion as to how that can be done well and increase the likelihood the gratitude will be received as sincere.

“It helps to include a true story or example about them that illustrates the effort’s value. The more details you provide, the more meaningful your appreciation will be,” Schwartzberg advises.

To take communication to the next level and challenge yourself he recommends eliminating adjectives in our speech because that decision requires us to use more specific and descriptive words.

Many communicators can be overconfident or to the contrary, have doubts — maybe anxiety — about whether they are getting their key points across to people. Schwartzberg says there are three simple words that, in his words, “quickly reveal” if successful two-way communication is occurring.

Those words, that phrase is “I believe that.”

“To see if your idea is a valid point or not, I recommend the ‘I Believe That’ test,” he says. “Simply add the words ‘I believe that’ to what you consider the point of your next address or presentation. If, with little to no tweaking, it now forms a grammatically correct complete sentence, you’re on your way to making a strong point. If not, you need to reimagine it to create a complete sentence.”

Once this is successfully done as he recommends for communication, Schwartzberg says you can remove the “I believe that” from the sentence

“The ‘I Believe That’ test conditions you to propose a point. Then, it’s your job to sharpen it and support it,” he says.

The best communicators understand that those to whom they are communicating are human beings, with emotions and psychology and thus care deeply about empathy and hope. That’s why it’s vitally important, Schwartzberg has found, to know what to do and what not to do in attempting to convey humanity to those core human needs, whether circumstances are temporary or significant

“Hope is important because it articulates your team’s professional desires, goals, and expectations—all of which are key drivers of interest and inspiration,” Schwartzberg says.

“Expressing hope is often critical. Imagine yourself as the captain of a ship in uncharted waters with your team members as passengers,” he says. “Empathy is nice. Transparency is nice. Teamwork is nice. But what they want and need to hear most is hope.”

Schwartzberg shares examples of what this might look like.

“Conveying hope only requires the accurate completion of this sentence:

“My hope is that _____.

“Once that hope is identified, you can communicate it many different ways without having to use the word itself.

“If we work together, we can overcome any obstacle.

“I know we will get through this challenging period.

“Our future looks promising because we have the right people and abilities to succeed.”

“One piece of advice: Use the word hope as a noun, not a verb, because hope as a noun has baked-in optimism ‘I have great hope for this project,’ whereas hope as a verb is merely a preference without faith in the outcome — ‘I hope the weather changes soon.’”

Empathy, not always expressed by leadership, is not just an oversight, it is a flaw that will open up a leader and organizational reputation to distrust, criticism or condemnation. Empathy can’t be a choice. It has to be mandatory within successful communication, relationship building and maintenance.

“Empathy is critical because, during challenging times, effective leadership communications acknowledge distress, demonstrate care, and—not necessarily at first, but eventually—take appropriate action to mitigate the situation or provide comfort,” Schwartzberg says.

“Leaders should communicate each of these aspects explicitly.

“Acknowledge: “I recognize this is an anxious time for all of us.”

“Care: “I care about your sense of safety and stability.”

“Action: “We are introducing new policies to address these challenges and provide stability where we can.”

There are 7 Do’s and Don’ts for Expressing Empathy, Schwartzberg says.

Do’s     

1.  Do focus on how a crisis might be affecting people.       

2.  Do create multiple opportunities for you to listen to and learn from your team.         

3.  Do acknowledge feelings of sadness, frustration, and anxiety and offer helpful resources.     

4.  Do respond quickly to the needs, questions, and suggestions of your team.    

5.  Do provide communications as frequently as your team indicates they need them or if there are important updates.          

6.  Do be forthcoming, transparent, and truthful about bad news. In addition to building trust, this can mitigate fears of the unknown and curb rampant speculation.  

7.  Do show appreciation for your team

Don’ts

1.    Don’t presume to know your team’s reactions or propose solution steps without first checking in with them.

2.   Don’t focus on how a crisis might be affecting profits or other financial measures.

3.   Don’t be the predominant talker during these opportunities.

4.   Don’t jump in too quickly to “solve the problem.” Make sure you fully understand the problem and can define it.

5.   Do not use a word-for-word script. Use natural language to ensure you sound authentic and not like a press release. This is a critical time to be human.

6.   Don’t talk at length about difficult decisions you had to make. Referencing yourself this way may feel soothing to you, but it transforms a moment of empathy for the staff into sympathy for the leader. Your job is to support your team, not have your team support you.

7. Don’t forecast or give probabilities for future bad news, which will only increase fear and anxiety.

 
Michael Toebe

Founder, writer, editor and publisher

Previous
Previous

Questions and Reframing Helpful to Quality of Professional Relationships

Next
Next

Special Series: The Call for Greater Compassion at Work and in Business