Talk
Communication in Leadership: The Secret Sauce to Happy Growth
A working session
Three strategies and three challenges, run as a workshop rather than a lecture. Fewer arguments, fewer misunderstandings, and a team that performs better because it actually heard you.
This one is built to be run with a room rather than delivered at one. It starts from the benefits, because nobody changes a habit for an abstraction: you will be less frustrated, you will have fewer arguments, and you will perform better at work.
Then three strategies, and three honest reasons people fail to use them.
What the talk covers
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Do not have conversations when you are not ready
Staying in a conversation you are not present for is a habit we picked up to seem polite. Communication has a sender and a receiver; if you cannot receive, say so and come back to it.
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Do not assume you understood
We plough forward with messages as we receive them and find out later we had it wrong. Ask a clarifying question, or repeat back what you understood, before you act on it.
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Do not rely on text or email alone
The words we say or type are only about ten per cent of effective communication. The other ninety per cent is tone, expression and presence, and none of it survives an email.
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Challenge: a bad mood and a loud inner critic
Tell people you are grouchy. They already know. Naming it warmly lets you carry on working without the mood doing the talking for you.
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Challenge: everything is moving too fast
Notice the speed and deliberately slow your own messages down. Drafting something and reading it again with fresh eyes costs a few minutes and saves an afternoon.
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Challenge: everything keeps changing
In business you are always aiming at a moving target. Aim as well as you can, look regularly at the macro factors outside your own experience, and take the shot anyway.
Every problem, large or small, can be solved with the right communication.