NONE OF THIS IS RELATED TO DAVID SEDARIS’S SUBVERsively funny book about, among other things, learning to speak
French, the beauty of which tongue is vastly overrated. We would
all, I suppose, like to talk pretty and are awed by those with a fluent
command of language in both written and spoken forms.
But to be honest, on the job, we should aspire not so much to be
pretty as clear, complete, convincing, and even compelling in our
communications.
A HUE AND CRY
Communications, in general, gets all the attention it can stand these
days. Basta! We get it. Communications is important—with customers, with colleagues, with suppliers, with our bosses. Without
rock-solid communications, we can’t build trust and confidence;
without trust, we can’t genuinely collaborate. Without collaboration, we can’t realize our own potential or achieve the possibilities
that lie at the feet of our enterprise.
But the mavens in the field tend to focus on
executives, our bosses, and delight in pointing out
what poor communicators leaders are. This could
be because that target audience is the one with a
corporate checkbook big enough to fund lessons
that will transform their communications skills.
Here’s some sobering news. We all need to be,
or become, good at communications—up, down,
sidewise, every which way, and with every conceivable audience. Communications is not some
flaw, a gap to be filled in, among leaders. It is part
and parcel of what it takes to be a leader in the
first place.
So, the principles of effective communications are musts. For
leaders, for those ready to move into leadership roles, for those who
aspire to leadership roles down the road, and for those who want
the respect, support, and enthusiasm of the team around us.
WHAT’S HOLDING US BACK AND HOW DO WE FIX IT?
In total, the best start on a litany of communications challenges is
to get professional training in all aspects of communications—and
practice, practice, practice. The points below deal with more specific
issues.
b We model the style of our current leaders or of striking leadership exemplars from the past. Check your Apple Watch, dude. We
are too far into the 21st century to even think about going back.
The day of magnates, robber barons, gray flannel suits, straw bosses,
commanders, and merciless bullies is long past. Break free of those
BY ART VAN BODEGRAVEN basictraining
Me talk pretty one day
models and treat people like human beings.
b Some of us are fearful of face-to-face communication, either singly or in groups (even small
groups). We don’t want to make a public mistake.
So we hide behind e-mail messages or send corrosive memos to the world at large to correct the
actions of one or two miscreants. Stop it. Handle
problems directly. Join Toastmasters.
b Stop harping on the negatives. It is too easy to
enumerate what’s wrong and then direct people
to fix things. Communicate the positives, what’s
going right. Put the positive vision in front of the
team, and let them get motivated about stretching
to reach it.
b Find the balance. Don’t underprepare communications. Winging it, and extemporizing, leaves
holes your gran’ mama could
execute a zone read through.
But don’t overprepare, either.
Totally scripted content comes
off like a candidate for high
office. And there is always the
risk of leaving your game on the
practice field.
b Unique expertise is a common disease. It encourages
an assumption that everyone
already knows as much as the
speaker, making further detail
superfluous. Fight to draw questions out of the
audience, even an audience of one; answer them
with patience and without condescension.
b We too often gloss over or omit issues we don’t
have answers for. Look, it is not necessary to be
omniscient. In fact, people appreciate when others
admit to not having all the answers. Get over it,
and get over yourself. Admit that there are gaps
and commit to obtaining the information and/or
expertise needed to fill them.
b Usually unintentionally, we fail to address
diversity in all forms, including perspective, education, and background. We blindly expect that all
others are more or less just like us. So we make cultural references and language choices that either
don’t resonate or mean something completely
