Four Keys to Successful Leadership Communication

Everyone would agree that communication is a critical leadership skill. I mean, if you can't communicate your way out of a paper bag, as my father used to say, you're not going to be a very effective leader. And so before we go any further, let's be clear about what I mean by communication.

Communication is message sent, message received, and message understood. So we can send our messages, but if we want to make sure our messages are received and understood effectively, there are some things we can do to get better. And this advice I'm going to give you applies to all parts of our role with all of the various people that we might need to communicate with — up, down, across, sideways, etc.

So what I have for you are four tips. As promised, each of these tips is just two words long and these four tips of two words in length can drastically change your effectiveness as a leadership communicator, starting almost immediately. That's a big promise!

Ask More

Number one is ask more. So often as leaders, we feel like we're supposed to be the ones doing the talking. If we want to get our messages received, we need to ask more questions. We will learn more that way, we will build the relationship with the other person more, we will build engagement, and we will get more information creating a true conversation. We all know that communication is more effective in a conversation, so we must ask more.

Assert Less

Second, we must assert less. Like if we're going to ask more, what are we going to do? Instead of talking, we're going to ask. Right? So asserting less means don't make our opinion known. So quickly. It means don't make assertions, but have conversations. So hook those two things together, ask more and assert less. And if you do those things, especially as a leader, then you improve the chances that you have real communication, real dialog, and better communication.

Talk Less

Next, talk less. I know I just said to assert less, but now I mean literally talk less. If you were to take a percentage of the time you're doing the talking in any of your leadership communications, hopefully, it's less than 50%. If you're at 60-80% of the talking, well, you might be sending messages. But the likelihood that they're being received and understood not necessarily true.

Talk Later

Talk less and talk later. You see, the sooner that we start to talk, the less likely it is that others will share their ideas. So when you hook all these things together, let me ask you more and if I will talk less and talk later, I give you time and space to talk. And if I make fewer assertions, then I'm giving the chance for true dialog to take place.

So four two-word ideas, each one of them will make a difference. All put together can drastically change your effectiveness as a leadership communicator. Ask more, assert less, talk less, and talk later. Each of them helps. It improves your communication. You're getting your messages received, but they also change the dynamics between you and your team members. The relationship with your team members and the trust amongst you as well.

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