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Volume 2.6 Table Of Contents
- Align your communication style with others to inspire action
- Trend Watch: More CEOs rank “Ability to Inspire” as key leadership trait
- Digging Deeper: How to keep people inspired over the long haul
- Ask the Business Performance Expert:
- Speaking of Success:
Align your communication style with others to inspire action
The ability to inspire others to take necessary - and even extraordinary - actions is not only important during times of crisis, such as hurricanes and other disasters. It’s also an essential trait for everyday leadership and management in businesses and associations (see “Trend Watch”). Keep in mind that communication happens whether or not you’re actively shaping your messages (see “Digging Deeper”). In order to truly inspire action, what you say must match with what people see and hear on an everyday basis.
While people need information and facts, studies show that the style with which you communicate can have a powerful and even overriding effect upon the content of the message. I’ve traced a number of persistent and costly conflicts between individuals, teams and departments back to natural differences in communication style – even when everyone had the same objective! This is one of the most common reasons that some of the best strategies and plans can end up gridlocked during execution.
For example: Suppose that you tend to be a person who makes decisions quickly and is involved in multiple projects at once. The person that you’re communicating with is highly valuable to the organization but hates surprises and needs time to think through next steps. Mandating a quick decision on a new project is likely to result in the person actively or passively resisting your idea, and could stall progress on a mission critical product. By aligning your communication style with his needs, you can get past a potential case of gridlock using the following steps:
- Be aware of your own communication style: You have a tendency to make decisions quickly and tend to spring ideas on people.
- Be aware of the other person’s communication style: You are dealing with a person who hates surprises and generally needs a day to think through implications.
- Align your styles: You provide the person with benefits of the project that you know he cares about, along with relevant background information, and jointly negotiate a series of checkpoints to minimize risk. The two of you agree to begin the project sooner rather than later, review progress at he first checkpoint, and make any adjustments at that time.
Bottom line: The more aware you become of how you and others tend to communicate, the more you can effectively engage others in your message. This, in turn, can inspire them to take action and generate more of the results that everyone wants.
Trend Watch: More CEOs rank “Ability to Inspire” as key leadership trait
A Christian and Timbers survey of 180 executives in July 11-18, 2005, cited in the September 12, 2005 issue of BusinessWeek indicated that 37% of big-company top executives cited the ability to inspire others is the most important leadership trait needed by CEOs. This is up 22% from 2003. One possible explanation for this upturn is that these leaders have discovered that when they tap into people’s needs and desires, there’s a different energy in the organization. Not only do people do what is necessary to get the job done, they’ll go above and beyond what is necessary to make sure that their plan (note: it’s no longer “your” plan) succeeds.
An important part of tapping into people’s needs and desires is to recognize that different people can all do the same thing but be motivated by different reasons. For instance, one sales person may be motivated to make cold calls because of a new incentive program that rewards the number of successful calls made in a day. However, another person may be motivated to make the same number of cold calls because he is eager to master his sales skills.
Understanding that each person does things for his or her own reasons means that in order to inspire action, leaders must go beyond motivational speeches and presentations. When you get to know the needs and desires of the people that report to you, you’ll be able to find customized ways to inspire the people that report to you in a way that represents a “win” for everyone.
Digging Deeper: How to keep people inspired over the long haul
Many leaders communicate extensively and inspirationally with their organizations when they’re launching a strategy or initiative. They helps them get initial buy-in and can even generate a lot of enthusiasm and action at the outset. What’s often puzzling, however is when the initial enthusiasm fades and actions that people agree to take stall out or disappear over time.
One reason that this can happen is because the initial level of your formal communication may have decreased as you move on to other things. Yet whether or not you’re actively shaping your messages, you’re always communicating with others. In fact, your behaviors and what you don’t say can have as much or more impact as what you do say, because people are always looking for ways to explain what they see. Therefore, taking control of the formal and informal messages you send about a strategy or initiative, and tailoring them to the needs of your organization, is critical to maintaining support throughout execution.
For example, one CEO, trying to take a “hands off” approach to managing his team failed to pick up on a variety of clues that things weren’t as in control as he assumed. While this executive didn’t want to be a micromanager, his behavior sent the unintended message that his direct reports could have free reign in accomplishing their goals. This, along with a series of promotions and perks that went to individuals who acted independently of their colleagues, undermined the CEOs formal declarations that communication, collaboration and teamwork were fundamental company values. This had the unfortunate impact of creating departments and teams that worked at cross-purposes. It was only when the formal values that the CEO spoke about were aligned with the rewards that occurred in reality that people were inspired to take action to collaborate with each other.
One of the best ways to check the effectiveness of your communication is to conduct periodic audits of your values and how many ways they are supported or blocked by your policies and procedures. This exercise is even more effective when you include the perceptions of your organization’s stakeholders.
Keeping up an adequate level of credible communication on an ongoing basis is one of the cornerstones for preventing gridlock and accelerating progress. The more that formal and informal communication is aligned, the greater the likelihood that stakeholders will be inspired to take the action that you intend them to take.
Ask the Business Performance Expert:
Q: Some of
your advice about planning how I communicate seems
pretty calculated. How can I do this without having
people feel manipulated?
A: Frankly, some of the communication
considerations I’m recommending are calculated.
But that doesn’t mean that they’re
insincere. When you are authentic about what and
how you send messages, keep it consistent with
what people can observe for themselves, and provide
ample opportunities for feedback, you can do a
lot of good.
Quote: “Your computer technology will only be as efficient as the business system you create.”
--Jennifer Shaheen, Technology Therapist