Every leader is faced with a lot of adversity and any skills that might help out in making the best out of situation might come in handy. In this article we will focus on communication skills for any leader or executive to improve that side of the job.
The ability to convey ideas, inspire teams, and build strong relationships between employees is crucial to the success and growth of the company or any business. Effective communication is very important, for example when we look at sports and teams who have won three-peats in NA, it was all made possible by the use of effective communication between the teammates, managers and the entire locker room. It is proven that over a few years, that ability stayed strong and allowed these teams to be so successful. Let’s dive straight into the most useful tips all gathered into one simple list.
Active Listening
Many people confuse active listening with hearing the words that are coming from the mouth of other people and the difference couldn’t be more significant. By just hearing what others are saying you are staying in the conversation, but you are closed off on any enormous potential ideas. Active listening is a basic skill that allows executives to gather ideas from their employees and managers, get the best feedback possible, and everyone has ideas that are worth listening to. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Try to listen actively and demonstrate empathy to others and open your mind to new and interesting ideas. Any workplace needs people who can listen to others, and ideally make notes.
Be Clear and Concise
Being able to communicate quickly but with detail is a hard skill to master, but the more you do it the easier it becomes. As an executive, you will find yourself quite often in situations where you will have to communicate some information to others. The better you do it the more time and money you can potentially save. If the messages are clear and concise it leaves less room for misunderstandings. All the information going out from you should be clear to understand and individual to a person on the other side. You might phrase one piece of information different to a programmer than to a graphic designer for example. The less time and words it takes the better.
Implement Non-Verbal Communication
Non-verbal communication is almost as important if not more than the words you are saying. You can say the exact same sentence, but change its meaning by changing your voice, your facial expressions and your body movement. It is good to always show your intentions with everything around the spoken word. By aligning verbal and non-verbal communication allows you to show confidence, decisiveness, build trust with others, and make it clear to understand. You might also find yourself on the other side of the fence and you might be in need of some executives. No matter if you are the executive yourself or an employee, non-verbal communication is important for everyone.
Feedback and Constructive Criticism
A key role of every executive is to lead and to do that you need to give feedback to others, praise clever ideas, and give constructive criticism to fewer inspiring ones. It is particularly important to learn how to express your intentions and put into words what you need to tell others. It is worth writing down some pointers for you not to forget the specifics while holding a conversation. It is also a good idea to always give written feedback, so the person that gets it can always double-check everything. Another great practice is to give a lot of examples while giving feedback, or something is done better elsewhere, or how things could look like. The changes made by feedback can be easily implemented at any workplace.
Mediation and Resolving Conflict
Being an executive often comes with a lot of human interactions, and you will have to speak with others, and the more people, the more problems and room for conflict. It is your role to resolve that conflict, or even better, prevent it. However, if you are not able to prepare in advance then conflict resolution is a basic ability that you should have. Mediation between parties can ease the blows and give needed clarification on specific issues. Make sure to stay as impartial as possible, but do not let others get over your head. Always be firm while resolving conflicts, but make sure to utilize an individual approach. Every human being is different, and someone just needs something to be explained, others just want to feel justified in their thinking. Make sure to turn a win-lose situation into a win-win situation for all people involved.
Promoting and Cultivating
A very important part of any communication skills is the ability to teach others. All the advice should be cultivated inside your job, not only by the executives but by everyone else. It is worth training your employees in effective communication because it always gives back. As an executive you should foster the means of transparent communication, and if everyone knows how to communicate, then it allows all the people involved to save time and money for themselves and for the whole company.