Effective Communications

Effective communication is a leader’s greatest tool in uniting groups toward a common goal. Strong communication skills require a high level of self-awareness. Deepening your understanding of your communication style will help you cultivate sincere and confident communications. Here are seven areas where communication skills are critical to effective leadership.

 

Untangle complexity

Today’s problems are complex. We face issues where proposed solutions create outcomes that often are not predictable. In addition, the relationship between cause and effect cannot be known during the initial planning phases, regardless of the level of expertise or effort invested in the solution. In response to an increasingly complex and volatile environment, building and supporting effective communication skills is critical to ensuring connection, collaboration, and innovation.

 

Illustrate data

The ability to communicate or visualize data effectively is a critical tool for storytelling. Effective communication includes developing the capacity to organize massive amounts of data and visualize them so that users can consume the most important information in the least amount of time. In addition, data should provide decision-makers valuable insights into the fitness of an effort, display progress on goals, and highlight areas for attention or a shift in resources.

 

Solve problems collaboratively

Diversity and inclusion generate fresh ideas and new perspectives. Collaborating in a diverse team includes the ability to understand perceived differences and understanding how those differences affect interactions and communication strategies. Mastering the ability to communicate with a diverse group will support the collaborative problem-solving process of defining the problem, generating solutions, evaluating solutions, picking a solution, and making a plan.

 

Ability to influence

Influence is built on a foundation of trust. Trust is built with consistent, honest communications. Trust and, therefore, influence require having insight into what others value. It’s almost impossible to achieve an outcome without effectively influencing other people’s ways of thinking or acting. Influence moves ideas into action, creates excitement around a project or idea, and negotiates differences of opinion to reach solutions that teams can accept. Effective, influential communications are clear, concise, credible, and compelling.

 

Create clear governance

Good governance provides a framework for people at all levels of an organization to clearly understand and oversee roles, responsibilities, expectations, objectives, performance, and appetite for risk. Governance drives responsiveness and accountability. Clear communication is critically important so that employees understand the entire organizational structure within which they are operating. Leaders must create multiple communication channels that travel up, down, and across an organization.

 

Design for the customer

It’s no longer enough simply to put communications in front of customers or potential customers. Consumers are savvier than they have ever been. Companies must create user experiences and designs that communicate a message faster than words while ensuring the messaging is clear and captivating. Leaders ought to consider how utilizing visuals express information strategically and how customers want to consume it. Listening to learn is a skill that provides the ability to reach into customers’ perspectives, expand possibilities and then take action on what they said.

 

Deepen relationships

Communication itself seems simple; we do it all the time. However, when we try to communicate with others, there is always a chance for a misunderstanding that can cause conflicts and frustrations. Negotiating misunderstandings and conflict requires vulnerability, authenticity, and courage. Leaders can facilitate healthy conflict as soon as tensions arise. Healthy conflict will expedite resolution. Elevating the conversation to common ground like company core values can also help pave the way to resolving conflict.