Six communication tips to boost results
(Blog NB: there are actually Five Communication Tips)
Whether you want to improve the productivity of your team or your prospects of winning a sale, "communication is the sweet spot where six important strategies must intersect if anything is to happen", says communication expert Ricky Nowak.
Nowak, the director of Confident Communications, says in her e-book, BOOST your success: Communication strategies for high achievers, that the single most important leadership and management task is communication. "Unless we do this with confidence, precision, empathy and regularity, the people around us will not know of our goals nor understand what is expected of them." Her BOOST theory involves:
Being in the moment - This is harder than it sounds, she says. "We have all been victims of 'premature exasperation' - not being able to wait for someone to finish the sentence without filling in the gaps for them, changing the direction, tone or impact." It also happens when one person moves too fast through conversations or meetings, Nowak says. "They may be there physically but on a mental level they have simply checked out, gone, vanished, vamoosed, left the building." The challenge, she says, is to "stay present and focused on the people, on the situation and on caring about our relationships".
Objectivity - "about yourself, your behaviours and your attitudes". "Some people see themselves as reasonably good communicators with clear, objective views about themselves and their lives," Nowak says, but they don't ask anyone or confirm it anywhere. Other people, she says, "ask deeper questions and see the connection between the responses they get and the communication they give. They can see this is the real litmus test of whether or not they are respected, valued and even liked". She urges recruiters and managers to ask for feedback, saying "otherwise, the room may well light up when you leave it".
"Ouch" factor - at some point in time, she says, everyone messes up. "It hurts, financially and personally, and of course our professional status may be questioned. Ouch. My thinking is that it will be questioned even more rigorously if we don't show the human side of making mistakes and that it is our errors that make the real learning happen. This is when we can show others that it's ok to make mistakes... it is not something we need to hide or be ashamed of. It's only wrong if we don't learn from the experience and improve."
Simplicity - "The challenge to actually keep things simple is perhaps one of the most difficult issues many people face, as they fear silence or simplicity in language means simplicity in a person," Nowak says. "Jack Welch, former CEO of GE put it cleverly when he said: 'You cannot believe how hard it is for people to be simple - how much they fear being simple. They feel that if they are simple, people will think they are simple minded - in reality it is just the reverse'." The key, she says, is to allow others to have more "air space - more time to think, speak and process what they are hearing without being interrupted or distracted. This means taking time to ask, wait, listen, pause and then respond without filling all the gaps and silences". Silence is often a smart strategy for the listener, she notes, but smarter for the person delivering the information.
"Communication is indeed about the transferral of information and the transformation of the information into an act or outcome. These things take time. Master the art of patience."
Trust in your intuition. Some people implicitly trust their "gut feel" while others need hard evidence and facts and won't budge before they have all the answers, Nowak says. "The key here is being able to recognise that perhaps in some instances, you may be better off asking someone to complement your thinking and get other perspectives. While I encourage you to go with what is right for you, I also encourage you to consider, reflect and honour the intuition of others."
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