The Art of Communication - Do we say more than we think

Building bridges for the future, it’s harder than it looks!

How many of us automatically look to HR or the Sales guy as an example of a great communicator in our company? How many of us use the same comparison to excuse bad communication from others and ourselves? Afterall, if he’s not a Sales guy, he doesn’t need to be a great communicator, right? Good communication is a requirement for everybody at all levels; if a company is going to be successful over the longer term! It’s the glue that binds people, processes and technology together under a single roof.

So what makes a good communicator? Naturally social sales type? Sure… but the fact is that we can all make good communicators no matter how introverted or extroverted we are! All we have to do is package our message, deliver it so our intended recipient can receive it, decode it and most importantly understand it in the manner that it was intended to be understood in!

Seems straightforward but good communication is dangerously deceptive to grasp in companies of all sizes. Bad communication has quite rightly gotten or shared the blame for many things including:

• Strategic errors due to misunderstandings between managers and C-suite executives.
• Poor morale due to poor employee-leader and employee-employee communication.
• Employees leaving managers/leaders due to endemically bad communication on the part of the manager/leader.
• Employee disengagement due to bad corporate communications policy and resulting company culture
• Creation of a fear based working environment
• Workplace harassment, bullying and intimidation. 

So what is the ‘secret sauce’ that creates good and/or great communication in groups and companies alike? I submit that the following should act as key ingredients  to good/great communication:

Listen more than you speak - the art of communication is understanding. To understand your counterparty, you need to listen to them, understand their message in verbals (e.g. what they are saying/how it is said) and non verbals (e.g. body language/context).

Be emotionally discerning - context is important, if you understand your counterparty’s message, be sure to understand their emotional message also. An angry rant about a supplier may on any other day may be an irritated tangent.

Never make a permanent decision based on a temporary emotion - in times of conflict or apparent conflict, counterparties become adversarial and posture aggressively, which is quite literally “fighting talk!” We naturally respond to aggression with aggression, which even at a subliminal level can lead to ‘heat of the moment’ decisions that can irreparably damage reputations and relationships. In such a situation, a good communicator no matter how challenged they are will respond to aggression with assertion valuing protection of interests over protection of position in a conflict situation.

Understand your environment and company culture - too often, a manager with a background in a hierarchical or dictatorial company culture will be placed in a company that has a adhocracy or clan culture meaning a directional manager brings situationally unaware (aka. directional) communication skills with him into an environment that requires consultative leadership. The results unchecked become disastrous over time.

 Know your stuff - knowing what one is talking about is key to good communication. It’s critically important that integrity fills the gap when one does not know or understand something. It’s ok to confirm what was said, ask for a fuller explanation and admit one does not know something. Make it an opportunity to collaborate in search of the missing information. Setting arrogance and ego aside in cases like this defines a professional communicator and wins over an audience. Respect is earned by being professional and following the facts to a logical outcome.

Watch your body language - I have come across many situations where someone would be talking to me in a focused manner but have very aggressive body language. Their words would say “Hey John, when are we expected to deliver on this initiative” and their body language says “Hey stupid, you gonna deliver and make me look good or shall I find someone else to do it after I fire your ass!” Mean what you say and say what you mean. Counterparties will sense deception and even if it’s not meant, your reputation will take a nosedive along with your credibility if you get a name as a schemer/deceiver!

Focus on interests - Leave the posturing and aggression to professional politicians and amateurs. Professional communicators will always set aside positions for interests and treat their counterparty with respect even when they don’t deserve it. In focusing on interests, you set yourself above the rest by simply finding common ground to communicate with your colleagues/counterparties and gain respect by simply giving it, yet maintaining a stance over your own interests and asserting them when needed.

 Now for the art… the self control, thoughtful orientation and situational awareness of the professional communicator will always have an artful agility to their communication style that connects beyond the professional to one’s personal/core values. Those with the artful x factor are charismatic and have the ability to understand their counterparty accurately through what they say, what they don’t say and how they carry themselves. The artful communicator sees a complete picture of who they are and instantly tailors their communication approach to effectively communicate with the individual on an individual basis. Culture, status, power, life stage and social orientation all matter. It’s the artful communicator that can see this in an instant and communicate in a manner leaving the person with a warm feeling that they know them better than they know themselves!

Who you are reflects in what you say, how you say it and what impression you leave with people you communicate with. Make it good by staying true to yourself, your sense of self and how you want to be remembered in this world. For each of us, it is different, but to effectively communicate, don’t be afraid to bring others into your world if even for a moment. Life will be fuller and happier for the effort…

Sources/Credits:

Pics;

www.boboa.com

www.publicdomainpictures.net

www.picturesofbabies.net

www.pixabay.com

Credits;

Petr Kratochvil took the feature photo (family communication) posted on www.publicdomainpictures.net

Sub Culture, teams and Leadership... Is it a good idea?

Building a better tomorrow or simply swimming upstream?

In our earnest effort to be good leaders, we often think of a utopian paradise where we are loved and everybody looks forward to the start of each working day as much as they are sad leaving their extended family at day’s end. Nothing wrong with this vision, but we often allow good intentions to overly influence our leadership style, our strategic direction and where we think we can go with our team over time.

This can be counter productive and result in disaster if not checked early enough so can apply a more discerning approach to consultative leadership? Being discerning, we need to focus on the details of our leadership and the path ahead through things like:

Team Composition. What type of team do we have? Are the personalities takers, matchers or givers? Are there any functional or dysfunctional Alpha characters? Are there any passive aggressive types on board? Who are the social leaders and are they consistent with your leadership style and compatible with your forming vision for the team’s culture/operating state going forward?

Company Culture. What is your preference for an operating environment and company culture?? Is this combined vision (with your leadership style) to be found in the company leadership handbook, actual company culture and business practice??? Does the meld of all three elements into company culture suit your vision for an operating environment or do you have to create a sub culture for your leadership plans??

Management Practice. Are management ‘laissez faire’ in their actual practices leaving you free to practice leadership as you see fit or do they insist on a particular style?? Do management micromanage you, mentor you and/or coach you??? Will their practices impact your ability create a cultural connection for the team or instantiate a sub cultural environment for you and your team to operate in?

Social Hierarchy. Where do you and your team sit in the company’s social hierarchy structure? Will this impact your leadership plans in creating a consistent working environment to allow the group process to form, storm, norm and perform to set goals and objectives?

These are some conditional elements to consider when you are thinking of creating a productive sub culture in your company that suits your leadership style. Its context, acceptance probability and operational/cultural impact need to be understood in detail before proceeding.

If you find your company’s culture and management practices are consistent with your vision for leadership and a resulting operating environment, then you are in the right place! Well done, proceed with enthusiasm and create a sense of ‘we did it!’

If you find yourself upon reflection in difficulty, learning that management are negative or non responsive to your pitch, where you will drive changes with your team in approach, practices and procedures with a distinct sub culture instantiated, then don’t despair you are not alone! 

Whether it’s a case of management not understanding, not caring or disapproving, I would surmise that your vision may highlight a lack of vision on their part, which can happen for many reasons that have little or nothing to do with you. One needs to think of the follow on approach in terms of these questions:

1. ·       After pushing for an answer with management, is the response consistent with support or no support bearing in mind that the absence of expressed support is “no support”?
2. ·       Is the company culture likely to respond aggressively to the sub culture creation (i.e. giver taker culture clash) where your team’s social status is perceived in the company as “weak” due to the collaborative aspects of your leadership and environmental maintenance?
3. ·       Are there any political considerations above the ‘normal’ limit of office politics where your plans, goals and objectives are perceived to interfere with powerful people or functions within your organisation?
4. ·       Are your goals unrealistic to the environment you are in? After careful analysis and consideration, are you being asked to build ‘castles in the sand’?
5. ·       Do you think your direct manager is uncharacteristically keeping his or her distance from you and your plans (not seeing inter company support of you to other company departments and members by your manager can qualify as keeping one’s distance)?

If you are thinking “yes” to all of the above, then the chances are quite real that your leadership style and vision may well fail due to a lack of suitability with your company’s practices, culture and attitude towards what you do and how you want to do it.

What to do? You could solicit direct counsel from your manager as to how he or she wants you to resolve the team/department situation and leave your effective zone of leadership to carry out the resulting instructions. However, in the long term your efforts will be in vain, as you will become a ‘proxy leader’ and not likely to gain the credibility from staff you need to succeed. Best advise if you are hitting a “yes” to those key questions is to find another position within the company or another company that is more suited to your cultural needs and leadership style. I submit that finding a good cultural fit is more important for the incoming employee then it is for the company as we perform best where we belong, not where we are employed! Marry the two together, and you enter a win-win relationship with your employer!

Great leadership starts with great vision, which in turn starts with seeing the situation for what it is, enacting a picture of what will be and then mapping the key milestones to getting there.  If you can do this, then you are on the right track. If you can’t see this or your company wont allow you to, then find another company who shares your passion for doing it right. What’s “right” depends on finding those of like mind to surround you! When you do, you will do great things!!

Sources/Credits:

Pics;

www.yourmovetp.com

www.leopard-learning.com

www.modernservantleader.com

www.linkedin.com

www.theconversation.com

www.unsplash.com (Rayi Christian Wicaksono)

Credits;

Interests V Positions… Barriers to sustainable Innovation…

Where interests and positions collide...

In a sustainable world, we would always aspire to look after our ‘best interests’ whilst taking into account the interests of our wider community in our decisions and actions. In the real world, it’s perfectly acceptable to look after our ‘best interests’ and if convenient, incorporate the interests of our wider community into our outcomes. Whilst there is nothing wrong in essence with the latter, I submit we need to question whether or not we are looking after our ‘best interests’ or simply protecting our favoured position when engaged in decision making, which impacts others.

Why the need? Its my view that we will never get better if we don’t accept the shortcomings of our past decisions, no matter how good the outcome was. In honest self-reflection and/or group reflection, we allow ourselves an individual and/or group chance at a ‘do-over’ where we can try again but be better when we did before. After all, if we blindly accept the status quo and lock into a position, we can never get better at best and probably will get worse over time. However, if we learn from our past and understand clearly what we did wrong as much as what we did right, then our future vision will be informed towards formulating better ways to reach our goals.  So, with all that learning and improvement, taking our wider community into account in our decision-making becomes a transformational possibility!

"Positions V Interests" 

One of the biggest inhibitors to better solutions and more sustainable outcomes is when we become entrenched in an ‘unmoveable’ position. The more we entrench our position, the less flexible we become and the less flexible we become, the more detached we are from our interests.

Picture this; a company employs a manager to manage a team of Developers whom have a new graduate come on board as a Developer Intern. They provide minimum supervision and the graduate excels in getting to grips with systems, projects and delivers his outputs on time making his Senior Developer and Manager happy. The Intern, quite brilliant and feeling empowered by the positive feedback decides to float an idea about Cloud technology that could disrupt current models but it needs work. He tells his Senior Developer who realises the current system could be thrown out if it succeeded and his manager privately agrees.  They both decide to dismiss the Intern’s idea reminding him of his role at the company.

Demotivated by the experience, what does the Intern do? He keeps his mouth shut and does only what is ‘expected’ of him. It’s patiently clear that when the Intern stepped outside of what was expected of him, the management response was negative rather then positive. This is where the divergence of interests and positions emerges with the Senior Developer and Manager acting nearly instinctively to ‘protect’ their respective positions, thus abandoning their interests and by extension, the interests of the company, which benefits from an actionable idea that could disrupt their own industry to their advantage. If they both had just reconciled their interests to their positions, they would have seen the opportunities that lay in the form of the Intern’s idea.

So, improvement does not happen overnight, it’s a continuous process that nobody can afford to overlook in my view. How do we get over interests V positions in an organisational setting, thus allowing innovation to breath from any quarter and be captured by the company for at least a process of evaluation?

Change from within – Individuals need to realise at all levels the part they play in their companies success (or failure) and allow an innovation idea to breath even if goes nowhere. The acceptance of ones interests first and then reconciling them to their actual position is a must when opening up to an idea for change. Positions often change when reconciled to interests making openness to ideas at all levels a conscious choice to evaluate its possibilities and embrace the spirit in which they were presented. 

Organisational Change – Companies need to change their business practices and structures so it allows everybody to give ideas the time they need to be expressed and explored. They also need to formalise the capture mechanisms for all ideas even if it’s a bad one. Recording all innovation ideas allow them to be reviewed at a later date when elements change making a revisit of the idea worthwhile.

Cultural Change – The top two points need to be deployed into a culture making the culture more collaborative in nature and tolerant of bad ideas as they are welcoming of good ones. There is nothing that kills creativity quicker then a bad manager who aggressively and arrogantly dismisses the thoughts and ideas of a subordinate! When people freely express their ideas on work place innovation, you know you’re doing it right from a leadership and a cultural standpoint!

It’s rewarding being at the tip of an innovation curve, which sets a brighter future for the company and all within its walls. Those who realise the best source of innovation are its people will always build a culture that enables this resource to grow, where process and innovation are based on the most valuable element in situ on the platform, which of course are its people!

Sources/Credits:

Pics;

www.kennjason.weebly.com

www.agurtzguide.wordpress.com

www.biztechafrica.com

www.eweek.com

www.venitism.blogspot.com

www.gratisography.com

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