Changeworksblog.com

Communication is a critical leadership skill. dg&a, recently conducted a poll that showed 76% of communicators surveyed need more information on employee engagement to support their leadership and 70% want help with leadership communication. These are significant statistics.

As communication professionals, we often play a significant role in shaping the messages and developing the approaches of our client organizations’ senior leaders.

Inspiring employees and engaging them is about capturing their hearts as well as their minds. So how do inspired leaders do this? Questions are a powerful tool to elicit effective strategies. So what questions do the most admired senior leaders need to be able to answer? 

Changeworks recently conducted a leadership modelling project and this is a selection of the questions that the best leaders were able to answer from their hearts:

1. What goals, objectives or purposes guide your actions as you apply your leadership skills?
2. How do you know when you are achieving these goals?  What evidence do you have? (sensory based)
3. What do you do to get those goals?  What are some specific steps and activities that you use to achieve your goals in this context? 
4. What strengths do you have to help you achieve your goals?
5. When you experience unexpected problems or difficulties in achieving your goals in this context, what specific activities or steps do you take to correct them?
6. What aspects of your behaviour are significant to achieve the result?
7. What internal thoughts and capabilities are associated with that behaviour?
8. What beliefs and values are expressed by or validated by the thoughts and actions you have defined? 
9. What is your perception of identity or role with respect to your thoughts and actions and the beliefs associated with them?  Who are you if you engage in those particular beliefs, capabilities and behaviours?  (it is often useful to use a metaphor here)
10. What is your mission?  Who else are you serving with this activity?
11. What is your sense of the larger system in which you are operating?   What is your vision of the larger system in which you are pursuing that mission?
12. What is your story as you do this behaviour?

If you share these questions with your leaders perhaps you will help them to understand and develop their own strategies for winning the hearts and minds of their employees.

And let’s keep the conversation going email me at info@changeworkscomms.co.uk with any comments or questions or for more information on our communication services visit Changeworks website.

One of my toughest challenges is prioritising and developing the ability to say ‘no’ to myself. If you are like me, and have a passion and interest in many things, it can be even harder to say no. When the crunch comes, and for the sake of our own sanity we have to think long and hard about what it is that we really need to be spending time on. Where is it that our time and energy is most effectively spent and where can we reclaim some space back? How do we do this?

Consider who you are, your sense of identity. Am I a professional communicator or a stress management practitioner? I am a firm believer in the route to success being in focusing on the one thing you do well, and doing it well.

Then discover your deep values and stay connected to them. This applies to organisations as much as it does to us as individuals. This then organises and guides behaviours, goals and actions.

Perhaps even more important than this, explore your purpose or mission. Are you here to leave a legacy or to be a beacon for others?

Then put a ruthless commercial perspective on your activities and consider the return on investment that you are getting. This does not have to mean financial investment or reward. If, for example, you are doing some voluntary work and are struggling to find the motivation to honour your promises, think about what’s in it for you. This will help you to focus. If you are getting some good networking relationships from it, it is likely to be quite motivating. But if the exchange is all one way, its probably time to make a quick exit. Just quit. There is honour in that.

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I have been procrastinating writing a feature article for 2 days. I got stressed thinking about this task because I thought it would be difficult to write. It is now overdue and my client is chasing me. I had two whole days. Yet I filled them with messing around on facebook, sorting out email queries and doing administration. Procrastination is a strategy that gives us temporary relief from stress. I had a great time uploading photos of my cats and my friends to facebook. But boy, my stress levels were at their highest late last night when I realised I still hadn’t written the article!

Today I sat down and got it written in 2 hours – a 1,600 word feature piece. Here’s what I did:

Deal with Distractions
I recognised my 3 deadly sins (Well there are more, but I don’t want to shock):
• Facebook: write a big post it note, stick it on your monitor “Facebook is banned until you have finished this task”. Shut down and log out.
• Email – close outlook completely. Don’t get distracted.
• Trivia – how on earth do the most mundane chores become so interesting and absorbing when you have a pressing job to complete? Ban yourself from distractions until you are finished …. but remember to promise yourself time to play afterwards.

Begin with a Brief
I write a short single page brief for myself with the objectives and the key messages that I want to get across to influence, persuade or convince.

Have a process
Then I get a large white sheet of blank paper (A3) and lay it out on the floor. I do a mind map of the report I am writing. (In this case, I had already done the interviews and research).
• Firstly I access my creative state: I don’t worry about order at this point – I just get everything down. When that large blank sheet of white paper is in front of me it serves as an anchor to help me get into creative space, where ‘anything goes’.
• Realist: Once it feels like I have got everything down, I then put on my ‘realist’ persona – how will this flow best? What order do things need to be in to get my messages across? What are my core messages?
• Finally I need a good critic. I access that part of me that is a bit of a nit-pick, who can help me see the flaws in the piece so far. What is the word count likely to be? Do you really need all that information? What is the barest amount you can get away with without losing the message?

This process that helps me build a framework or skeleton on which I can then hang the work in progress. This is a familiar rhythm for me and in starting this, my somatic self recognises that I am well on the way to completing the work, so I guess my brain is releasing the feel good hormones at this point.

All I have to do then is sit at the computer and start writing, with the mind map in front and my notes to hand. And voila!

Yesterday and part of the previous day, I spent writing, rewriting and editing a single press release: an unusual degree of effort for 400 words. I had only allowed half a day for this, so now I am behind on other tasks.  Why did this communication take so long to get right? 

For effective communication, a good process is critical.  Especially when the message is potentially confusing and convolute (as this was).  You have a few seconds to secure attention. So whether you are writing a press release or an email, make sure that you start with a brief, relevant first paragraph. 

However, before you even place finger on keyboard, plan your communication.  What are the two to three key messages that you want to get across? What do you want your audience to remember? Conversely, what is it that you cannot afford for them to miss?

Then you need to think about your single overriding message.  In that first paragraph, likely to be a sentence of no more than 30 words, what is your single minded theme that captures all your key messages?  And have you stated and restated this at least three times throughout your communication?  This pattern will aid recall.

Now, what support do you have to back up these messages? What features and characteristics prove what you are saying?  If you have two or three points to support each key message, you are more likely to gain conviction in your readers’ minds. 

Finally, you will need to check for fuzzy language.  Tools such as the meta model drawn from neuro-linguistic programming can be really useful to avoid confusion or ambiguity and increase clarity.  More on this will follow shortly in our podcast.