04 Nov TSLH #044: 3 Leadership Situations Where Effective Communication Is Essential
Posted at 06:00h
in Newsletter
Read time: 4 minutes
When I talk to potential coaching clients, one of the top challenges they cite as a reason for wanting coaching with me is their communication skills, or the perceived lack thereof.
Many of these leaders, whether they are first-time managers or seasoned and experienced executives, often stress about having difficult conversations with other people. In many situations, these leaders refrain from having difficult conversations lest they damage otherwise positive and thriving relationships.
Coaching these leaders, and based on my experience with my own challenges at communicating, there are 3 leadership situations where effective communication is essential:
- Giving proper feedback
- Communicating up – with your boss(es)
- Conducting annual reviews and 1-1’s
Here are a few tips to address each of these leadership situations. Also, at the bottom of this newsletter, and if you have not yet used that opportunity, I am offering a 30% discount off my online course “Mastering Difficult Conversations for Leaders” for the first 15 persons who register for the course.
Giving proper feedback. In most companies, and for most leaders, feedback typically only happens in one of three situations:
- An annual performance review
- A regular one-on-one discussion
- A difficult conversation about poor performance
It’s no wonder that most leaders dread giving feedback. It’s most often done in a high stress environment, where judgment is very present and a lot is at stake (performance appraisal, compensation impact, even the job).
A good and less stressful way of giving feedback is to use the AID model, which stands for Action, Impact, Desired outcome.
Here’s a typical situation you could have using that model.
Action: “I attended your last presentation and I noticed that you didn’t include an executive summary at the start. What was people’s reaction to that?”
Impact: “I saw that some of them were confused and did not stay alert during the whole presentation. They do have a lot of meetings and they tend to like those executive summaries.”
Desired outcomes: “How could you keep them more engaged during the presentation next time?”
Finish the discussion with “How can I help you with this?”
Video #1 of my online course will cover that model in more depth and will give you additional tips on how to use that model to deliver feedback that makes people improve.
Communicating up. You might have read many recent examples about CEOs making big mistakes – usually seen as stupid mistakes – for instance laying off hundreds of people through emails or video calls. These bad events usually happen because of one thing: The leadership teams of these CEOs are missing in action when it matters the most. Nobody on these leadership teams is telling their boss they’re wrong.
The truth is, a strong leader is 100 percent responsible for the relationship with their manager and for creating the conditions for efficient communication with them.
There are 2 ways of creating these conditions:
- Give feedback to them even when they do not want to hear it
- Set expectations with them on how and why you will give them feedback and what you expect in return
Video #2 of my online course will tell you exactly how to do this, and specifically how to set expectations with your boss early on so that you feel comfortable giving them feedback when they most need it.
Conducting annual reviews and 1-1’s. These conversations are your best opportunities to give and receive feedback, and to let people express themselves without having to worry about anyone else.
According to a Gallup survey, employees who have regular one-on-ones with their manager are three times more likely to be engaged at work than the ones who don’t. Makes you think twice, doesn’t it?
The best tip I’ll give you as far as annual reviews and 1-1’s are concerned is to go in these discussions with the mindset of a coach. That means that you need to listen a lot and ask questions. This will give you critical information that you can then use to give feedback to the people and also to understand how you can best support the people on your team.
There are many questions you could ask in these conversations. Here is a small sample:
- “What have you accomplished this week?”
- “What are you struggling with”
- “What support do you need from me?”
- “What do you see as your greatest success this year? What makes it so?”
- “Where have you disappointed yourself this year?”
- “What are goals you want to set for yourself for the coming period?”
Video #3 of my online course will give you a way to integrate the AID model in these regular discussions with the people on your team and tell you exactly what kind of questions you should consider asking to make these conversations valuable and powerful for both the person and you, the leader.
If you can master these 3 types of conversations, your efficiency as a leader will improve significantly. It’s a matter of practice, and being aware of what you need to say as a leader and what people on your team (or your boss) need to hear from you in order to stay engaged and accountable.
If you’re interested in digging into this more, consider registering for my online course by clicking on this link: Master Difficult Conversation for Leaders and use the code 30_MDCFL to get a 30% discount off the price of the course. Only the first 15 people to use the code will get the discount.
I wish you a great read. I’ll see you next Saturday!
TL; DR (Too Long, Did not Read)
3 leadership situations where effective communication is essential
- Giving proper feedback
- Communicating up.
- Conducting annual reviews and 1-1’s.
Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
1️⃣ Work 1-1 with me to step up as the authentic leader you aspire to be.
2️⃣ Hire me to help you build a high-performing team.
3️⃣ Start with my affordable digital courses on Mastering Difficult Conversations for Leaders and Goal Setting