Home » Communication Habits To Advance A Career – Part 2

Communication Habits To Advance A Career – Part 2

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A recent survey by The Predictive Index indicates that the #1 skill employees feel their managers lack is communication. In this age of connectedness, why are communication skills, or lack thereof, continuously noted as the #1 opportunity for most leaders? I have a lot of thoughts on the matter and want to help leaders improve these skills. This article is the second of a 3-part series highlighting some of the communication habits that helped propel me from an "individual contributor" role to the President of a global enterprise with operations in seven countries.

As I noted in the first article, I do not profess to be a communication expert. I have failed too many times to be considered an expert. However, surprisingly, numerous peers, team members, immediate bosses, and senior executives have frequently noted communication as one of my top strengths and leadership skills. I have worked with some incredible leaders and role models throughout my career, and I picked up many great tips along the way.

In the first article, I discussed the skill of active listening and provided some examples. I also mentioned how that skill conveys respect to the speaker, reduces ambiguity, and positions you as a leader with excellent communication skills. Such skills are crucial to being a great leader. Granted, a great leader also needs to have other skills, a healthy emotional quotient (EQ), flexible soft skills, and sufficient cognitive abilities. But given the pace of our world and the importance of clear communication in the workplace, I would argue one will never achieve their full leadership potential if they don’t perfect their communication skills.

In this second article, I am going to tackle the skill of intentional communication. There are several aspects of intentional communication, but I will cover the top 3 that I feel were most instrumental in my career progression. All three aspects also have three underlying behaviors in common: (1) thinking before you speak, (2) having self-awareness and managing your body language, and (3) choosing the appropriate words and communication style.

Align The Verbal and the Non-Verbal

One of the essential aspects of intentional communication is the alignment of verbal and non-verbal language. Here is a scenario that may sound familiar. An important message is delivered, but the speaker’s body language or facial gestures do not match the verbal communication. The result often is a mangled message and a confused audience. I have had my share of mangled messages, particularly in the early part of my career. They were impactful learning lessons as I had to deal with the fallout of the confusion I created.

Mangled messages can occur in all settings: a 1-1 meeting, a team meeting, or a town hall. What causes the misalignment between the verbal and non-verbal? From my experience, the number one reason is lack of sufficient preparation. This insufficient preparation can spur a variety of issues. Most commonly, the speaker is more nervous about delivering a message. This nervousness comes almost always comes across as reduced confidence. Depending on the business setting or context of the message, the reduced confidence can dilute a call to action, torpedo a sales pitch, or in the worst case, lessen a team’s confidence in their leader. Confidence, or lack thereof, can be contagious.

Do you want to work on aligning your verbal and non-verbal communications? Practice, practice, practice! As a former President and CFO, I frequently delivered “big” communications to audiences of all sizes. This next bit of information may sound like a bit of overkill, but there were some communications in which my preparation time was a 5x to 10x factor of the actual time spent delivering the message. Said differently, I may have prepared 30 to 60 minutes for what would be a 5-minute communication. Granted, I didn’t go that extreme all the time. The bottom line is the more important the message, the greater the prep time. It is important to note “big” didn’t just mean the size of the audience. “Big” was more about the importance of the message to the audience receiving the message, whether it was one person or a team of 100. There is little to no margin for error when delivering a “big” communication, such as information that significantly impacts someone’s professional work-life.

Convey the "Who, What, Where, When, and Why"

As a servant-leader, one of my core beliefs around communication is to make sure the people doing the actual work have all the information they need to carry out the duties of their role successfully. Any article on leadership best practices usually recommends that leaders take the time to explain the “why” to their team members. I agree, such information provides valuable context and also helps to facilitate “buy-in.” However, the skill of intentional communication goes further. The communicator needs to be purposeful as they craft or think about the message to be delivered. Who needs to know the information? What information will be communicated, or what is the recipient expected to do after receiving it. And of course, when and where should the message be delivered? Again, we apply this discipline to “big” communications, using my previously mentioned definition of “big.”

Respect the Recipient

In the first article of this series, I noted that we all are different. The differences are many, and communication style is just one example. Communication style, of course, can work both ways – the speaker’s style of delivery and the listener’s learning preference for how they process and retain information. I gave this section the heading “respect the recipient” because the objective is to consider the individual’s learning preference and tailor your messaging accordingly where possible. Tailoring to an individual’s learning preference will significantly increase your message’s likelihood to “stick” with the recipient.

Do you want to explore the topic of learning preferences further? One readily available resource that has been around for more than 30 years is The VARK Questionnaire. The short 16-question survey can provide insights into an individual’s sensory modalities that affect the learning and retention of information. According to the VARK website, “the acronym VARK stands for Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic.” We used VARK at our company, and many employees generally found the feedback informative and accurate. Leaders were able to tailor a 1:1 meeting to an individual’s learning preference(s), and we would make sure that our group meetings, such as Town Halls, included content that touched on all four modalities.

Summary

In closing, leaders need to be skilled in intentional communication. Being intentional with your communications reduces the chance of sending mixed messages and conveys information that better resonates with the intended audience, and therefore is more likely to be retained.

I have a passion for helping others develop their communication and leadership skills. My firm helps organizations develop their leaders, increase employee engagement, and improve teamwork for optimal results. Please feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn or visit https://end2endwins.com if you would like to learn more about my services and workshops.

Barry Elliott

Barry Elliott is the President and Founder of End2End Wins, a consultancy firm located in Tampa, Florida. The firm provides talent strategies for a new era of work. The firm helps companies improve employee engagement, increase employee retention, bolster teamwork, and develop leaders that employees want to follow. The firm is a Certified Partner of the Predictive Index. Before founding the firm, Barry served in both the President and CFO roles of a global Customer Service and B2C fulfillment enterprise with operations in six countries. The enterprise served 85+ storied brands including Time, People, and Fortune.