As a leader, great communication is critical not just to provide details and instructions about a vision of what you want to accomplish, but also to motivate, inspire and manage people and move them in the desired direction.
When you are in a leadership position, you may not realise that you are always under the spotlight. No matter what, everything you say and do is scrutinised, both for the better and for the worse. By accepting both the honor and challenge of being a leader, it is important to remember that what you say or do affects your ability to lead. Words and actions can turn into habits and habits contribute to building our character. Leadership is not a pre-established privilege but that something that must be earned every day in the field.
Here are 5 ways by which you can improve your skills as a communicator and therefore gain the power to inspire, guide, and motivate your people to follow you as a leader and embrace your vision and direction.
Be present. As a leader you are probably used to rush around from meeting to another with little time to clear off your heads and empty your mind ready for what’s next. Although it has been demonstrated that people can concentrate only for a few minutes each hour yet, as a leader, it’s important that you are always present and engaged whether you are speaking with a colleague during your coffee break, on a client call or during a meeting. This way people will know you care.
Ask the right questions. One the worst mistakes you can make as a leader is to think that you have all the answers. In contrast, you should leverage the talent that surrounds you by guiding conversations and meetings with a specific goal in mind but asking those questions that will foster an opened discussion avoiding to spend your time giving directives but allowing people to share their ideas and insights instead.
Speak less, listen more. Certainly, one of the most important charateristics of a powerful communicator is to be a deep and active listener. Most of the time unfortunately we don’t listen but rather we think what to say next, thus missing completely what’s been said. Leadership isn’t about standing on soap box dictating to others but to listen more and speak less. The less you will talk in y9our conversations and meetings, the more you will learn and find the inspiration to reach the best conclusion.
Work on emotional intelligence. It’s quite rare to find a leader with innate emotional intellingence skills therefore these are qualities that you can develop over time. Developping skills like self-awareness, empathy or learning to remain calm under pressure will help you to improve your leadership ability.
Stay calm and be positive. It has been proven that effective communications is only 7% words and the rest is body language, tone of your voice and delivery. Both calm and panic can be very contagious, so imagine the effect that either of them could have on your people in both scenarios.
In conclusion, although it’s always your choice whether to improve your communication skills or not, it’s relevant to say that the ability to communicate is a vital leadership skill and something that should not be overlooked if you want to be a successful leader.
