Effective communication is a life-skill and certainly a core competency for
any leader. Whether you are trying to change the culture of your organisation,
transform its business entirely or simply battling to cope with the constant
change that is an integral part of everyday business life, good communication
skills are vital. If you cannot communicate effectively you don’t have a
snowball in hell’s chance of succeeding.
Unfortunately, communication is a two way process. Thus it is not something
you can do on your own. No matter how good at it you are, you depend on someone
else. And the thing is, the other person does not feel exactly the way you do about the situation. And, organisationally
at least, effective communication means getting someone else to
feel the same way you do.
Why?
In order that they behave “appropriately” in any situation. After all isn't that what employee engagement really means – taking ownership of the situation? This requires
more than compliance. It has to be innate and that only happens when the person
concerned understands and believes in defined values and always behaves in
accordance with them, almost unthinkingly.
Now you may think that sounds more like contagion than communication. But
the thing is, your passion is hard to replicate and you cannot make it
contagious at will. And while you can compel compliance, you cannot always
count on it in a given situation if you are not there to enforce it. So, if you
want to be sure and reduce the risk of possibly inappropriate behaviour, you
have to find a way to communicate that ensures appropriate behaviour at all
times and in all circumstances.
But how do you do that?
You create a vision of what you are trying to achieve. People then have a
choice as to whether to buy in to that vision or not but, when they do, they
will act accordingly. Then all your communication builds on and encapsulates
and embeds that vision. That is the way you engender the behaviours you want
and they become innate in your people.
Not for nothing does the old proverb tell us, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18)
That is advice you as a leader would do well to remember, whatever your role and
whatever the situation you find yourself in.
Now ask yourself, “What is my vision for my organisation?” You do have one,
don’t you?