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5 Powerful Ways to Be an Effective Communicator
Don't Just Repeat Your Words - Multiply them with Stories and Simplicity!| posted 10/24/2007
In my early career, my job was to help GE senior executives give speeches, talk to employees, and talk to shareowners. The variety of techniques I worked with was substantial, from international teleconferences to private breakfasts.
But what made the most difference in the future careers of my clients (the fast track executives at GE) was clearly not the flawless execution of my projects. It was the personal qualities and learned communications disciplines that shone through or failed to materialize in their communications.
To put it another way—effective communication is not just about techniques, it's about the communicator. I've gone to school on those early years. I offer here a few principles whose seeds were planted in those years, but grew up to be my "main things" in my current role as a CEO of a growing ministry.
The truth in Kingdom work is that effective communicators get things done and become leaders. In the list of what turns good managers into leaders, communication skills like these five powerful principles are at the top of the list, along with vision and passion.
No. 1. Let 'em see your heart!
It's your ultimate weapon when things get really tough and the answer isn't apparent. Talk from your core belief about a situation. Let what you really believe about people and your ministry come out. Let them see your hopes and disappointments. This is counterintuitive—our natural instincts scream at us to take a step backward and become more formal in sticky situations.
But people respond to your leadership as people, not employees. It is especially important in a crisis to get real, not formal. It's the same principle as the rest of our walk of faith. What we want to be ours in a time of crisis, we have to practice all the time in routine circumstances.
Does talking from the heart always mean you get very passionate and over-the-top? Not at all. Passionate talk can be a contrived performance. Letting those you manage see your heart is totally different—it requires opening the door to how you process decisions. It's not a calculated response delivered with enthusiasm. It's real. It's you.
In our ministry, for example, a fledgling partnership to children in a new neighborhood looked like it might come apart in a welter of allegations of non-performance made by our staff, contrasted with assurances that results were just different from expectations from our new partners. Communications grew steadily more formal and formulaic. My first task: earn credibility by speaking my heart to both sides about why we did this deal in the first place, seeking to earn my way beneath the surface of the facts. It turned out I did have to make a personnel change there because my "heart talk" revealed no similar motivations on the part of one of our leaders and no interest in change on the part of that individual. A sincere "opening up" from me helped bring out the truth.
