Black Belt Productivity

One of the things I have been giving a lot of thought to this week is leadership, and the communication skills that it requires.

You would be hard pressed to find a good leader who could not communicate well with others. One of the biggest prerequisites to leadership is being able to convince others to follow you. Part of that ability is directly tied to communication skills.

Let’s think for a moment about communication in leadership.

What do leaders communicate?

• Organizational vision
• Expectations
• Instructions
• Processes & Procedures
• (Hopefully) Encouragement
• Changes in status quo

How do leaders communicate?

• Through email
• Telephone
• (In some cases) organizational websites or blogs
• The spoken word (meetings, one-on-ones, presentations, etc.)

Why do leaders communicate?

• Transfer of information
• To share knowledge
• To level the playing field
• To draw parameters

I am sure you guys can come up with additions to this list. Feel free to carry on with this after reading.

As you can see, it is imperative to communicate with clarity if you are in any position of leadership.

So if you plan to be a better leader, how do you enhance your ability to communicate?

• Learn to communicate better through email. There are all kinds of resources online to read about how best to communicate in email. Yale University has a website that talks about netiquette. Start doing simple things like making sure your subject line communicates your topic clearly, be concise…do not ramble…get to the point, and be careful about using that “Reply to All” button.
• Work on your presentation skills. Many tips are available for giving presentations in various blogs and other online resources. Bert Webb at Open Loops often writes about communication. Dwayne Melancon at Genuine Curiosity recently made a great post on presentation pet peeves that I find to be on the mark. I also recently found this great blog called Presentation Zen…a goldmine of information and discussion on presentations.

- Jason