The Apparel Digest Knowledge Compilation
If you want to be an effective leader – professional in business or social as well as in personal life, you need to excel in communication. In fact, the success of your business relies on it.
Effective leaders use active listening, empathy, clarity, and transparency to build trust, align teams, and drive results, focusing on two-way dialogue, adapting their style, giving constructive feedback, and ensuring actions match words to create a positive, goal-oriented culture. Key skills involve being approachable, concise, consistent, and using nonverbal cues and storytelling to inspire and motivate, while also being open to others’ ideas and feedback.
Effective communication impacts more than just the bottom line. For leaders, it’s what enables them to rally their team around a shared vision, empower employees, build trust, and successfully navigate organizational change.
WHY IS COMMUNICATION IMPORTANT IN LEADERSHIP?
A leader is someone who inspires positive, incremental change by empowering those around them to work toward common objectives. A leader’s most powerful tool for doing so is communication.
Effective communication is vital to gain trust, align efforts in the pursuit of goals, and inspire positive change. When communication is lacking, important information can be misinterpreted, causing relationships to suffer and, ultimately, creating barriers that hinder progress.
If you’re interested in enhancing your leadership capabilities, here are eight communication skills you need to be more effective in your role.
ESSENTIAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR PROFESSIONALS
1. Ability to Adapt Your Communication Style
Different communication styles are the most frequently cited cause of poor communication, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, and can lead to more significant issues, such as unclear priorities and increased stress.
It’s essential to identify your leadership style, so that you can better understand how you’re interacting with, and perceived by, employees across the organization. For example, if you’re an authoritative leader, you likely have a clear vision for achieving success and align your team accordingly. While an effective approach for some, it might fall flat for others who seek more autonomy in their role.
Every employee’s motivations are different, so knowing how to tailor your communication is essential to influencing others & reaching organizational goals.
TIPS FOR DEVELOPING ONE’S COMMUNICATION LEADERSHIP STYLE
1.1 Imitation Is the Enemy
Before you move into your first management position, you may have assumptions of what a leader should look, sound, and act like. Not every great leader has the style of Steve Jobs or Sheryl Sandberg. In fact, no two leadership methods are the same.
Here’s the thing: When you do step into that managerial ring—and even before—the work of leadership requires flexing different qualities depending on the context and situation. When you notice you’re starting to imitate the style of your idol, throw that archetype out the window. The work of developing your own style doesn’t start outside the self, it starts from within.
1.2 Know Your Strengths (and Weaknesses)
Think about the qualities that come naturally to you. Then ask yourself: Where do you struggle? Maybe you are a fast learner and great at getting things done, but sometimes sacrifice quality for quantity. Or, you could be confident in the work you create on your own, but when you get into the conference room, you struggle to speak up about your contributions.
The habits you make as an individual contributor may be your default when you first step into a leadership position. But becoming a great manager means working on yourself so that you can support and develop others, and that requires a different kind of work. Getting honest with yourself and your qualities is an essential step.
1.3 Understand the Influence of Bias
This is a big one. Developing your leadership style means understanding that certain aspects of your approach may cause others to interpret your behavior through the distortion of subconscious biases. This can be affected by factors such as gender, race, and nationality.
1.4 Be Brave
Just as the research reads clearly on the reality of bias, it also shows that subconscious attitudes can be counteracted when others are exposed firsthand to performance track records. You can work to be more aware of how others’ impressions of you may differ from what you think you are communicating. Similarly, acknowledge your own potential biases or perceptions and how they may be affecting your judgment of others.
This self-awareness and honest reflection is the work of a confident leader, and confidence is one thing every leadership style should possess.
2. Active Listening
Effective leaders know when they need to talk and, more importantly, when they need to listen. Show that you care by asking for employees’ opinions, ideas, and feedback. And when they do share, actively engage in the conversation—pose questions, invite them to elaborate, and take notes.
It’s important to stay in the moment and avoid interrupting. Keep your focus on the employee and what it is they’re saying. To achieve that, you also need to eliminate any distractions, including constant pings on your cell phone or checking incoming emails.
3. Transparency
In a survey by the American Management Association, more than a third of senior managers, executives, and employees said they “hardly ever” know what’s going on in their organizations. Transparency can go a long way in breaking down that communication barrier.
By speaking openly about the company’s goals, opportunities, and challenges, leaders can build trust amongst their team and foster an environment where employees feel empowered to share their ideas and collaborate. Just acknowledging mistakes can encourage experimentation and create a safe space for active problem-solving. Every individual should understand the role they play in the company’s success. The more transparent leaders are, the easier it is for employees to make that connection.
4. Clarity
When communicating with employees, speak in specifics. Define the desired result of a project or strategic initiative and be clear about what you want to see achieved by the end of each milestone. If goals aren’t being met, try simplifying your message further or ask how you can provide additional clarity or help.
The more clear you are, the less confusion there will be around priorities. Employees will know what they’re working toward and feel more engaged in the process.
5. Ability to Ask Open-Ended Questions
If you want to understand employees’ motivations, thoughts, and goals better, practice asking open-ended questions. You may note following points:
- “Tell me more.”
- “Explain what you mean.”
- “Define that term or concept for me.”
By leveraging those phrases when speaking with your team, you can elicit more thoughtful, thorough responses and ensure you also have clarity around what they need from you to succeed.
6. Empathy
There’s a reason empathy has been ranked the top leadership skill needed for success. The better you get at acknowledging and understanding employees’ feelings and experiences, the more heard and valued they’ll feel.
In a recent survey by Harvard Business School, 96 percent of respondents said it was important for their employers to demonstrate empathy, yet 92 percent claimed it remains undervalued. If you want to improve your communication and build a stronger, more productive culture, practice responding with empathy.
Emotional intelligence, also known as emotional quotient or EQ, is the ability to understand and manage your emotions and the emotions of others. Similar to IQ, emotional intelligence can be measured through various assessments, but IQ represents cognitive abilities while EQ is a measure of one’s emotional capabilities.
While emotional intelligence is beneficial for everyone, it’s especially important for those in leadership positions. Emotionally intelligent leaders can empathize with others, communicate effectively, and manage conflict. All of these abilities are qualities of effective leaders.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE SKILLS LEADERS NEED
6.1 Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is having a clear understanding of your strengths, limitations, emotions, beliefs, and motivations. It sounds simple enough, yet 79 percent of executives surveyed by organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry had at least one blind spot—or a skill they ranked among their strongest that others reported as a weakness.
Leaders who are adept at recognizing and managing their emotions are better equipped to perceive others’ feelings and know how to motivate employees. Those who don’t could see a slip in performance: Research in the Harvard Business Review found that teams with individuals who lack self-awareness make worse decisions and are less effective at conflict management.
By acknowledging your weaknesses, you can build trust and transparency among your team. You can also own your professional development by knowing the areas in which you need to improve in order to advance your career.
6.2 Self-Regulation
Self-regulation refers to how you manage your emotions, behaviors, and impulses. The more self-aware you are, the easier this becomes; if you can recognize what you’re feeling and why, you can respond appropriately. If prone to emotional outbursts or overreacting, there are tactics you can use to improve your self-regulation, such as:
- Pausing before Responding: Give yourself time to stop and think before immediately replying. This could be as simple as taking a deep breath and allowing for a 20-second pause so that your feelings get out of the way of your thoughts.
- Taking a Step Back: Sometimes, you might need to leave the room, and that’s OK. It’s often better to take a walk, drink some water, or call a friend than to make a snap judgment, send a scathing email, or lash out at your team.
- Recognizing your Emotions: Try jotting down what it is you’re feeling and what caused the distress. You’ll likely start identifying patterns. If you know what triggers you, the next time a similar situation occurs, you’ll be better positioned to handle it in a healthy, positive way.
If you acknowledge your emotions and give yourself time to process them, you can carefully craft how you respond and avoid doing anything that could jeopardize the goodwill you’ve worked hard to build.
6.3 Sympathy
Sympathy of understanding another person’s experiences and emotions, is very crucial for a leader. According to one research, leaders who excel at listening and responding with necessary sympathy perform more than 40 percent higher in coaching, planning, and decision-making.
By actively listening to your employees and taking the time to understand their wants and needs, you can boost engagement, build trust, and more effectively coach them through challenges. The more your team feels appreciated, the more invested they’ll be, which, in turn, leads to higher morale and stronger company culture.
6.4 Motivation
Motivation refers to your ability to inspire both yourself and others to action. Here, it’s essential to lead by example. Self-motivated leaders care more about hitting organizational milestones than monetary awards. They set goals, take initiative, rise to the challenge, and stay optimistic during turbulent times.
The more positive you are, the more confident your team will feel. Your intrinsic motivation will permeate the organization, and you’ll have a better understanding of how to empower employees.
6.5 Social Skills
Social skills are all about how you perceive emotions and interact and communicate with others. For example, emotionally intelligent leaders can walk into a room of employees with pursed lips and clenched fists and not only sense the tension, but know how to address and resolve the conflict before it escalates.
The more in tune you are with your emotions, the easier it will be to assess others’. And if you can assess others’ feelings, you can more easily build and maintain relationships. Leaders with strong social skills know they can’t achieve success alone. Surpassing goals and reaching milestones requires collaboration, communication, and a shared vision.
HOW TO DEVELOP EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE SKILLS
Ø Try Journaling
At the end of the workday, reflect on how your meetings, projects, and interactions went—whether positive or negative. By writing your thoughts down, you can spot specific patterns about your behaviors and reactions, as well as others’.
Ø Undergo a 360-Degree Assessment
In a 360-degree assessment, you solicit feedback from your manager, colleagues, and peers, while also undergoing an individual self-assessment. Through the process, you can gain valuable insights into what your co-workers perceive as your strengths and weaknesses, as well as uncover any blind spots you might have.
Ø 3. Practice Active Listening
According to “Psychology Today” magazine, only about 10 percent of people listen effectively. It’s easy to get distracted by technology, background noise, and your own thoughts. Yet, to be an effective communicator and emotionally intelligent leader, you need to be a good listener.
To become more emotionally intelligent, practice active listening. Try to focus on what the speaker is saying and show that you’re engaged by paraphrasing and using other non-verbal cues like nodding. By actively listening at work, it will be easier to connect with others and truly understand their thoughts and feelings.
Ø Pay Attention to Your Emotions
To understand the emotions of others, you need to understand your own first.
When you catch yourself feeling a particularly strong emotion, whether it’s a positive or negative one, make a conscious effort to think about what you’re feeling. Take a second and consider why you’re feeling this way and what might have triggered such a strong emotional response.
This will help you become more aware of your own emotions and better understand your colleagues’. As an empathetic leader, you’ll be able to cultivate a high-performing team.
7. Open Body Language
Communication isn’t just what you say; it’s how you carry yourself. Ninety-three percent of communication’s impact comes from nonverbal cues, according to an executive trainer.
To ensure you’re conveying the right message, focus on your body language. If you’re trying to inspire someone, talking with clenched fists and a furrowed brow isn’t going to send the right message. Instead, make eye contact to establish interest and rapport and flash a genuine smile to convey warmth and trust.
8. Receiving and Implementing Feedback
Asking for feedback from your team can not only help you grow as a leader, but build trust among your colleagues. It’s critical, though, that you don’t just listen to the feedback. You also need to act on it.
If you continue to receive feedback from your team, but don’t implement any changes, they’re going to lose faith in your ability to follow through. It’s likely there will be comments you can’t immediately act on—be transparent about that. By letting your employees know they were heard and then apprising them of any progress you can, or do, make, they’ll feel as though you value their perspective and are serious about improving.
| BE A GREAT PROFESSIONAL LEADER WITH EXCEPTIONAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS |
