Which Communication Trap Do You Fall Into?

Have you ever been in a meeting that has caused you to lose the will to live? I have been reflecting on language and communication over the last month because recently, I have had that experience. What prompted it? Quite simply the incredibly poor calibre of communication by senior, successful professional people. And it got me pondering….Janice Obuchowski wrote an excellent article in the Harvard Business Review more than 10 years ago that still resonates today. She talked about three kinds of communication trap – namely anonymity, obscurity and tedium.

The anonymity trap is where leaders start talking the same corporate language. Words and phrases which are relatively unique to that organisation get used over and over again. I wrote in my book last year on the topic of Executive Presence: Demonstrating Leadership In Times Of Change And Uncertainty, that one of my clients uses the phrase ‘taking people on the journey’. I have many problems with this; not least of which is that I don’t understand what it really means. However, in the context of the model, the phrase is an example of the anonymity trap because everyone says it, and so no single voice ‘stands out’. In other words, everyone sounds the same.

The obscurity trap is overuse of jargon, technical language and little known words and phrases in order to sound intelligent. I recently sat in a session where a colleague used the word ‘ersatz’. Exactly, how many of you right now are looking up the meaning of the word? I guarantee almost no-one (me included) knew what they meant when they said it; and it was designed to demonstrate being clever and erudite. Except that it didn’t work. It caused confusion and irritation, not to mention discomfort when clarity was sought. (It means an inferior substitute by the way).

The tedium trap is just way too much information. This is where our communication is a tsunami of facts, figures, stories, data coming at the audience at speed. Too much; too overwhelming; too little thought gone in to our communication. The result is unfocused and often irrelevant information.

So how do we, as leaders, stop falling into one or more of these traps? Well to convey Executive Presence I would suggest:

• Don’t use standard formats or templates for presentations or pitches. Be different by structuring your message differently – especially at the beginning and the end (when attention is at its highest).
• Use metaphor and analogy – it is far more effective for conveying a message – especially when the communication is dull and/or complicated.
• Split your message into three parts to make it a narrative structure, just like a story.
• Be clear on what you want to achieve by communicating the message. Beware of ‘just updating’ people. The last thing we all need is data for the sake of having data. Unless you want a decision (for example, is it red or green? Tuesday or Thursday?); action (for example, to send a note or make a call) or commitment (time, money, people etc.) then why are you telling us?
• Be brief! Less is always more….
• Cut out the buzzword bingo nonsense.
• Be humorous (but not flippant) if this is a natural ability you possess.

Our communication is a reflection of the culture in which we live. We all have the capacity to be affected by it (for good and ill), and our challenge as leaders is to make our communication stand out for the right reasons, not blend in with everyone else for the wrong ones.

Love, Loyalty and Leadership

February is traditionally the month where at every turn, there’s talk of love. I write this post on Valentine’s Day, and by its very nature, this day, and how we celebrate it, remains a subject about which many have a fervent opinion. But what about love and leadership?

Really???? Who are we kidding??

Many of you will be familiar with the Harvard Service Profit Chain concept, which essentially suggests that businesses which thrive and grow, are businesses with customers who are engaged with the brand, who love it, who will remain loyal to it and who will recommend it to their family and friends. What drives that is an experience which leaves customers feeling that they are not only satisfied - but also connected emotionally - to that brand. In turn, what drives that is employees who are engaged with the company in which they work and who deliver an experience that their customers will love. And this is where we, as leaders, come in.

Much of my time is spent talking with leaders about the skills, strategies, tools and techniques of ‘Executive Presence’. One of the pillars of my framework is ‘engage’, and what I mean by that is leaders who have Executive Presence know how to win the hearts as well as the minds of their employees. They know how to attract, develop, challenge, support, motivate, enthuse, direct and retain great talent within their business. They know how to deal with, irrespective of the industry in which they work, the most difficult and yet most critical raw material in business there is – and that is emotion. It’s difficult because it’s not black and white. It’s critical because it’s always there.

Leadership is about delivering results through others and, therefore, it quite simply means that leadership is a relationship business. Great relationships are built on great communication. And it’s not easy to communicate effectively – especially when faced with negativity, cynicism, passive aggressive behaviour, depression, arrogance, ignorance – to name but a few. So where do we start? Well, like all great relationships, how about considering:

1. How well have we communicated our vision of where we’re going? How clear, concise and compelling have we made it? Everyone – no matter where they work or what they do – wants to know where the business is heading. A litmus test; pick five people at random and if what they say is not consistent (and not what you want), then the answer to the question is ‘not well enough’.
2. How often do we really make time to listen to our people? I’m not talking about simply through corporate structures such as employee satisfaction surveys, appraisals, etc. I’m talking about making and defending time to be with our people, to listen (without distraction!) to what they’re saying and to genuinely care.
3. How often are we focused on the right answers rather than the right questions? Our early career is necessarily built on developing technical competence – which means amassing the right level of accurate information for our area of expertise. However, there comes a point where this simply doesn’t matter. We have people in our business who know the right answers. (By the way if we don’t; we’re not hiring the right people.) The higher we rise in our career, the more important it is to understand that effective leadership is far more about asking a continual array of powerful, searching, stretching questions based on a genuine curiosity to understand.

Amongst many, many other skills and strategies, it is this that builds loyalty amongst our people; it is this that helps them to love working for the business, the team and for you, and it is this that helps us to be better leaders.

Will You Fail to Have a Great Career?

A new year, a new start and many of us turn again to the goals and aspirations of our professional lives for this year, whilst simultaneously reflecting on the successes and failures of the past 12 months. In my book, Executive Presence: Demonstrating Leadership in Times of Change and Uncertainty, I talk about the LEADER model of Executive Presence and the second ‘E’ stands for 'Evolve'. This area of leadership is focused on how we manage our career, find and pursue our passion at work.

One of the best, best, best TED talks I have watched in the last twelve months is by Larry Smith, a Professor of Economics, University of Waterloo in Canada. It’s a funny, but very blunt, talk that will make you stop and think – if you’ve not already done so given the title above. His unique delivery style is thought-provoking, funny, and devastatingly honest and it’s a video that we all should watch and re-watch. Smith states that most of us will fail to have a great career and espouses the reasons why:

1. Some of us start out with the aspiration for a good career and some of us start out with the aspiration for a great career. However, most of us will fail at both. 
2. We have been told many, many times that we should pursue our passion, but choose to ignore this advice and decide not to pursue it. 
3. Some of us are simply too lazy and won’t try hard enough. If we try to look for our passion, but not find it, then we make excuses not to do what you need to do for a really great career.
4. We create excuses that we believe, such as the excuse that really great careers are truly a matter of luck for most people. 
5. We choose to believe that there are special people who pursue their passions but they are geniuses. Smith suggests that we all used to think we were geniuses – but probably only when we were young. As we grow up we lose this belief and think instead that we are ‘completely competent’. Smith believes that such thoughts damn us all with the faintest of praise. And he’s right.
6. We believe that if we pursue a great career then we have to be weird. People who pursue their passions are strange or odd. We don’t like to think of ourselves as strange or odd. We like to think of ourselves as nice, normal people. However, nice normal people don’t have passion.
7. We do what our parents tell us – and that is to work really, really hard. Smith believes that we can work really, really hard – and that’s not the same as having a really great career. He also believes that just telling kids to work really hard is nonsense. Why? Because all of the evidence points to the contrary. 
8. We find things that we’re interested in but we don’t find our passion. Smith says that having an interest is great – but what about finding our passion in the big wide world and trying a bit harder? We’re not interested. Passion isn’t the same as interest and we might have lots of interests but all of us need to find our passion.
9. Even if we find our passion many of us will still fail according to Smith. Why? Because we continue to invent excuses for not having a great career as our passion. The phrase “if only I had…” is, according to Smith, one of the most damning things we can say.
10. Smith says that what we say to ourselves is that human relationships are more important than accomplishments. We want to be a great friend, a great parent, a great spouse etc. and we won’t sacrifice that at the altar of human accomplishment. Smith is uncomfortably honest here. If we listen to what we’re saying to ourselves; we’re making ourselves out to be a hero. But we’re no heroes. 
11. Then when our children say that they want to be something other than that which they are good at, we repeat the mantra. We repeat what our parents told us and what we have told ourselves in terms of excuses. 
12. The bottom line is that many of us are simply afraid. We’re afraid to try, afraid to fail, afraid to succeed. 
13. Unless………

So, let's not prove Larry Smith right. As 2016 begins (and before it gathers speed), now is the perfect time to reflect, plan and strategise to ensure that we pursue and excel at our life's purpose in a professional context, and secure the right resources and support around us to ensure success.

Until then……