Leadership and communication are important skills for anyone who wants to run a successful business. However, the success of a leader (CEO, Business Owner, even the team) depends on how well they can communicate.
Communicating well lets you share your ideas, make and keep relationships, inspire others, and open up new opportunities.
Communication has to be the most important skill to have, no matter what you do or who you are. Think about it this way: Let's say you're telling your team about a better way to organize files in Google Drive because everything is a mess right now.
Now you can say:
Create files for each topic and make sure everything related to said topic is going into each folder.
Unfortunately, this isn’t going to work because it’s too vague.
Even if you think they already know, you would have to go step by step. You DON'T want to assume everyone knows everything.
As you read this, you will learn 5 ways to help you and your team communicate effectively and increase success.
What skills do you need for effective communication?
Active Listening
Be Open and Available for Discussion
Trust and Credibility
Review all Situations
Tone of Voice, What you say + Your Body Language
Active Listening
As a leader, listening is the most important skill to have other than communication. It can be hard to master because you have to listen, interact, and pay attention, but being good at it shows you’re open and flexible.
Just for a second, try to imagine what it would be like to listen to every word someone says.
I get that everyone is busy and there are a lot of distractions, but if that's the case, make time to sit down with someone and listen to what they have to say.
The person at the top of their business sets the tone for the rest of it. I mean, could you imagine if you "didn't" listen to a client, you'd lose them and lose money!? It's always the same thing if someone on your team comes to you with a question or concerns and you ignore them, how does that make you look?
Be Open and Available for Discussion
Don't be unreachable!
Think back to when you worked for someone else and needed to get in touch with your boss or someone higher up but couldn't for days or even weeks. In all honesty, that should never occur! It's hard and busy to run a business, but that's why you have a team: to help you run your business. Without your team, you'd get exhausted and burnout.
You need to show you’re willing to converse. Use your ability to empathize, understand what's being said, and get to know the person you're talking to. If you don't, you can always ask questions.
This is for everyone; your team and your clients.
Trust + Credibility
All of the things that have been said help build communication skills and show trust and credibility.
When making a decision, you talk about it with your team or whoever else is involved. Then, you have to take action, or else everyone will just sit there and wonder what's going on and if you really mean what you say.
Let's say you told a possible client you would send them an email about the services you offer, but you didn't. This person has been waiting, but they haven't gotten anything, so now they're wondering if you're really going to help them. I mean, if I were that person, I'd be off to the next business looking for services, because you and I both know we don't have time to wait around.
If you want to be successful, you need to not only help yourself, but also help your team.
Review All Situations
Workplace conflicts are common. But we know not everything is what it appears to be. Always look at every angle. If you're upset about a problem, you can't make a good decision.
Take the time to stop and reflect.
If you have team members coming to you, sit with them and have a conversation with them not scold them. We're all adults but as a leader, it's going to be tough because you’re going to have to come to some sort of decision involving you and them.
When you're not sure what to do, don't make a decision right away. Give yourself some time to figure things out. This will help you keep your cool when things go wrong.
Tone of Voice, What You Say and Body Language
Pay attention to your body language, tone of voice and what you say. You may think you shouldn't have to worry about it but you need to. I know at times I cross my arms in situations but that's uninviting. But it's unintentional, therefore you need to “train” your mind and body not to do so!
The way you converse with your team versus those who don’t work with you, is entirely different.
When speaking with anyone surrounding your business and getting into an argument, watch the way you defend your point of view, be open and flexible and respect the other person. Your words and body language send messages the other person might take as rude or condescending.
Final Thoughts
Remember when you fail in your communication, your ability to deal with others will be compromised and therefore your results.
What do I mean by results?
When you listen and I mean really listen, your team will have no problem coming to you. Your clients will rave about, therefore bringing in more money for your business because others hear and want to work with you, which makes everyone pretty happy!
Having the openness and flexibility will show your team you have actual time to spend with them. Not talking about endless rants but if they have a concern, questions, even ideas, they feel comfortable coming to you. And this goes hand in hand with trust and credibility!
Conflicts, unfortunately happen in all settings but you as a leader have the ability to effectively communicate, listen, and HELP. - See the emphasis on HELP!!- A leader should always be open to help their team.
Do not cross your arms while you’re having a conversation. This does not show openness, it shows your pretty closed off. Which can end in a result you don’t want. Imagine you’re trying to sell at an event, talking with your arms crossed; you’re not approachable therefore you may not get that sale.
Now when you put all this into play and have effective communication, verbal and non-verbal, you have a happy team, your clients are happy and business is BOOMING!!
Before you go, don't forget to sign up for the Learning Center to get blog posts sent to your inbox!
Kommentare