- Software/hardware provider contacts.
- Negotiations, purchasing, support.
- Computer installation and support for internal clients.
Research and development
- Technical and industry research, information exchange.
Plant/ production
- Scheduling.
- Set-up, maintenance.
- Quality control.
- Worker safety.
Purchasing
- Contact with product and service suppliers.
- Product specification and quotes.
- Price negotiation.
Training
Personal/ human resources
- Hiring
- Staff management.
- Employee review.
- Firing/ outplacement.
No matter what the position- everyone needs good written and verbal communication skills. Today, we must continually upgrade our information and skills to stay current. Just like that we represent our company in the marketplace, attracting potential sales. And we need to be able to present ourself to new employers, in this age of mergers, acquisitions, downsizing, and contract employment.
If we run our own business, communication skills are even more important – because we have to handle many of the activities listed above by ourself.
But these are just some of our work-related communications. We also need personal communication skills to enhance our relationships with friends, significant others, family, banks, insurance companies, etc., and to make our lives run harmoniously. Communication is also like water. We many take it for granted. But it’s what gives us life, and makes everything else flow.
3. Why is communication essential to leadership?
Leadership is about growth. It is about moving from where we want to be. Moving through and beyond our fears. Becoming more fulfilled and helping others.
None of this will happen if we do not share our ideas and feelings with others. People will not know our vision. They will not be able to feel our passion. No one will learn from you. No one can follow you.
What’s more, you will not grow. Many speakers and teachers, for example, find that when they are communicating, they learn more than their students do. In order to teach, you have to really know your subject. You learn what works and doesn’t. What sounds logical. How people react. You hear other people’s ideas, and these go beyond your own. That is when the real growth begins.
Leadership also depends on listening. Why is listening so important? It is the other side of the “bridge” between people. You can talk, preach, write, paint, or act all you want. But if no one as important. “I tell you what to do.” No question asked. End of communication.
Leadership from within, however, is about partnership. And partnership depends on communication. On finding shared values and common ground. On teamwork or alignment of our visions and passions to make a different. To be a leader-from-within, you have to know how to connect with your listeners. To understanding what they want, and to work together to create it.
Another essential part of partnership is trust, or a sense of confidence in and connection with another person. This is based on integrity and caring. It comes from knowing yourself and understanding the other person. It is relationship developed through communication.
Life is not about being a solitary individual. It is about relationship. How we get along together. How we help or hurt each other. And whether we make shared progress or try to self-made men or women. In anyone’s success, there are others involved.
4. Why do we have trouble communicating?
Good communication, like leadership, must come from within. It is rooted in knowing our values, clarifying our vision, and experiencing our passion. It comes form self-reflection, self-acceptance, and self-worth. This inner process must occur before a leader can truly express him-or herself to the outer world.
Yet many of us are not comfortable with this “inner side” of communication. As an outwardly focused culture, we seldom take time to go inside and find out what matter to us. In addition, many of us have been taught that passion or expressing what we care about or want is “selfish” or self-centre. That valuing our vision and ideas lacks “humility” and speaking honestly or directly is “arrogant”. And that expressing our emotions is “unprofessional.”
It’s no wonder we have difficulty communicating. We live in a society where it is more important to be right or acceptable than to be real. Is it any wonder we have trouble finding – or being – leaders-form-within?
5. What blocks communication?
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Fear
Self-expression is natural. However, when we have been repressed, feel strongly about something, or are under pressure to “perform,” inhibitions and fears block our natural flow. It’s true for everyone. Fear blocks flow.
The three great human fears are:
- Speaking in front of group.
- Dying.
- Speaking and dying in front of group.
Whatever the fear, it breaks the bond of communication.
Fear is the king of all blocks. It stops vision, wipes out passion, limits risk-taking, and blocks communication. Fear takes many forms. It could be fear of what others will think. Fear of exposing your private self, your deeper feelings or vision. Fear of embarrassment. It’s natural to be nervous！ Everyone is under stress when speaking in front of a group. Accept your fear. See the situation more clearly. Once you feel a little more at peace, get clear on your vision. Remember to breathe. Then give them everything you’ve got. If we do not accept, we will never overcome.
5.2 Unclear objectives
This is why self-knowledge is so important. Know what matters to you; how you think and feel. Communication will become easier.
5.3 Too little preparation = Too much pressure
If you don’t give yourself enough time to prepare, you are adding pressure- which creates STRESS – which in turn blocks your flow of idea, words, and feeling. The purpose of preparation is to give you time to relax and get the flows going.
5.4 Feeling
Actually, it is what you do with your feeling that creates the problem. If you suppress, deny, or judge them, you will not be aware of how you really feel. Try to knowledge how you feel.
5.5 A failure to be who you are
If you are a selfish, ignorant, or arrogant individual in a one-to-one conversation – then you should be the same in front of a group.
5.6 Too much focus on yourself
First connect with yourself. Then- totally forget about yourself. Make eye contact. Connect with your audience. Watch body language. Sense the energy or feeling in the room. You will pick up important signal of what to say and do. If you are too focused on your own agenda, you will miss them.
5.7 A resistance to learning communication skills.
Good communication takes more than talking. Most people do not know what really good communication is. Few of us have real-life role models for it. Therefore we do not value it.
6. Way to improve your communication
- Attitude and behavior affect your results.
This gets communicated in everything you say everything you do. I believe in being positive and honest, in respecting the audience. Speak from “the best in you” to “the best in them.
Your behavior is most powerful when it fully reflects your attitudes. When you say one thing but mean another, you leave people feeling there is something wrong. They may not know what it is but they do feel it.
- Communication depends on knowing yourself- and others.
To be a clear communicator, you need to be clear about who you are and what matters to you. Then share experiences that have been meaningful to you. Imagination comes from what you want to do. Will comes from what you believe you should do.
- Thinking about how you – and other – like to be treated.
It only makes sense: Treat people better and they will work better.
6.3 Speak about your vision and passion.
When you communicate your values and what moves you, people feel it. They are attracted by it. It will lead to more commitment and loyalty within your relationships or organization.
Express your vision and passion. But it is even more important to help people find their own. That is what they are really looking for.
6.4 Take a risk in your communication.
- Listen to what people are saying.
- Don’t play it too safe. Reveal yourself.
- Tell people what you want.
- Get help.
- Just do it.
7. Conclusion
Don’t worry about the money. It will come.
Don’t worry about reputation. It will come.
Worry about the content of what you are presenting.
That is everything.
Reference
1. Gavin Lawrie, Linking Corporate and Individual Performance Management Systems, http://www.workinfo.com
2. Colorado Department of Personnel & Administration
http://www.colorado.gov
3. Individual Performance Management,
http://www1.worldbank.org
4. Hunghes & Ginnet & Curphy, Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience, 4th Edition, 2002, New York, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
5. Peter Urs Bender, Leadership from within, 1997, Toronto, Stoddart Publishing Co. Limited.
