Leadership Communication Asks More of
Us
 A few years back we
received a call from a large, internationally-known manufacturing
company. Here's how it went. "Hi Jim, we'd need your company to
come in and consult with us about some communication issues a few of
our senior managers are having." We came prepared to discuss
our presentation skills workshops. The issue at hand was something
altogether different.
As
we soon discovered, the senior managers in question had worked
their way through the company over 20+ years but were now
struggling. The responsibility of leadership was now asking of them
something they had never learned in engineering school. You
see, over the course of their careers most had made an art
form out of their ability to populate charts, graphs
and table slides. But when faced with the need to motivate,
challenge and align those they were leading - their tool kit was
empty. You might as well have asked them to ballroom dance.
Sadly, few seem to navigate the transition
from valued mid-level manager to effective senior leader and if they
do, they become simply adequate leaders but never great
ones. And a big part of their struggles are often a
result of a personal communication toolkit that is woefully missing
in its understanding of what makes people tick and
why.
The book, The Leader's Voice,
effectively exposed this common challenge. See if you recognize
these issues impacting too many leaders
today...
Four fatal assumptions of leadership communication -
Employees (or stakeholders)...
Understand what was
communicated
Agree with
what was communicated
Care about
what was communicated
Will take
appropriate action
This newsletter is dedicated
to the art of leadership communication and three important tools
every leader needs in their personal communication
arsenal.
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The Truth About the Facts
 You don't need to look any
further than the hundreds of charting options in PowerPoint or
the 5 levels of sub-bullet defaults in the Master to understand
that the tool was built for the conveyance of raw
information. And as intriguing
as the idea maybe be to take a whack at a radar, pyramid or donut
chart, most of us come to our senses and ask the all important
question.. why?
The truth is it's simply quicker and easier to pour
our information into a pre-existing mold which may or may
not be easier for our audiences to actually "get". Too
many leaders today have made facts and data their sole channel for
communicating with those they lead. And they're finding out a
painful reality of leadership - facts are rarely
motivational.
We may manage to move people to better
understanding on some key business metrics and accomplish some level
of understanding, but obtaining an employee's or peer's agreement,
personal ownership and motivation to take action may be something
else all together. Here's the challenge.
Information
that's presented to others in the form of charts, data, bullets or
some other intellectualized communication material is making its
appeal to the left side of the brain. That part of the brain is
uniquely designed to process material that is logical, orderly and
methodical. Ok, so what's the problem? Appealing to the left side of
the brain has some major limitations for leaders who aspire to be
more than just purveyors of data and
information.
Short-term memory
Raw data is
rarely memorable. Think of that college final examination where you
crammed all night long before the big test. How much of that
information did you retain a week or a month later? Can you recall
the bulleted information from several slides you saw in a
presentation just last week? The answer is typically no.
Unless it impacts our paychecks (a message that has pronounced right
brain emotional appeal!), the information is not encoded in a way
that is meaningful and retrievable. Think of memory as a long path
through the woods and recall the mechanism we use to help
others find their way back to an important thought or
idea. Remember, raw data = no bread crumbs.
Defense-intensive
If we use
intellectualized material as our sole leadership
communication vehicle, we must be prepared for the
often cerebral, more defense-intensive response it evokes.
There's certainly a time to debate and challenge business
metrics. We absolutely need them to measure, analyze and chart
relevant courses, but we can expect others to respond
intellectually. "What's the source of your data?" "Is that
current information?" "Your goals are not realistic for my
team!"
Low persuasive
value
Think about
this question. The last time you were motivated by
information, was it because of the statistic itself or because of an
understanding of the personal impact it represented? You may be able
to get your direct reports respond robotically to the latest
quarterly business goals or out of fear for missing a performance
bonus but not often enough out a deeply embraced and shared
organizational goal or vision - the kind that drives extraordinary
performance and personal sacrifice over the long
haul.
"The biggest problem with leadership communication
is the illusion
that it has occurred."
The Leader's Voice,
Clarke & Crossland
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Taking
Messages to a Deeper Level
 There's a lot being written
these days about effective leadership. And the interaction we have
with a Portland-area Executive MBA program would seem to validate
that today's managers are much better equipped for analyzing
business metrics and dissecting P&Ls. But if facts are an
ineffective mechanism for winning the hearts and minds of busy
employees, peers, or customers - what
is?
The answer is found
in the feedback we receive hundreds of times a year when
we ask this question to those attending our Art of the High Stakes
Presentation workshops. "Who were their most inspiring
and motivation leaders and why?" In all the years we've asked
that question, not once has someone touted a leader's ability
to create killer 3D bar charts. And we've never heard
about the amazing way they present Excel
spreadsheets.
Here's what we do hear,
however: "They used personal stories to help create a
relevant context for what we were up against." "They were
passionate and made very complex concepts simple to
understand." "They were able to personally relate their topic
to the things that keep me awake at night." "Their personal
stories gave more insight into them as a person and helped me
trust their leadership more."
There's a relational thread
throughout these responses. Do you see it?
Capturing the hearts and
minds of busy people today demands we understand people at a deeper
level. Good leaders must know how to read the moment and at times,
take their communication to a place better suited to motivate
the human heart - the right part of the brain. When material
is presented in the form of stories, people interaction and
discussion, vivid relational experiences or visual aids, it is most
often assimilated on the right side of the brain which is
responsible for processing more relational/emotional stimulus. Here's why we need to become
a multi-dimensional communicator and tap into the power of
right-brain communication.
Long-term
memory
We will remember something
we've held in our hands, a powerful feeling we've experienced in a
group or a leader's personal story for months or even years. We will most likely not
remember any of the bullet points delivered just an hour earlier.
Someone once said, "People will never remember what you say, but
they will always remember how you made them feel."
Points made more
quickly
Good visual tools have the
ability to help people "get" critical concepts much more
quickly. Give someone a handbook for repairing the photocopier and
their eyes will glaze over. Personally show them how to do it or let
them see a well-produced video and they get it in minutes. Hear a
story about someone who couldn't get one fixed in time to deliver a
career-impacting report, and the listener is now motivated at a
deeper level to become very proficient in the
task.
Fosters
decision-making
In the 1950s, the insane
asylums around North America used the frontal lobotomy to make
emotionally volatile patients more compliant which seems barbaric
today. But they
discovered an unintended consequence to removing the emotion center
of the brain. The patient's ability to make even simple decisions
was almost totally destroyed.
For the first time, psychologists began to understand the
powerful correlation between the emotions and the decision-making
process.
"Reason/decision-making without emotion is
neurologically impossible."
Antonio
Damasio, Leading Neurologist
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Using
Symbols to Align & Inspire
 Several years back, the
Oregon State Beaver's football team struggled through a slow start
to ultimately win a bowl bid against Missouri State in the Sun
Bowl. A few months
prior to the big game Coach Riley brought his team together and held up a single
poker chip.
"The reason our season didn't
end is because we're an all-in kind of team." Them leaving
nothing in the locker room and giving 110% every game was
reinforced as each player was given a poker chip to remember that
all important rallying cry. In the weeks before the big game,
their "all-in" approach to winning was reinforced time and time
again. It focused their passions and created a singular, common
motivation for every member of the team. Then the day of the
big game arrived.
After
falling behind in the first half, a fourth quarter touchdown
brought the score within one point with only seconds remaining on
the clock. A one-point conversion would tie the score and send them
into overtime. A risky two-point conversion ensured they would
either win or lose. Because they were an "all-in" kind of team, they
went for the two-point conversion. How did it end? Their bet paid
off and they won the game in what ESPN called one of the most
exciting bowl games of the season.
The use of symbols to motivate and inspire is a
powerful leadership communication tool. A number of times in my
career, exceptional leads used symbols to align a team's focus and
move us passionately toward a common goal. If you doubt the power of
symbols, consider the symbol a three year-old can spot from the back
seat of a car two blocks away. (McDonalds!) Symbols have led to the rise
of great nationalism and by the destruction of cultural
symbols, brought down nations.
Today's leaders must never underestimate the power of symbols
to align, motivate and inspire those they
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A Personal Note from
Jim
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"The very best leaders,
almost without exception and at every level
are master users of
stories and symbols."
Tom
Peter
I keep this Tom Peter's quote
over my desk. Do you suppose he was advocating that leaders
today should abandon their use of data to inform and lead
others? I don't think so. An organizational
leader's grasp of the critical measures of success will always
be important in their ability to produce meaningful results.
Their investors and stockholders demand it.
Here's what
I think he was advocating. To be truly effective today, leaders
can ill afford to simply camp on a single channel of leadership
communication to direct an organization. Challenging the intellect
is very different than motivating the human heart. And it begs
the question, what kind of organization do you want to create? When
you take your foot off the data "drivers" in the business, does
the organizational momentum continue because others have
internalized the goals at a deeper, more personal level? Or does
progress slow to a snail's pace because a leader was too busy to
constantly remind their people of a key business goal?
There's a reason Distinction has built our business
around a story metaphor. At its essence, every communication
opportunity is simply a well told story; a story of
challenge, a story of accomplishment or innovation, or perhaps a
story of how the last quarter impacted your company's plans for the
future. And whether you've fallen into leadership or aspired to it
your entire life, you get to choose how that story is best told. And
those who understand how to orchestrate the critical balance of
factual, relational and symbolic communication, will be rewarded
with passionate followers and truly amazing results.
Best
wishes,
Jim Endicott, President Distinction Communication,
Inc.
Don't miss June's featured
podcast, "The One Thing
Concept". It's an important wake up
call about what's really important in the personal communication
process.
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