Read time: 4.05 mins
Communication Skills for Effective Leadership
Strong communication creates high-impact results, and in today’s world, it’s vital that you communicate in a clear and impactful way. To develop a compelling narrative, start by considering the following: What message do you want your audience to walk away with? Why should it be important to them? Lastly, how do you make your message more relevant to your audience?
The High Impact Leadership online short course from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) will help you develop key communication competencies to better understand and engage with key stakeholders.
Transcript
Strong communication skills are invaluable for leaders if they are to create high-impact results. Strong communication skills start with active listening. To be effective, you need to first listen to the needs of your stakeholders. One of the most important qualities of leadership is to listen, learn, and adapt. Put yourself in the shoes of your stakeholders and understand their world from their perspective. What is their problem that you can help solve?
There are three key points to consider when developing narrative. First, what’s your headline message, or the most important takeaway message that people will remember when they leave the room? And how can you ensure that you communicate that in a clear and compelling way?
Second, who is your audience? What’s in it for them? You need to ensure that your narrative answers the “So what, who cares?” questions. What do you want them to do with the information? Start with your audience and the result you wish to create.
Third, how can you strengthen the narrative? How can you make it more memorable? For example, with anecdotes, examples, data points – what are the compelling reasons to believe? In other words, ensure that your narrative or key messages are true and authentic, and fact-based. Are there any customer anecdotes that you can use to illustrate your main message? Are there compelling data points that you can translate? So, for example, not just that this approach results in 40% improvement, but what that means is: translate your key points in a way that makes sense to the audience that you’re trying to convince, and do this in simple language, without confusing jargon.
And finally, the best way to strengthen a narrative and bring it to life is with a story. We all remember the details of a story. They make our narratives more human and memorable.
The best way to achieve high-impact communication is by preparing your communication in advance, using the tips above, and practising it and seeking feedback from trusted colleagues, and different types of people.
We’re all on the wrong side of our own eyeballs when it comes to communications. We don’t see what we do that might distract from our message and the results that we’re trying to create. Practise explaining what you’re doing and what you’re trying to achieve with people outside your own organisation. You will use simple language and not jargon, and you will make use of compelling supporting points.
You’re more likely to talk in the language of stories. So seek out training, watch and learn from other speakers – there are lots of good examples on TED – and ask for feedback. And – most important – practise out loud. There are many examples of organisations that are recognising the power of storytelling when it comes to achieving high-impact leadership, and the power of communications as the best way to better understand and engage with their key audiences.
Many organisations recognise the power of images and video, and hearing the impact of what they do directly from their customers or stakeholders, rather than just through corporate language and dry reports. Ultimately, to be a high-impact leader, you must be able to inspire and motivate others with charismatic communication that motivates people to help achieve high-impact results.