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Communication is a crucial element that can either make or break a project. Executives must recognize the importance of good communication strategies.
According to data collected by Forbes, 86% of employees and executives cite a lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures. Additionally, about 75% of employers rate teamwork and collaboration as “very important.”
Simply put, teams require an effective communication strategy. Things like hard work and team spirit are crucial, but the essence of a team’s success is effective communication.
Effective communication plays a critical role in the success of any project. As an executive, you need to be the one driving the team and their projects. To achieve this successfully, you need effective communication on your side.
One of the challenges faced by executives when it comes to communication is a lack of time. It’s common among business leaders to feel like they’re always on the go. An executive’s day is often consumed by meeting after meeting and phone call after phone call. Recognizing this issue and actually rectifying it, however, are two different things.
To help you achieve lasting, profitable change, B STATE can help you through executive leadership consulting. From growing your bottom-line performance to installing a bespoke new leadership culture, with the help of self-guided books and courses for you to implement with your team and leadership today, we have got it all for your 2X growth.
Foundations for Good Communication
1. Accept that Communication is the Key
Communication plays an important role in every aspect of life. It requires that you pay attention to the other party involved in the conversation and carefully listen to what they say. Also, it requires that you make yourself clear and not misinterpreted what you want to convey.
2. Keep Lines of Communication Open
Communication is a two-way process where you need to listen as well as speak. You must be prepared to listen to others and understand their problems and also be open to speaking with them. Without an open line of communication, you can’t hope for effective communication. Moreover, when it comes to executive leadership, having a good relationship between you and your team members is crucial for effective communication
3. Be Clear About Your message
If you want your message to be conveyed effectively, then ensure that you pick the proper language and tone when speaking with others. Being clear about your message will ensure that your audience understands what you are trying to convey. When you are clear, you can avoid misunderstanding, confusion, and misinterpretations.
4. Be a good listener
Good communication is a combination of talking and listening. If you want to be an effective negotiator, make sure you pay attention when someone else is talking to you! Also, if they ask for your opinion or advice, respond positively! Don’t just do it! To be an effective communicator, pay close attention to the amount or style of information and offer practical suggestions in response.
5. Be Proactive in your communication
When it comes to effective communication, you need to be proactive! You have to take the initiative in having a conversation so that you can create good results out of it. You shouldn’t wait for the other party to initiate the conversation. If they do then, then you need to follow their lead, make sure that you are in control of the situation and not them!
Strategize Communication to Engage Executives
When you look forward to strategizing communication to engage executives, it is important that you pay close attention to and understand the mindset of executives. Why do you think it is crucial? Well, it helps in reaching them and making them understand you better. This in turn helps in communicating with them in a more effective manner.
The first thing that you need to keep in mind is that executives are always moving from one task to another. Don’t make them feel irritated or overburdened with tasks, put yourself out there and make them feel supported. If you want to communicate effectively, then you need to make it a two-way street. Showing interest in what they do and what they are talking about is important.
Another way of communicating with executives is to make them feel that they have an active role in whatever is being discussed. In order to do so, ask for their opinions first and then present your views and feedback. You can’t expect someone to follow your lead if you are not willing to let them be involved in the situation.
At the same time, do not get mad at them if they don’t reply as quickly as you want. Remember that they are always occupied with tasks, so give them some time to reply! Don’t push them into a corner by making them feel like you are not supposed to be there or that they have no say in it!
Finally, remember that executives change their decisions quite frequently so keep doing your best and be patient. If there is a problem, then talk through it every now and then until it gets resolved. So if you were looking out for what makes a good communication strategy, this is all that you need.
Communication Training for Executives
Communication training for executives is one of the most important things that every leader and manager must have. It helps them in understanding your work better and improving the communication process as well as provide guidance to other personnel.
Now, it is crucial that you understand what leadership strategies are and what it involves before designing a new one. It is important that you know why you need one and what exactly it will entail! Before even thinking about developing a new strategy, do some research on different strategies that have already been implemented across different companies and industries.
Identifying common communication challenges for executives
There are different challenges that executives face in their communication efforts. Not all leaders and managers are ready to be open about certain issues, so make sure that you understand where they stand before you present a solution!
1) Time management
It is an issue that many leaders and managers deal with on a daily basis. They work hard and put in their best effort during the time they get to work, however, it doesn’t always seem like they get the most out of it. Maybe their communication seems unclear when it comes to instructing others or conveying ideas. If your CEO is spending too much time on emails and not enough time talking to people face-to-face, then he or she needs a better strategy to manage his or her time.
2) Interpersonal communication
It is important to have good interpersonal skills if you want to be an effective executive. Many leaders and managers don’t know how to communicate with others face-to-face but they seem to do just fine on the phone or via email. When you are measuring the effectiveness of someone’s communication, that shouldn’t be the only thing that you are looking at!
3) Listening skills
It is not enough for one person to talk and another person to listen. It is important to be both a good listener and a good speaker. There needs to be mutual understanding between two people, and you need to get that! The more effort you put into listening and speaking, the more effective you will be in expressing your thoughts and ideas.
4) Group discussions
Very often, groups of people do not communicate very effectively. They don’t fully understand each other or they don’t get their ideas across clearly. It is important that you are able to communicate with other people in a way in which they will understand what you mean. That way, nobody can think that they are not given the opportunity to express their ideas and opinions.
5) Communication with Investors
These executives are quite similar to the executives who have to deal with customers or other stakeholders. They also have to communicate their thoughts and ideas clearly, with the aim of getting their message across to investors. They need strategies that will help them manage such communication effectively.
Now that we have a legit list of challenges, there has to be a solution to it, no? To help you with communication challenges for executives, B STATEs executive leadership program can be at your rescue.
The program is curated to help you with:
- Accountable communication, dialogue, and discussion
- The Role of Leaders in building organizational accountability
- Accountable two-way delegation and agreements
- Holding others accountable in a positive and supportive manner
- Building cross-functional accountability
- Developing an Individual Leadership Picture of Success
Conclusion
It is important that you understand the current challenges of your executives. Follow them and then find out what is holding them back so that you can create a strategy to help them succeed in their communication efforts. Though to enhance communication, you can simply rely on leadership training from B STATE and unleash the steps to unlock teamwork, customer experience, communication strategies, and efficiency all in a go.