Tag Archive for: communication

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5 Important Communication Strategies for Leaders (The 5S)

5 Important Communication Strategies for Leaders (The 5S)

They often say that “communication is key”, but what we don’t realize is how key communication truly is for a leader. 

In fact, according to this article, effective team communication, and the steps that lead to it, help businesses retain their top talent. This employee retention increases 4.5 times, compared to businesses that lack effective communication in the workplace.

Whether you want to get better at communicating within your organization and to your employees, or maybe even with vendors or partners, there are many things that you as a leader can do to improve your communication. As always, it’s very important that you use strategies that have proven to be successful on a global scale, no matter how big or small the company or the group of people that you are leading.

In this blog post, I am going to go over 5 important communication strategies for leaders (also known as the 5S of communication) that you as a leader can implement into your own leadership practice. If this is something that is of interest to you, then keep on reading! 

The 5S of Communication for Leadership

Style: Understand The Different Communication Styles That Exist (Yours + Your Employee’s)

The first “S” of this particular communication strategy that you can implement in your life as a leader is Style. Understanding which style of communication that we fall under can help us more effectively communicate to not only employees but our peers as well. Whether you are introverted or extroverted, detail-oriented or results-oriented, there are different styles in which your personality interprets communication.  Not one style over another is better or worse, but understanding where your strengths and weaknesses lay can drastically improve the effectiveness of your communication as a leader. If you want to learn more about the style of your personality traits, click here to take a free assessment. To take it a step further, it is also recommended that you learn the communication styles of your employees and others that you lead. If you’d like to take a deep dive into your communication style and that of your employees, reach out, we are glad to help. 

State: Understand What State You’re In + The State of Others

The second “S” of this communication strategy that you need to understand is State. This refers not only to understanding what state we are in as leaders but understanding the state others are in as well. Our communication can be negatively impacted based on how well our current state is and often is described as physical, emotional, and mental. Some examples of states that can alter our communication include:

  • If we are currently extremely stressed
  • If we are not eating nutritiously or are not on a healthy diet 
  • If we are not getting enough sleep
  • If we are carrying a heavy emotional burden 

All of the scenarios above can result in negatively impacting our mental, emotional and physical state, which ultimately hurts our communication. This is why I recommended using meditation or mindfulness techniques to help better understand and manage our internal state.

Situation: Understand The Situation You’re In + The Situation of Others

Understanding the Situation is my third communication strategy for leaders. In essence, this idea revolves around preparing beforehand on who is the person (or people) in front of us and what are some questions we would like to ask about the situation.  You can learn more about how to prepare before conversations from a book I recommend called Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. Doing your research before a conversation can go a really long way in making sure that the conversations you have are effective, thorough and well thought out. This is especially important for us as leaders since oftentimes we use communication to help establish business relationships that are beneficial to the quadruple bottom-line of our business.

Scope: Understand The Scope of What Is + What Isn’t In Your Leadership Control

The fourth strategy that we are going to go over in order to help us better understand communication within leadership, is Scope.  By scope, we are referring to what is and what isn’t in our control. In other words, in some situations, we know what we can do and in other situations, we understand that some things may be outside of our scope. When we not only understand but accept what we can do or what we can control, it helps our stress, anxiety, and mental health.  This also directly ties into the second S, State. This is due to the fact we now understand that one cannot control or do everything. Therefore, stress and anxiety around this thought may no longer be as frequent or severe.

Stance: Understand Your Stance as a Leader on Certain Topics

Last but certainly not least, we have Stance. Everybody, not only leaders, has opinions on topics. The critical part of stance as a leader is going into a conversation with clarity around what your opinion or objective of the conversation is going to be. Having a stance can help a conversation in two areas. Firstly, your stance helps direct a conversation or meeting in a direction that works best for everybody. Secondly, your stance can help improve the brevity of the conversation. This can be helpful to find the objective in a busy environment. Setting up a concise plan or agenda can help you as the leader and your peers or employees get on the same page.

If you would like a more in-depth guide about these 5 communication strategies for leaders, you can watch my video on the topic here. 

You can also learn about strategies you can implement to create long-term professional and personal change from my book CHANGES. Grab the FREE Changes Playbook here.

As usual, schedule a time to connect if you have any questions.

Be well,

Michael

Resources:

Learn more about Arc Integrated:

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The Risks of Stalling Communication

The Risks of Stalling Communication | Arc Integrated

Communication is a core part of any human experience and a big part of emotional intelligence, yet it’s something we all struggle with. Regardless of the amount of technology available to us to help us communicate, under-communication is still a constant challenge for many at work.

Stalling communication can prevent employees from reaching their full potential, and it can be harmful to your business. Effective communication skills, strategies, and tools in a work environment can optimize performance, boost morale, and help your team stay competitive.

In order for a business to thrive in success, a solid communication system and good relationships are needed. If you feel your team does not have that, you will face many risks. In this blog post, I’m going to share a few risks of stalling communication with your team.

Risk # 1 – Your Employees Will Resign

Recent studies have shown that 80% of the U.S workforce reported stress due to poor communication and that 63% have considered quitting due to poor communication. Not only that, but that number has doubled since the previous year, and if leaders aren’t making effective changes, that number will only increase.

The Gallup’s State of the American Workplace reports that 90% of employees said good communication is key to a positive working environment. That means that employees value good communication more than ideal pay and are less likely to quit if their workplace was more effective at communication. Many even consider great communication as an employee benefit.

So if you don’t have great communication in your workplace, or if you’re not providing your team with effective communication, you are putting yourself at risk of losing your team.

Risk # 2 – It Creates Unnecessary Stress in The Workplace

High levels of stress in the workplace are a big sign that there are communication issues. The same study mentioned earlier says 70% of employees feel overwhelmed because of broken communication. Stalling communication can create the feeling that every task is urgent, causing you and your team to feel rushed, overwhelmed, overworked, and mentally drained. This is why communication is essential, it can bring a sense of stability and structure and dismiss any workplace tension.

Especially since many of us are working from home, stalling communication will only create a stressful work (and home!) environment for everyone. Your team will feel worn out, impacting their spouse or parents and it has the potential of affecting their entire day. Sometimes employees may feel guilty for carrying the stress and negativity with them as they interact with others. Remember, stress stays with you as you go on with your day, and it becomes a challenge to be productive.

“Communication is the real work of leadership.” – Nitin Nohria

Risk # 3 – It Leads to Unmet Needs and Expectations

Employees enjoy working in environments where they can build relationships with their colleagues and share their ideas and perspectives openly. Creating an environment where your teams feel comfortable and they can communicate with others is essential for them. If you’re not making that environment for your team, they won’t effectively perform their jobs.
Stalling communication can cause many unmet expectations. Teams will miss deadlines, appointments, and overall, people won’t know their roles and won’t know how to prioritize their tasks. When employees have trouble figuring out their priorities, they choose the wrong task and disappoint their superiors.
This can lower morale and their motivation to perform well, causing them to create a less productive workflow. It will also impact their ability to meet deadlines and deliver projects that can jeopardize your business’s reputation.

Risk # 4 – It Creates Tension and Relationship Breakdowns

When there is a lack of communication and people don’t know what is going on, rumors and gossip will begin. This kind of drama is like cancer to any team, organization, or business. It is human nature to try to figure out unanswered questions and fill in any blanks we see. Stalling communication can leave many gaps that your team will attempt to fill with speculation.

Rumors and gossip can easily create tension and resentment as they stem from fear and sensitivities. It will affect how your team interacts with one another; any positive relationships might start to feel strained. They might think they can’t ask for guidance or feel comfortable sharing their ideas and perspectives.

Sometimes they might feel a sense of uncertainty about seeking assistance to solve the conflict; they might fear it will affect their job security. It is very common to feel a sense of insecurity or lack of fulfillment in completing your tasks. These negative emotions can slow down productivity and morale in the workplace. Remember, lack of communication ruins everything because instead of knowing how the other person feels, we assume. The best way to keep assumptions and suspicions at bay is to improve communication.

Being a good leader means you can notice these things within your team. You can avoid these risks I’ve mentioned by breaking down any communication barriers. Try to find the root cause for stalling communication. Consider these questions as a place to start:

  • Are you not being transparent with your team?
  • Is the absence of a team member creating a distraction amongst everyone?
  • Is there gossip that is undermining company culture, creating hurt feelings, starting arguments, or portraying people in a negative light?
  • Do the people you are leading feel comfortable working together?
  • Is there any sense that people feel hesitant to come forward with their ideas, challenges, or opportunities?

As a leader, it is your responsibility to be aware that employees have different communication styles and preferences. Some feel comfortable using emails to communicate on projects, while others prefer more face-to-face interaction.

Having effective communication with your team is a skill a good leader should have. If you feel this is a skill you don’t have or need improvement on, then let me and my team help you. As a leadership coach, I can guide you to become more effective in recognizing conflict and communicating with others. Schedule a FREE call with me and let me help you be a better leader.

You can also learn about different strategies you can implement to create long-term changes in your personal and professional life from my book CHANGES. Grab the FREE Changes Playbook here.

Be well,

Michael

Resources:

Learn more about Arc Integrated:

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Being an Emotionally Intelligent Leader

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The Best Listener at Work

How to Become a Better Listener at Work | Arc Integrated

You may wonder why being a good listener at work is really valuable.  However, if you experiment with improving your workplace listening skills, you will see changes.   In the fast past, high demand jobs so many of us have, really good listening may be something of a novelty.  This may because of the ever-impending deadlines, the many distractions we have or the workplace stress.  If you commit to being the best listener at work, you may notice that some of these challenges shift.

So how might listening skills impact your work place experience?  Well, consider your experience now.  How well do you feel heard at work?  What do you notice about people how are really present with you when communicating vs. those that are anxious to move to the next “to do”?  I would imagine that when someone is really present with you that it is easier to talk to them, you may feel more connected or more at ease. What if you were that person for everyone else?  How might this impact your workplace experience if people knew that when they spoke to you, that they could count on you to really pay attention?

Particularly if you are a leader, really good listening skills go a long way.   Being able to connect, understand and communicate effectively with your employees is a crucial component of an effective leader.   According to a study in The Journal of Occupational Health, it was found that… “psychological stress reactions were lower in subordinates who worked under supervisors with high listening skill, while no statistically difference was observed among older subordinates.” 

So if we know that our listening skills have an impact on our overall work stress, it seems like a great advantage for us to actively improve these skills.  Below you’ll find three tips to improve your listening skills

1.) Offer more clarity

Repeating something back to someone in the way that you heard it will help to reduce miscommunication.  Repeating a statement also offers the opportunity for this person to add additional clarification if necessary.  This way of “active listening” ensures that this person is being understood correctly and shows them that you are paying attention.

2.) Focus

Sometimes we can get caught up in how we are going to respond to something.  Thinking of what to say next reduces our ability to listen to what someone is saying.  Attending to what someone is saying without focusing on how to respond will create stronger communication.  Remain focused on the present moment and really digesting what it is that someone is communicating. 

3.) Breath

Often times at the workplace we are moving a million miles a minute, which reduces our ability to take in information in any given moment.  Taking a few moments to breath as you speak with someone will help you to be more present and process what they are saying more effectively.  Before you speak or when you are feeling overwhelmed, stop and take a deep breath.  This may sound trivial but can do wonders for not only stress but your ability to communicate and listen effectively. 

After you’ve had the opportunity to put these behaviors to the test, I would invite you to make a comment below.   I would suggest that in order to notice results you may have to practice one or all three for at least four times a week for three weeks.   After you’ve practiced, consider answering the following questions –

How did they work if they did at all? 

What did you learn?  

How long did you practice each new behavior?  

Best,

Michael

P.S. If you want to learn more about how to improve your listening skills at work, in order increase influence, engagement and build effective relationships, we can help.  Schedule a free consult today to see if are a fit to work together

 

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Corporate Training, Personal Development and Equine Therapy

Corporate Training, Personal Development and Equine Therapy

Corporate Training, Personal Development and Equine Therapy

Based on the title you may be thinking that these things are totally un-related, but you’re here, so thank you!  I lead a group therapy session a couple of times a week with about 10 attendees and the topic of animals and our connection to them recently came up.  We discussed different kinds of therapy approaches, like dog therapy, or equine therapy for example.  The same day I had a friend bring this topic up, which I figure is enough for me to write down some thoughts, since this is something I have experience with.   The interesting part is corporate training, personal development and equine therapy, are in fact, connected.

A few years ago I went through the process of getting certified through the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA).  This association is the international leader in equine training specifically for mental health and personal development purposes.  What this means is that they certify psychotherapists and horse professionals, to work together to facilitate different kinds of experiential learning. These experiences can be for the purposes of individual development, individual therapy, group therapy, couples therapy or corporate/group training.

So the question may be, what one thing has to do with the other?  For someone that has never seen this process unfold, it may not seem like a relevant fit.  The way horses and horse professionals can help to work through challenges with individuals or a group, is essentially through observation.  For example, a typical Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) or Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) session, consists of the facilitators (therapist and horse professional) giving the individual or group a task to accomplish with the horse.  This task could be to help move the horse through a gate, move the horse around an object or help a horse move in a direction without touching it. There are many activities/tasks that can be implemented but they are all ground activities, not requiring the participant to ride the horse.

During and after these activities both the therapist and horse professional make observations of how the person or people are engaging with the horse and each other.   What shows up here is powerful.  Just like in experiential education, when giving a group a task to accomplish together there are markers that form organically – personality styles, communication style, natural leaders/followers, conflict and/or resolution of conflict etc.  What is most interesting about the EAP/EAL process is that the horse acts as a mirror for behavior and engagement.

During my time training as an EAGALA practitioner I was astounded by how fast things came to the surface through this process.  For instance, when watching a family interact with an animal and attempt a task, it became immediately obvious what kinds of challenges the family had in their communication with each other.  In this example it was easy to see which member wanted to control and override the input from other members of the family.   This created conflict of course and made it more challenging for the family to accomplish the assigned task.  Part of the feedback came from the horse as it experienced the intensity from one individual.  Part of the feedback came from other members as they became frustrated with the challenge of the task, which the horse also reflected.  It was powerful to watch.

So how did their communication styles come up you ask?  This is the value of working through an EAP/EAL program. The response you get from a horse is authentic, immediate and not bound by the same kind of bias that people have.   In addition, the horse professional helps to make observation of behavior of the horse while the therapist observes how the person is engaging.

Horses are able to pick up on the subtleties of behavior and intention because they are sensitive prey animals.   So this means that if there is fear, anger, ease, curiosity or frustration – the horse will give feedback to these emotions/behaviors.   Because the horse is so sensitive it gives immediate clues and reactions to the behaviors and intentions of individuals and groups.  Some of these behaviors would be easily recognized while others are more subtle, which is why it is helpful to have a horse professional present. In the therapeutic context, understanding and processing behaviors and emotions can impact personal development and resolution of some of the challenges.

At this point you may be asking if this type of intervention has any credibility from research. The answer is yes, it absolutely does.   For example, one study found that well-being and reduction in psychological distress immediately improved after EAP and held stable after six months.   For a more detailed look at research as it compares to traditional therapy approaches, consider this article that acts an overview and comparison.

So how does this therapeutic approach have anything to do with corporate training or leadership?  This is where EAL enters the picture.  EAL differs from EAP in that EAL focuses more on education and learning rather than a therapeutic approach of resolving mental health issues or challenges.

In an EAL setting valuable skills can be obtained that would certainly impact the effectiveness of an organization.  For example, often times EAL is done with teams on an organization in order to improve communication skills, leadership or team building.  This process is still facilitated by a mental health professional and horse professional, but the intention is different.

In an EAL session with a team of professionals for instance, a simple task will be given to the team to accomplish with the horse.  This task results in emerging behaviors and communication styles that will then be valuable for the team to later process.  For instance, within a given task there may be leaders that emerge, communication that happens (or doesn’t), response style of collaboration or anger. In addition, there may be partnerships that naturally form on the team that previously did not exist or resentments that manifest that perhaps hadn’t previously.

The same question may emerge regarding efficacy of this particular kind of experiential education.  One of the more interesting pieces of research on EAL has to do with Emotional Intelligence, a current point of focus in many leadership and team building approaches.   This research is a great review of the field of EAL as well as Emotional Intelligence. The research found positive results for EAL as an intervention for improving Emotional Intelligence.

So, as we’ve seen, horses, therapy and leadership are in fact related!  For more information about EAL and EAP, I recommend visiting the EAGALA website – http://www.eagala.org/.  For more information on Emotional Intelligence as it relates to leadership, consider this article by Daniel Goleman.   If you are interested learning more about this topic or discussing a potential workshop to build team or leadership skills, please contact us!

Keep Learning,

Michael

P.S. If you are curious to learn more about personal development, workplace challenges, interpersonal dynamics, goal achievement and a wide variety of other topics, sign up today! www.www.arcintegrated.com/newsletter.  It’s totally free.

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