[May 6, 2004]

Critical Leadership Skills � Effective Communication

BY JOHN L. JENKINS, The Coach

As a business leader, what are your leadership strengths and weaknesses? Are you consistently honing your strengths? And do you have an improvement program for your areas of weakness? If not, why not?

MIT�s Peter Senge, in his book The Fifth Discipline, suggested the following analogy regarding the definition of a leader: �Imagine that your organization is an ocean liner, and that you are �the leader.� What is your role?� He typically gets responses from managers ranging from captain, navigator, or helmsman, to engineer and even social director.

According to Senge, the true leader is the ship�s designer! That�s a perspective quite apart from the conventional wisdom of our time. He closes his case by saying, �No one has a more sweeping influence than the designer.� Just as it would be frustrating or even impossible to be the captain of a poorly designed ship, "It�s fruitless to be the leader in an organization that is poorly designed.�

When assessing the design of a business organization, there are three key systems that I consider vital:

• Open and effective interaction among team members (Communication);
• An effective approach for sharing responsibilities (Delegation); and
• Systems and procedures to handle those tasks and responsibilities (Orchestration).

This article will focus on giving you, the business leader, ideas to help to design (or redesign) your organization�s communication system. In future articles we will discuss delegation and orchestration.

Several things will enable your team to communicate more quickly and effectively. By improving your team�s communication skills in these areas, you will improve your ability to take appropriate and specific action on behalf of your business customers. The results will be improved team accomplishments, increased customer satisfaction and a direct impact on your organization�s performance metrics. My top communication improvement actions include:

1. Do you tailor your communication style to fit your audience? Develop the ability to communicate with a diverse audience (researchers, professors, attorneys, venture capitalists, etc.). People from these varied backgrounds have their own peculiar communication styles, jargon and cultures. Do you have a deep understanding of their world?
2. Do you listen with your ears and your eyes? Learn to understand both the message and the meaning behind the message. Are you aware of what�s being "said" beyond the written or spoken words? Do the body language and tone fit the content of the message that is being presented?
3. Do you clarify what you want (and don�t want)? Understanding what the other person truly expects is one of the biggest challenges to effective communication. Do you seek to understand the needs and interests of the person with whom you are communicating? Do you strive to make sure you have effectively communicated what you want?

Coach�s Tip: There are many ways to measure communication effectiveness. I use a checklist that is simple and gives a quick assessment of communication performance with a one to five scale for criteria ranging from timeliness, proactivity, style, method/approach, etc. For a [no cost] copy of this checklist, send an e-mail to [email protected].

So, as a business leader, how well do you communicate? Or, more specifically, what are your strengths and weaknesses relative to what�s needed for open and effective interaction among your business team? In which areas can you improve? To objectively answer these questions, you need to define a measure of your leadership abilities.

Effective communication is one of the keys to leadership. As a business leader:

• Are you the leader of a well-designed team?
• Has your organization been properly designed?
• Are there aspects of your organization that are poorly designed? What could be improved?
• Based on its design, does your organization experience open and effective interaction among team members?
• What design changes can you, as a leader, make to improve communication in your organization? What will it take to make these design changes?
• Do you have a team that can effectively design an improved communication style?

One of the best that I have found is a method I first learned about many years ago in an article by Patricia Fripp. She refers to a company she visited where a manager was very successful in communicating with his team. He simply sat down with every member of his team every two months and asked them two questions: 

• What are three things I do in managing that you like and I should do more of?

• What are three things I do in managing that you don�t like and I should do less of?

Simple? Yes. Easy? Not necessarily. Effective? Absolutely!

The Coach�s Call To Action: Make effective communication a top priority and you will find many opportunities to redesign your team�s communication effectiveness. Create a culture that values consistent improvements in your team�s communication. As the business leader, set the example. Seek feedback on your communication effectiveness from your team members as a regular part of your leadership role. Share your skills with your team and create an environment where others are also willing to contribute and grow in their communication abilities. Get outside assistance for a perspective above the internal politics, and ideas from outside of your current culture. And most importantly, have fun!

John Jenkins runs a business coaching practice (Your Coaching Edge�) with an emphasis on helping technology transfer/licensing professionals and business leaders involved in technology development. He has been helping individuals and organizations in technology development and technology transfer for 19 years. His career has taken him from General Electric in Boston to an extremely entrepreneurial technology development group at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania . In addition, he worked for eight years as a business development specialist with the Ben Franklin Partnership, an internationally acclaimed technology development/transfer program. Prior to creating his coaching business, he was recruited by Lockheed Martin to lead the development activities for the launch of a $4 million USD venture-backed spinout. To receive a [no cost] success E-newsletter, with subscribers in 14 countries, send an E-mail to: [email protected]. Your Coaching Edge� ~ (208) 529-9696 ~ www.yourcoachingedge.com