Communication Coaching and Leadership

I’m often struck by the amazing ability of the people I work with at director level to step into a new role and immediately buckle down and implement initiatives. They rapidly and confidently move towards their strategic goals on a wide range of issues inspired by their new position.

That could be:

Overseeing Initiatives	Ensure alignment with strategic goals and effective execution
Driving Organisational Growth	Implement strategies that contribute to growth
Decision-Making	Participate in high-level decisions impacting the business
Defining Roles Team Structuring	Clarify team roles to prevent overlap Building a cohesive, generative and functioning team
Building Leadership	Mentor managers to develop leadership skills
Establishing Communication	Create channels for smooth information flow
Aligning Objectives	Ensure team goals align with organizational objectives

Communication is not in itself responsible for the creative and analytical spark that makes the effective processes and structures above. Exploring these areas falls under executive coaching.

Communication Realises Your Ideas, Strategies and Initiatives

Communication is, however, responsible for the subsequent implementation of those ideas and projects. At director level you are required to influence both upwards and downwards to make people believe in the intiatives you're proposing and to carry out the processes that make it possible. You need both C-suite and your teams to believe that your new changes are positive and for the wider good. You want them to want to do what you are proposing.

It’s the interface of new ideas, change and execution of these initiatives with departments, teams, boards and the wider organisation where I see things fall down. Communicating what you are doing and where you want to go doesn’t always land in a way that engages heads and hearts.

Communication Coaching – Why Do We Need it as Leaders?

In Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) there's a well-worn saying that says ‘The map is not the territory’. We all have our maps of the world but none of them are the truth of actual reality.

The fact remains that our neurology, culture, childhood and innate personality shapes how we see the world. No two people see the same situation in the same way. No two people hear the same words then process and react to them in the same way. This is fascinating! It also obviously has the potential to be a communication nightmare!

Communicating Coaching to Step Outside your Matrix

By communication I mean body language, voice and words. Together they form a combined expression of who we are. The body, voice and words are the glue that holds our reality together and how we express that reality. The body holds everything we have had to deal with in our lives and language expresses the system we use to convey our thoughts and experience. Communication is, therefore, personal, subjective and flawed in that we cannot see outside our own communication matrix.

Communication - The Senses plus logic

A visual speaker might use pictures, metaphors and spatial language to describe their message. Whereas someone who prefers to deal exclusively with logic will use linear, short, concise sentences that are driven by reasoning. Both people will use language very differently to someone who is attuned to their feelings and need to know what actions are involved to achieve restructuring, for example.

These different ‘representation systems’, as they are called in NLP, are imprinted at a neurological level and dictate how we see the world. This in turn informs how we communicate - influencing not only what we say but how we say it. Representation systems show language differences via the senses and logic. This is one of the most basic ways of how we filter our realities but there are many, many more complex ways in which we view the world that is entirely different to the next person and our communication will likewise be different. Here’s the thing, in order to engage someone successfully with a new idea, we need to give information in the way their mind works not our own.

Communication Coaching Fills the Gap in Your Communication

Communication coaching fills the gap in your communication – and we all have communication gaps.

Strategic and skilful communication is the difference between projects happening or not happening, between taking one month to implement or six.

Communication Coaching to Influence at C Suite

Here are some of the communication strategies you might employ to get buy in at C-suite:

• Structuring your pitch/talk so that its benefit driven at the beginning
• If there is major change addressing risk
• Showing big picture results
• Allowing space for a dialogue and challenge
• Know the details to answer those questions
• Be credible
• Short sentence
• Logic driven

Communication Coaching to Influence Teams

Here are some of the communication strategies you might employ to get buy in with your teams:

• Be credible to show the logical benefits or what you want to achieve
• Be approachable to create safety in the group so people feel safe enough to ask questions and voice their genuine concerns
• Use language that shows you will align with and support people to help them achieve what you’re asking.
• Explain the benefits for the organisation
• Explain how they might benefit professionally, if at all.
• Address any downside - like the time involved, people’s workload, how the change will look on the ground.
• Look enthusiastic at the positives
• For those people who need to know the details and procedures involved, be ready to explain when asked
• For those who always prefer things to stay the same, tell them what is staying the same
• Encourage dialogue rather than pushing your agenda
• Get as many people to speak as possible
• Create a sense of ‘we’

Communication and Behavioural Flexibility

You can see from the above two lists that different audiences require different approaches both in terms of body language, content and strategy.

When you have widened your communication choices so that you are not only communicating as you would like to receive information, you’ll be amazed at the result. You’ll be integrating language into your influencing that makes sense to other people who are considerably different to yourself. You aren’t bending the truth, you aren’t moving away from your value system and you’re still being completely yourself – you’re simply reframing how the picture looks so it sits more comfortably for someone else.

Communicating Coaching to Address Unknown Audiences

Is it possible to communicate to everyone in a large audience? I would suggest that it is for the most part. Often, we fall victim again to our default style of presenting. We can certainly increase our chances greatly by:

• using varied body language that covers a wide range of communication styles
• employing language that reflects how a wide range of people like to receive information
• tapping into a wide range of people’s behavioural drivers.
• appealing both to the heart and the mind.

In front of larger, relatively diverse audiences, it would make sense to use a wide range of the above to cover all bases.

However, at a conference with an audience of senior finance people, for example, you can narrow your choices having made a reasonably informed decision about how most of the people prefer to communicate in order for you to get buy-in.

Communicating Coaching for an Important Stakeholder

When you have a meeting with someone for the first time, of course, you don’t know what they’re like but you can read them very quickly when you have the skills. That's what we’re aiming for here – the creation of natural rapport – whether that’s with a group, one to one or a large audience.

Someone’s body language, the words they’re using, how they build their arguments, the lengths of their sentences – all are clear and readable clues to how they perceive the world and therefore, how they can be influenced. Everyone likes to be communicated to in a way that feels natural and easy for them.

Communication and Leadership at an Organisational Level

This is the role communication can play in leadership. It's what forms the bedrock of gravitas. Leadership communication gets your message across in a way that can save time and money. Improved communication at an organisational level can increase productivity in your workforce and create an atmosphere where people are being communicated to so that they understand what's happening and why. They also feel they have a part to play in any transformational change and that they want to take part. Skilful communication can literally transform dislillusioned employees to people who feel acknowledged and heard. It can create a sense of 'we' instead of 'them and us'.

Next Steps

Please contact me here, if you're interested in gaining some of the skills discussed above. You are welcome to book a 30 minute consultation free of charge.