15 Practical Ways To Improve Your Leadership Communication Skills

15 Practical Ways To Improve Your Leadership Communication Skills

Good leaders prioritize communication, both with customers and within their companies. Communication is the key to solving problems, coming up with new ideas, and keeping loyal customers and employees. It’s a skill you can constantly hone, no matter how long you've been leading a team.

As experienced business leaders, Forbes Business Council knows how to communicate effectively and have continued to build those skills throughout their careers. We asked them to share 15 practical approaches for leaders looking to improve their communication skills.

Members discuss a few ways you can improve your leadership skills.

1. Be Present In Your Interactions

Two practical steps to improve communication is to be present in each interaction and recognition that every person has their own specific communication style. Removing distractions, such as devices, from personal interactions or meetings is critical. Second is the awareness of your own communication style as it relates to others and how each person involved best gives and receives information. - Amy Hall, Caton Commercial Real Estate Group

2. Focus On The Intended Audience

As a leader, I've mindfully designed communication for the intended audience. What information do my readers or listeners already have? What terms are they going to understand best? How much time do they have to consume my communication? The best communication is usually layered so that everyone can get the gist from the first few sentences and some can dive in for more details if they need to know more. 

3. Observe Follow-Up Actions

If they are not doing what you want them to, you are not communicating well. The first place to improve is to realize the problem. Listen to the resonance of your communications. Is it understood? Does it lead to action? We each have our own way of communicating. Don't copy others: Build your own approach. Communication effectiveness is audience-dependent! Be super aware of resonance and action. - Sid Mohasseb, Venture Farm

4. Practice Purpose-Driven Communication

It's very important to know exactly what you want out of a conversation and to quickly determine what someone else wants. This helps you quickly come up with a solution that can get a win for both sides. I've learned that asking a great question can often be 10 times more powerful than speaking. As a leader, your time is limited, and you have to make the most out of every single minute. 

5. Start With A Focus On Empathy And Inquiry

Many times we think that the other person is experiencing exactly the same things as us. Too often, this leads to a serious communication breakdown. When we start with empathy and inquiry, we can break through the assumptions and understand what the other person is thinking or experiencing. This helps us become clear in our communication. 

6. Adapt Your Approach To The Context

Knowing the purpose of the communication is an important way to start. Is the communication a casual email, a broad announcement, or a problem-solving meeting? Any of these have different approaches to accomplishing goals. For some, a big part of the communication is listening, where others, it's to rally the team together. Adapting your approach will ensure successful outcomes.

7. Listen More Than You Speak

Active listening is one of the best ways to encourage open and honest communication as a leader. Knowing your audience's motivation, preferred communication styles and learning styles allows you to adapt your message and increase the odds of effective communication. 

8. Repeat What You Heard For Clarity And Understanding

People often forget that communication is a two-way street. To improve it you have to start first by really listening to what the other party is trying to say. And by listening I don't mean waiting for your turn to speak. Take a pause after someone shares an idea. Respond by naming what you think you heard. You'll be shocked by how people respond and engage when they feel heard in the first place. 

9. Review Engagement Analytics When Possible

Constantly evaluate how a post or message was received by your audience. Did something you post to inspire a bunch of comments? Was there a particular message that had a higher-than-average open rate? Identify what made that communication unique and replicate that in your future messages. It's like having a virtual audience clapping at something you said during a speech. Use feedback! - Maurice Harary, The Bid Lab

10. Talk To People On The Outside

I think that depending on who you ask for tips on communicating you’re going to yield different results. Asking your team what you’re doing wrong doesn’t always generate an honest opinion. Sometimes it’s good to get outside the business and talk to someone you trust for a candid opinion. It’s good to hear someone’s unbiased opinion, someone from the outside. 

11. Join A Public Speaking Organization

In almost every city, Toastmasters International chapters exist to help professionals hone their speaking and communication skills. For around ₹1000 a month, you can have a membership to meet once a week to practice and improve your communication skills and build leadership skills. It's by far the best value of anything else out there and the skills learned are invaluable. 

12. Get Better At Leading Meetings

Leaders at every level in an organization need to communicate effectively. A good way to improve your skills in this regard is by leading your own meetings: Prepare the agenda, engage attendees and pay attention to how much energy is put into the meeting's takeaways. If you refine your ability to lead productive meetings, you've taken an important step in improving your communication skills.

13. Focus On What The Other Person Is Trying To Say

The best communication advice I share with all leaders from CEOs to directors, to anyone with a direct report is to simply stop and listen. You don't have to do anything else, but listen and seriously focus on the other person and what they're trying to tell you. When you do respond, start by using their words to let them know you heard what they were saying and clarify that you got it right.

14. Aim To Build Trust By Listening

Our innate desire to be understood is a powerful force. Expressing that you fully understand the other builds trust. One way to do this is to be fully present, eliminate distractions and repeat back (in your words) what the other expressed before you respond. By showing you are listening, your response becomes more significant as you have already satisfied a deep-rooted need to be understood. - Sara Abbas, Ev0lver Inc.

15. Focus On Self-Improvement First

Leaders who have an honest sense of self, and are in tune with their people, are best at aligning their team with the company goals, strategy, and culture. This happens by being focused on improvement for oneself, the company and the growth of reports. Lead by doing. Practice active listening and self-reflection. This naturally sets the stage, allowing goals to be achieved with greater volition. - Dawn Massa Stancavish, Massa Products Corporation

The Best ways in which to boost Your Communication Skills

We learn to speak at an early age, however, most folks don’t have formal coaching on the way to effectively communicate with others. That’s unfortunate, as a result of it’s one amongst the foremost necessary life skills there's, and once you employ your entire life. whether or not you would like to possess higher conversations in your social life or get your concepts across higher at work, here are some essential tips for learning You tell your partner you’re hospitable discussion however your arms are crossed; you say you’re listening however haven’t hunted from your phone nonetheless. Our non-verbal and non-written cues usually reveal over we predict they are doing.

whether or not it’s, however, you create eye contact or however you hold yourself throughout a video interview, don’t forget that you’re perpetually communication even once you’re not speaking Or adopt an influence create if you would like to spice up your confidence before an enormous speak. Or find out how to browse different people’s visual communication therefore you'll respond fitly. Ums and ahs do very little to boost your speech or everyday conversations. Cut them bent on to be additional persuasive and feel or seem additionally assured. A method is to begin keeping track of after you say words like “um” or “like.” you may additionally strive to take your hands out of your pockets or Those silences appear additional awkward to you than they are doing to others, trust us.

If you don’t suppose you’re nice at communication with co-workers or individuals you don’t understand fine, apply on friends and family that you’re snug with. Ideally, realize people that can offer you honest feedback and allow you to understand if you’re obtaining too quiet, personal or would possibly create some other people feel uncomfortable. Have a script for little speak and different occasions Small talk is AN art that not many folks have perfect. For the inevitable, awkward silences with individuals you hardly understand, it helps to possess a thought.

The FORD (family, occupation, recreation, dreams) technique would possibly assist you to return up with topics to debate, and you'll additionally flip chitchat into the speech communication by sharing info that would assist you and therefore the different person realizes basis. Hey, all that tiny speak may cause you to happier within the long-standing time. They activate our brains, create displays suck less, create North American nation additional persuasive and might even facilitate North American nation ace interviews. Learn the secrets of turning into an outstanding storyteller with these rules from Pixar or by merely exploitation the word “but” additional to structure your narrative.

Everyone’s got a minimum of one nice story in them. Let’s face it, we’ve all drifted off once some other person was talking or misheard the opposite person. Asking queries and continuance the opposite person’s previous few words shows you’re curious about what they assert, keeps you on your toes and helps clarify points that would be misunderstood (e.G., “So to recap, you’re planning to purchase the tickets for Saturday? It additionally helps for little speak and to fill in awkward silences. rather than attempting to kindle speech communication on mundane topics just like the weather, raise the opposite person queries (e.G., “Got any plans for the summer? It’s additionally necessary to have an interest than to be attention-grabbing. It’s pretty rude to use your phone whereas someone’s reproval you or you’re imagined to be hanging out with them. perhaps we tend to can’t get obviate all our distractions or place away from technology utterly, however simply taking the time to seem up may immensely improve our communication

The best communicators modify however they speak supported whom they’re speaking to; you’d most likely use a special sort of communication with co-workers or your boss compared to once you continuously try and keep the opposite person’s perspective in mind after you try and get your message across. There’s truly a short acronym—Background, Reason, info, End, Follow-up—to assist you to keep your emails short while not deed something out. It’s an honest policy for each written and verbal communication (I’ve continuously felt that my job as an author was to get the purpose across than to get off simply 2 additional things on this list!) Clear and compact ar 2 of the seven metal of communication, in conjunction with concrete, correct, coherent, complete and courteous.

If you apply to take the opposing viewpoint, you'll scale back the issue and anxiety that typically arises once attempting to communicate with others (For example, knowing what your husband extremely means that once she says she’s too tired to speak.) Developing fellow feeling helps you higher perceive even the unspoken elements of your communication with others, and helps you respond additional effectively.

Finally, going hand-in-hand with most of the points higher than, the simplest factor you'll do to boost your communication skills is to find out to essentially listen—to concentrate and let Its diligence, we know, however, an honest speech communication could be a bunch of words elegantly connected with listening. Then, though your communication designs don’t match, a minimum of you’re each operating off a similar page.