Posts tagged leadership

In our online, mobile, instant-everything world it’s easy to expect the extraordinary, to look forward to whatever will wow us today. Subsequently it’s not surprising we also might want to instantly drive the extraordinary through our communications and leadership.

The downside is we come to expect an event – a speech, town-hall meeting, webinar or tweet chat , for example – to rapidly make substantive changes in our team or organization. It’s an unrealistic expectation, and it eventually disappoints everyone.

Adjusting our expectations and investing in the everyday is a better approach. Doing so is about recognizing and appreciating how the countless ordinary things we do every day add up to the extraordinary over time. For example, taking a moment to listen to someone’s concerns helps them feel heard and appreciated. Another example is consistently executing your internal-communications plan throughout the year. Over time it informs and engages employees so they come along with the organization, are productive and contribute to goals.

Early in my corporate-communications career I first heard from a wise friend about the importance of the everyday. I understood the idea, but I didn’t deeply learn how it plays out until I transitioned 11 years later to operations management. Responsible for large teams in the business travel and HR industries, I was on the other side of the fence, so to speak.

Instead of driving enterprise communications with the intention of swift results, I was the recipient responsible for cascading the messaging or executing a new program. And instead of writing key messages and coaching executives on delivery, I was the writer and deliverer – and the one accountable for everyone’s reactions.

It was an important shift in experiences. I learned it takes time for understanding to take hold, for worries to subside and for changes to get a firm footing. And while there certainly were some quick, extraordinary and sometimes serendipitous results, I appreciated them as exceptions to the norm.

The new insight influenced my subsequent communications programs to engage teams and help them through large cultural changes or business transformation. Along the way, I learned three things about the importance of the everyday and how it all adds up over time.

Trust and respect is everything. Without it, few things in life work well over the long run. Being available and open to others, listening to their concerns and caring about their well being are essential to earning trust and respect. So is being transparent with information and intentions. When you earn trust and respect, others might not always like where a business needs to go but will hear you out and do their best to support changes. They might even thank you.

Anything worthwhile takes time, effort and commitment. Things that matter do not come instantly or easily. Sometimes it feels like trying to fill a house with sand, one grain at a time. This doesn’t feel good, and you won’t always know whether you’re making a difference. That’s OK. You won’t see the outcome of everything you do. Trust in the process nevertheless.

Take care of the people who take care of others. I learned the importance of this with front-line teams responsible for assisting customers (revenue!) in one setting and co-workers (350,000) in another. How can we expect someone to care for another if they don’t feel someone cares about them? It works. Try it and get others to do the same.

Putting this into practice is a commitment, for sure. But starting today you can appreciate and invest in the ordinary in order to create the extraordinary.

A prankster – call him Mr. Assumptions – wants to trip up even the best communicators among us.

 “You know what’s best,” he whispers in our ears while we write perfect messaging for our communications programs. “You know who they are and what they really need. They just don’t know it until you tell them.”

Uh, huh. Sure.

Obviously it’s best to avoid making assumptions, but it’s easy to do. You don’t even have to try, and the consequences are unwanted. Your communications program is off the mark and confuses your audience.

For me, an antidote to assumption-making is to remember a story a friend shared with me.

John lives in a neighborhood with a diverse cast of residents. While walking into the corner convenience store, one of his friends – a woman who is homeless – asked for a cup of coffee. John was happy to help.

Inside the store, he decided to go above and beyond and buy her a bagel, too. He said he was proud of himself for being generous and thoughtful.

Outside, John offered the coffee/bagel bonanza to his friend. She accepted the coffee and said “no thanks” to the bagel, adding, “I’m on a diet.” She wasn’t kidding.

 The experience, John said later, made him think about the assumptions he sometimes makes of others along with his solutions to their needs.

His story encouraged me to take a fresh look at my own practices. I do so regularly and have concluded it’s essential – especially for communicators – to avoid assumptions by:

• asking someone what they want or need.
• listening from their perspective, not ours. 
• resisting the temptation to fit their responses into our predetermined solutions.

Listening without assuming. It’s easy to understand the theory, but it’s not always easy to practice it.  We need to try. Goodbye, Mr. Assumptions.

Ears are underrated.

Although they are free (sorry, App Store), are always with us and require only basic maintenance, our ears often don’t get put to use. Yet they are priceless in connecting with others.

Communications professionals – or anyone who interacts with others – can benefit from using theirs to listen first and communicate second.

Listening has served me well. It has helped me write the right message, coach executives and lead teams through difficult changes. Following are three things I’ve learned and tips to consider.  

Everyone wants to be heard. I learned this best after transitioning to operations management from corporate communications. Accountable for staffs up to 200 people, I quickly discovered most people have opinions and ideas about what’s working well and what could be better. When you’re the person in charge, people want you to listen to them – especially if they haven’t been heard before. Tip: Make time to ask someone what’s on their mind, remember what they say, and repeat what you heard. Besides being the right thing to do, it builds relationships.

Relationships are how things get done. When you listen to someone, trust, respect and understanding take seed and help people connect with you and vice versa. Those alone are wonderful things, and they bloom into relationships. From there you grow an entire garden of possibilities since relationships are how things get done in most parts of our lives. Tip: Make time to listen to people every day. It can be scheduled or ad hoc. The point is to do it.

What’s in it for me? Most of us quietly ask ourselves this question when we read or listen to something, so it’s crucial for communicators and leaders to have the answer. And not the answer you think is right but rather the answer your audience told you they expect. When a metric in my operations business was sliding, I looked to data but also walked the office. What people told me gave color to the data and answered WIIFM. I used it in town-hall meetings to talk about the metric problem, what I heard from everyone, and the changes we would make. The metric improved within a week. Tip: To get the WIIFM answer, ask your audience. They appreciate it.

That’s what I’ve learned. Want to share your thoughts? I’m listening.