4 Simple Steps to Effective Communication Skills

Developing good communication skills throughout all levels of your team should be the main focus and priority if you hope to build, grow, and maintain a great organization.

When you have a idea and you'd like to share it with others. . . What is the #1 priority?

Here's the unvarnished truth: you may have a compelling and inspired vision and strategy, but without effective communication of your ideas, and a compelling vision for the future, you will never fully reap the rewards of full commitment from your team.

Without your team's full commitment, your leadership (no matter how great) is rendered meaningless.

As a leader, it is your major (perhaps sole) duty to communicate the vision and strategic plan throughout your organization.

This is not based on my opinion but on actual tests done on CEO's of major companies.

• While 96% of CEO's were confident of their organization's strategic direction, only 68% of COO's were confident, and 62% of CFO's were confident in their organization's direction.

What do the statistics prove?

The trickle-down-effect at work. In general, as you descend through the layers of any organization or team you will find less and less confidence in the strategic direction of that team.

Workers are not blindly following, or buying into the poorly communicated visions and strategies of lackluster management teams.

You must effectively communicate your own commitment to establish commitment in others.

Obviously something must be done to lesson people's confusion and to gain commitment throughout all levels of your team. . . but what should you do?

Developing effective communication skills is the key to commitment in any work environment.

If you're a leader searching to rapidly improve your leadership skills and put your team on the road to success, you should understand one simple fact. . .

. . .the right vision and and the right words at the right time make all the difference between failure and success.

Step 1 - Have an inspired vision

If you want people to get behind your ideas, you must first have an idea to get behind. . . profound statement I know. Don't underestimate the importance of having an inspired vision for your organization or team.

Simply by moving away from vague communication theories and into inspired and well-communicated vision is a successful business just waiting to happen.

The best way to see if your ideas can inspire others is to ask questions to see what people want. Do your research. Communicate your vision to people you trust and encourage feedback. Don't take the answers personally. Shut up and listen.

Really listen. You'll be surprised by what you hear.

How quickly can listening improve your communication skills?
Find out here. . .

People want to belong to something big.

They want to get behind a big idea; they must to be able to see how your idea can work. That where the importance of communication skills becomes vitally important.

It is the job of effective communication to describe how your idea can work. At this early stage getting a clear grasp of your idea is a process of making your idea as simple and powerful as possible.

Key Point: Once you have established a clear and compelling vision, it is time to move on to the next step. . .

Step 2 - Surround Yourself With People Who Can Listen - Be Inspired

For a leader, there's no more frustrating experience than surrounding yourself with negative people, or people who are fundamentally incapable of getting behind or promoting your vision.

Want to Communicate Better?
Check out our online
business writing course

The esteemed author Jim Collins says great organizations ensure, "First who, Then What."

The answer is clear, great teams get the right people on-board first, then once the right people are "on the bus" (and the wrong people are "off the bus") then you can figure out what direction to go.

A great team can get behind an inspired vision and make it their own. As a great leader you no longer own that vision - you communicate and share it with your team. They buy in!

The saying by David McCullough is appropriate here:

"You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit."

If you're serious about surrounding yourself with people who can make your ideas a reality, you will find people who can listen and use effective communication to gain alignment for your ideas.

This is the path to greatness.

Step 3 - Communicate the Vision - Teaching Others to See What You See

By establishing a healthy culture of communication in the workplace, the strategy for attaining your goal should come naturally to you.

If only for the simple fact that you've surrounded yourself with like-minded people. . . people who are like you.

Effective communication at this stage is essential to create meaning at all levels of the team. Communicating well at this stage will set a firm foundation, and lesson confusion down the road.

The right people will want to learn more about how to be successful attaining their goals.

The wrong people will not. If someone seems disinterested at this stage of building your team, try to get them engaged and interested. If you can't. . . get someone else. Quickly.

Create Meaning. . . and Momentum.

At this stage, your vision should be gaining some momentum. People are aligning themselves with their vision for their future.

You should begin assigning task forces and leaders. Encourage these leaders to brainstorm ideas, tactics, and goals. . .

. . . then allow them to present their ideas to the team.

Communicating the nuts and bolts of how everything is going to work will strengthen the overall foundation of the team and reinforce the vision.

Beyond this, through effective team communication training you develop good communication skills within all your team members as well

Step 4 - Sustain Growth For Long Term Team Success. . . Deepen the Meaning of Your Message

When you've ensured effective communication of your team and your organizations core values, provided a compelling vision of the future to people with the drive and capacity to make the vision a reality, you have laid down the foundation to long term success. . .

. . . for yourself and your team.

Moving forward it is essential to reinforce the core message and to develop meaning to remind and reinvigorate your team, and to help others carry the message too.

One more crucial point, the experts agree, effective communication in business is not just verbal. Effective communication is ingrained in everything you do.

Even if you're not consciously aware of it, your senses pick up thousands of small clues every second. Whether your senses are picking up positive or negative stimulus is a matter of framing. Seeing problems as potential areas of competitive advantages is often a matter of reframing your perspective.

Therefore you must send the message to your people throughout every corner of the workplace.

There should be no confusion of the vision, the strategy, or the goal.

The vision must decorate the walls and the minds of your team.

Present persuasive articles, videos, and hang the vision statement to reinforce and communicate the message and primary purpose for why people choose to get up and come to work.

While many managers and leaders limit and discourage tough questions, encourage discussion in order to build a thriving culture.

People want to talk about what is going on in their lives, thus healthy and effective communication is a natural result of allowing your team to succeed.

People will watch to see that you're walking your talk so make sure you do what you say you will do. Effective communication is pointless without effective follow through.