Jan 12, 2021
Good leaders are good communicators. But how can you become a better communicator, and is there one aspect of communication that is vitally important?
As leaders, we can always be learning and growing, and while there may be some innate leadership qualities in some of us, much of leadership is about developing skills. So in this episode of our leadership traits series, we’re going to focus on one skill that is essential for leaders: communication.
Specifically, we’re diving into how to have more clarity in your communication as a leader. Clarity is important for leadership as it helps people to understand you, your message, and your vision. It helps to attract or repel people, earn trust, avoid confusion, convey love, and more.
4 keys to more clarity in your communication:
1. Get clarity about your message
It’s first essential for you to have clarity around your message--what you want to say to your audience, whether it’s one person or 10,000 people.
Ask yourself these 3 questions:
- What do I want to say?
- Why do I want to say it?
- How do I want to say it?
Many times we need an outside perspective… we need to ask someone else to review what we are planning to share and be open to their honest feedback.
2. Self-Awareness
It’s vital for you to have self-awareness in
order to convey your message with clarity. What do you need
self-awareness about?
- your strengths and weaknesses as well as sensitive subject or hot topics that cause you to lose your filter or cool
- your motivations and intentions
- your personality
- your world view
3. Discernment of situation, circumstances, audience
It’s important to know who you are speaking to, and adapt your message based on this. Make sure that it’s clear to this group of people that you are talking to.
3 things you should understand about your audience:
- Culture
- Demographics
- History
4. Prioritization
Finally, you need to determine the importance of the message and use the appropriate language and mode to convey your message. In other words, prioritize how you communicate.
It’s also helpful to identify what you want for a response from your audience. Does your email need a reply? If so, be sure to say that. Do you need participation at an event or help gathering information? Be clear and prioritize what’s most important, and then be clear about the response you’d like to see.
Action Step:
Whether you are simply communicating with your family or whether you are communicating to a large team or a huge audience, if you put into practice these 4 things, you will find that you will be more effective.
To review, in order to gain more clarity in your communication, you want to have:
- Clarity about the message itself
- Self-awareness
- Discernment
- Prioritization
Choose which of these 4 keys you need to develop and share with us in the Purposeful Leadership FB group!
Resources & Links:
Connect with Esther and Holly:
This episode was originally
published on estherlittlefield.com/episode134.