Leaders are rarely engrossed in handling day-to-day tasks and do not get involved in technical aspects of the origination. Instead, a large chunk of their role is to look after employees and their welfare, motivating employees to achieve great things, coaching and inspiring them to be even better than they already are. All these traits require deft communication ability; skills that are critical for brilliant leadership. In this article, we are going to discuss three brilliant things leaders do with communicating with their teams.
Brilliant leaders tell great stories.
One of the best ways adults can absorb information is through storytelling. Bringing company goals or values to life through stories makes these often-mundane elements to working life exciting and relatable. Employees will listen to an amazing story and be thinking about how they can act on its plot or meaning. They might also learn quicker and deeper through storytelling, consequently being able to execute their tasks with a high degree of confidence.
For leaders, telling stories is a bit of an art form. Beginning with the end in mind is a great way to formulate stories. As a leader, what do you want your team to go from your story thinking, feeling, or doing?
Once you have this objective, put together the introduction, commonly starting with a punchy fact, a little bit of humour, or a fascinating statistic. Follow this with the body, sharing examples and personal experiences. Close with the conclusion, where you tell the audience what you have just told them, and end with an inspiring call to action.
Brilliant leaders give incredible feedback.
The best leaders tell their employees what they are doing. They give praise and recognition where it is due, publicly, whenever appropriate. This will inspire teams to do more and strive for success. Brilliant leaders are also confident and strong in giving constructive feedback, turning it into dialogue, not a lecture. This is where they take employees to one side and ask them what their thoughts are regarding a task or situation, share their own perception of what happened, and agree on an action plan on what should happen next time.
Leaders must build feedback skills into coaching techniques, and possibly even longer term-interventions such as mentoring, where employees are continuously guided and developed to sustain long-term positive behaviours. Given that feedback is often seen as a closed system, leaders who strive to communicate feedback as an ongoing process, or ‘continuous loop’, will inspire their team to achieve great results.
Brilliant leaders ask, “How are you? ”
A simple question to ask anyone, “How are you?” can mean the world when coming from a leader to an employee. The best leaders are sincere, showing genuine care and empathy when it comes to the well-being of their employees. Asking after them is the easiest way to show this, but of course, the key to success is that you listen to the employees’ replies.
The very best leaders will act upon the employees’ replies. They will retain the names of spouses and children. They will offer sympathies and condolences in times of hardship, reward and celebrate good news and successes, and will rectify any issues within their control. Put simply, asking “How are you?” shows selflessness and care.
Final thoughts.
Leaders who care, coach, and share stories will inspire and drive their team. They will be viewed as three-dimensional, charismatic, and caring individuals, performing way above the basic expectations of managerial effectiveness.
If we think about famous effective leaders, the best ones are those who have a personality and a certain aura about them; traits which are communicated through exceptional communication skills. Their aura and style drive connection and feeling. If you as a leader can project the same through your own communication abilities, then not only will you be viewed as organisational gold dust, but you’re also going to lead top-performing teams as well.