More Than a Basic Understanding…

If we really want that strong foundation for leadership communication skills, learning to know each member of our team as well as we possibly can is the best starting point I can suggest. To that end, showing our team members that we’re actually interested in who they are rather than just what they can do for us even goes a long way toward building a culture great people want to be part of, but let’s just stick with how it can impact communication for now…

While it’s certainly more than what we say, the way we say it can be the difference between any given team member buying in or mailing it in! If we’re not willing to take action on The Platinum Rule I’ve suggested a few times leading up to this point, the message we need to get across may fall short. And quite honestly, adapting our message to have a lasting impact is so much simpler when we know our audience; individually and collectively!

Even in the most basic session that Cindy and I provide companies on recognizing and understanding communication styles, we’re able to go into quite a bit of detail providing a practical approach individuals can apply right away so they pick up on the other person’s primary style and adapt their own to that. Quite honestly, I wish I had access to a session like that twenty years earlier in my own career because it makes that much of a difference! But to fully accept the responsibility of leading our teams the best we possibly can and providing them with a message truly tailored to what they need, having access to their complete communication style blend is even more powerful!

When we have that full picture, as well as a firm comprehension of The Model of Human Behavior so we can take action, knowing the individual on a more personal level gives us insight a chart or graph never will - it provides us with perspective on what they have going on at any given time. Being able to piece all those things together nearly always allows us to realize what they need in that moment and provide it for them in a way that genuinely meets their need!

As a supervisor, a manager, or even the owner of a company, do we really have to invest that level of time and energy into learning about our team members? Of course we don’t have to… But leading isn’t based on what we have to do but developing leadership communication skills will yield more in return so we’ll wrap this all up by working through a few quick things we can all keep in mind to meet our team members’ needs - based on their primary communication style…