When you were a kid didn’t you want a superpower? I did; I wanted the strength of Superman. Guess what – you have a super power, it is in the way you communicate. When you develop and train this power you can move mountains, you can see into people’s thinking and you can achieve remarkable things.
Can you really move mountains? If you look at any large endeavor whether it was building the Hoover Dam, creating Mt Rushmore or developing a success like Facebook, it required good communications. People had to know the vision. Where are we going, why are we doing this, how can we do this, what is the end game.
Yet many so called leaders just issue an edict, “create me some code” or “change the way you’ve been doing things.” Then they wonder why the code isn’t selling or change is not happening. One way to see if your super power is working is to see what kinds of questions your team is asking. If they are asking questions like:
- “How do I get started?”
- “How do we implement?”
- “Where do we go next?”
These are forward looking and it signifies that the team has got your vision and they have bought in.
If however they are asking questions like:
- “Why are we doing this?”
- “How will our clients win?”
- “How is this going to help?”
These are contextual and suggest that they have not captured your vision. Or perhaps more precisely you have not won their hearts and minds to your cause.
By the way who is responsible for the message? As the conveyer of the message you are. It is incumbent on you to make sure the message is heard, and understood in the way you want it to be.
Asking yourself some questions prior to communicating may help.
• How will my audience feel about these changes
• What might some of their concerns be
• How will I address these concerns
• What is in it for them
• How will this change make a difference for them
In answering these questions you then are able to create the messaging and communication to propel your vision forward with your team.
Image used by permission : By David Castillo Dominici, published on 12 November 2013 Stock Image – image ID: 100217588 via FreeDigitalPhotos.net
