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15 Ways To Lead With Effective Communication

15 Ways To Lead With Effective Communication
by Josh Steimle

Don't let communication be the handicap in your life and in your business. Good communication is a lifetime pursuit.

Too many entrepreneurs become estranged from their teams, turn off partners, and lose deals, all because they lack basic communication skills. Often this lack of skill gets passed down to teams and the problems are perpetuated through the organization.

Does your employer know how to communicate? Do you?
As important as these skills are, somehow they don’t teach this stuff in schools. Now, according to Simon Sinek, when our educational system and parents create graduates who lack basic social graces, it falls on employers to make up the difference.

But what if you’re an entrepreneur with no one to help you build the soft skills? Or an employee trying to advance with no mentor in sight?

The journey starts with these 15 tips to build your workforce communication skills, offered from working entrepreneurs, speakers, authors and coaches. The first one is mine.

1. Ask more than one person to do it, and nobody will.
In psychology it’s called the bystander effect.

When someone else is present, before I act I’ll stop to consider if my actions are socially appropriate. I run a marketing agency, and when I ask a group of people in my agency to do something, as in “Hey, will somebody who was copied on this email take care of XYZ task?” It’s much less effective than asking a single person to take responsibility.

Being a passive bystander is virtually hard-wired. This is why individuals who take emergency training are directed, when someone gets hurt, to point at someone and say “You in the red shirt, call 9-1-1!” Rather than, “Someone call 9-1-1!”

2. Say what you mean, mean what you say.
Leonard Kim is the founder of Influence Tree, and says that meaning what you say is hard. “In order to do this, you have to show compassion and empathy, and talk to the other party like they matter to you. Because guess what? They do.”

Your actions after you speak are just as important, because if you didn’t follow through on what you said in the past, people won’t trust you really mean what you say in the future.

3. Use simple global communication.
More than ever we’re doing business across cultures, and simple language is key, says Jan Smejkal, the China & APAC Community Director of Startup Grind. “If you are building a business in a country where the knowledge of English is relatively low, and where the cultural differences might cause additional difficulties, focus on:

• Using simple language to deliver the message. (Note, simple does not mean simple minded.)
• Avoiding sarcasm, which can easily be misunderstood.
• Getting the right partner and employees who will help you bridge the language and culture gaps.”

4. Don’t rely on your device.
“A real conversation is almost always more valuable than a digital one,” says Carl Woolston of MaxMindsetCoach.com “Don't be afraid to pick up the phone or set up a real meeting. Relationships are about connection, and connection is an investment.”

Read full article on Entrepreneur.