Communication is a two way street

Bite sized leadership advice

Communication is a two-way street.

Listen hard to your team, *really* listen to understand. Ask open questions.

This applies more than ever in a virtual world where you are missing many of the reference points you have.

Take a moment to check in and understand how the other person is or thinks before you start.

Humans can’t help speaking or being influenced by what is front of their mind, which is typically someting which is stressing them out, a problem to be solved.

Do not be afraid of pauses or silences, try six seconds to promote the other person to speak.

Adapt your message based on what you learn, rather than leaping in.

Once you have communicated, measure the effectiveness of what you have communicated. Not just the message, which can be repeated easily. Take a moment to ask questions which demonstrate understanding.

Look for the person you are communicating with to translate the message into their own language and actions.

One to watch out for, a trap we can often fall into; whoever speaks the most in a two way interaction believes that they have the better relationship with the other person.

A good balance is 50/50, depending on the purpose of the conversation. If you are at 80/20 with you projecting 80% of the time, take a moment. Is this appropriate.

If you are looking for advice on how to lead through a crisis, then this long form Medium article (10 mins read) has all the good stuff that will make the difference to you and your leadership.

This is part of our Leadership Wizdom series, bite sized leadership advice for leaders who wish to improve their leadership, but don’t have much time. For more indepth articles check out The Change Wizard