Become a Better Leader by Becoming a Better Communicator
Tips for becoming a more compelling communicator
Communication is key.
Being able to communicate clearly is one of the most important skills for people to learn and maintain. Honing your skills as a writer can vastly increase your ability to communicate with others because it forces you to slow down, process what you are thinking, put it on a page/screen, and examine how the words and arguments flow. This is a luxury when we consider how much we communicate “on the spot” when we are speaking with others or when we hastily type an email or a text message.
Using writing as a tool to practice your communication skills will allow you the opportunity to experiment with various “voices” and phrasing until you find your own style. Once you have a written style you will begin to see it come out in all of your other forms of communication. Answering the 4 questions below with help you become a more effective communicator across all mediums.
1. What Do I Want People To Know?
Before communication of any kind can occur, the speaker or writer must know exactly what they are trying to communicate to their audience. Only then can the writer actually articulate — clearly — what they are intending for their audience to know. If the author does not have a clear message, all the motive and drive in the world cannot stop them from aimlessly rambling from one topic to another.
Developing a thesis or topic sentence is the most helpful way to know if you are going to communicate something clearly. A thesis statement can be easily narrowed down by asking yourself “what do I want people to know after they read this or hear this?” In this case, I want people to know some practical steps that they can take in order to communicate more clearly in both writing and speaking.
Your thesis statement should be specific so that your audience knows what they are getting into. Vague thesis statements often stem from a vague idea and thus a vague message. One practical step for coming up with your thesis statement is to think of how you will title an article or speech. When I am thinking through papers for school, I tend to “think in subheadings.” With each subheading, I have the general idea from which I will develop each argument further and I allow the subheadings to dictate what will be, exclusively, in that section. Sticking within the parameters of your title will keep you focused and prevent you from wandering off into other subjects.
Ensuring that you have a clear message to give to people will increase the odds that someone will read what you are writing in its entirety because they know what the take away is going to be. This being so, you should always include your thesis or purpose statement early on in your writing. It should not be something that you are hiding from people. It should not be a tedious job for your readers to attempt to figure out what they are expected to take away from your writing.
Come out swinging and let people know: “I want you to know this….” Once this has been established, you need to show why this information is going to be important for them to know. Which leads us to the next question you need to be able to answer prior to publishing.
2. Why Do I Want Them To Know It?
Another way of asking this is “why is this important for you and others to know?” Connecting your ideas to a practical problem is one of the main reasons that research exists. Researchers and writers want to solve problems whether they are social, emotional, relational, grammatical, existential, etc. The list is essentially endless because the more we research and write, the more potential research questions we encounter.
Framing up the importance of your ideas can be difficult but not impossible. If you are writing about mental health, for instance, you need to show that what you are contributing is something that can help people feel better. If you are sharing your own personal story about how you overcame something, you can show the importance by letting people know that they are not alone in what they are going through. If you are outlining some emotional regulation skills, you can show the importance by showing what can happen when we are not able to recognize and regulate our emotions.
If you are writing about freelancing after several months or years of starting your own ventures, you can communicate the importance of your message by showing others some of the milestones and setbacks you have faced so that they too can learn from your experiences. Showing the importance of information keeps people engaged with your writing because you are promising them answers to a problem they may be facing.
3. What Do I Want Them To Do?
Effective writing should spur people into action. This does not mean that you need a “call to action” in every article — in fact, this is all but unanimously discouraged because if someone likes your work and wants to hear more, they typically do not need to be asked to do so.
Answering the question of “what do I want people to do after reading this?” is directly connected to the thesis statement discussed above. If you are writing about social issues, you need to communicate in such a way that people are driven to action or driven to reconsider some ideas they have previously held. If you are writing about writing, it should be made clear that you are hoping people will take your advice or learn from your experiences and actively improve their own writing.
As with the previous questions, the question of “now what do I do?” should not be something that your readers have to answer for themselves, unassisted by you. Clear writing should do this for them by using actionable words such as: “if you want to do ______, then do _______ next.” While most topics will not fit into this prompt like a cookie-cutter, it is a helpful formula to think through: If this, then that. For example:
If you are struggling with anxiety, then you should try the 5–4–3–2–1 exercise that Ryan Fan outlines beautifully.
If you are wanting to improve your writing, then you should read these 13 tips by Ernest Hemingway that Bobby Powers highlights.
While these read like a call to action, they are not asking you to purchase something from them. Rather, they are calling you deeper into an interest or topic that you have already expressed interest in by opening their article in the first place.
4. How Can I Help Them Do It?
Lastly, your readers should not feel left to figure things out on their own. If you are going to communicate something clearly, that is important and requires your audience to do something, then you need to help them get there. If you are talking about mental health, it is good to point people in the right direction for more resources. Sometimes this is done along the way such as when you show your sources. Mentioning and linking sources allows people to know what their next steps will be if they want to learn more or further implement some new information and skills into their life.
As I said above, another way you extend help is by connecting people to some of your own (similar) work or the work of others that they may find helpful. Learning is not done in a bubble — long gone are the days of the lone scientist or the isolated scholar surrounded by experiments and books in some dungeon of a library or lab. We learn best when we communicate with others. If you have ever taken an online class, you have witnessed this first hand when you have been required to do “discussion board” assignments. These are meant to continue the conversation and allows us to learn more deeply.
Good leaders need to be open to dialogue about what and how they communicate. Not just for feedback about style and grammar but for discussion about the actual content and how it may connect to other areas of life. Writing is not meant to be static or stagnant — it is meant to be a living process by which we enter into dialogue with others.
Practice Makes Perfect
It is not rocket science: practice makes perfect. If you want to be a better writer and a better overall communicator, you need to write more and communicate more. Speaking of rocket science, Albert Einstein (I am aware he was not a rocket scientist per se), said that “if you cannot explain it simply, you don’t understand it enough.” Writing will help you think through and wrestle with new ideas in a way that simply thinking about it could never do.
“If you cannot explain it simply, you don’t understand it enough.” — Albert Einstein
So, join the conversation and start conversations of your own. With me, with others, with anyone. As you continue writing, you will continue to improve your overall communication skills and you will become more effective in whatever line of work you are in. Whether you are already in a leadership position or striving to be in one in the future, effective communication will help you make quick and long-lasting progress.
