Fine Lines is a weekly newsletter at the intersection of organisational prosperity and human development - for leaders who have already tried the obvious fixes and are now asking better questions. Each Tuesday: one idea from real experience and research, examined with enough rigour to be useful and enough honesty to sting slightly. The equation running underneath every edition: Capability × Ability = Performance. Most interventions address the Ability side. Fine Lines addresses the variable nobody is measuring. If you want frameworks and inspiration there are better newsletters. If you want your thinking challenged and, occasionally, your assumptions dismantled then you are in the right place.
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Connect Better 🔗🤝 6 POWERFUL Communication Tactics Used by Elite Leaders
Published about 2 years ago • 4 min read
September 13, 2024
Hi Reader
Picture the scene - I’m having my third coaching session with a well known head coach. In the first two sessions we’ve been addressing a few factors that he believes are holding him back.
All pretty normal.
Today though he opens up and shares an issue that surprises me - he’s insecure about his communication skills when he’s speaking or presenting in front of his team.
I ask him to go deeper and say more.
His anxiety levels rocket prior to speaking with his group (that he’s been with for 3+ years). Not a regular nervousness but a real apprehension that he’s winging it and that he’ll appear indecisive and not really get his message across to a group who are quite a bit younger than him.
Do you know what he means?
We talk and get beyond the symptom to the real cause - he’s not that assured about communication and how to land a meaningful message in a way that resonates.
It’s a concern that affects so many leaders. Any many of you suffer on in silence.
We have more work to do but check out 6 behaviours I’ve suggested to him that will be his foundation of presentation/speaking success.....
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Do I have your attention..
Image Credit: Unsplash
The Leaders Coach 6E Principles are not an exhaustive list my any means. But they do provide insight into some essential habits & behaviours that will really support your ability to communicate confidently and with a clarity and air that resonates and holds the attention of your audience.
So let’s jump in….
Engineer - Actually, start by Reverse-Engineering - Look at the communication challenge by starting at the end and figuring out what a great outcome will look and feel like - both for your audience and yourself. The whole experience has to be one that you’ve shared and that you’d all repeat in a heartbeat.
“To begin you must study at the end” - José Raúl Capablanca
It’s important to work to an outcome where your audience are completely satisfied. Where they feed back that the session was a tremendous investment of time. Important too that you are completely satisfied with your own performance - notwithstanding that we’re all continually taking learnings from every session so that we can move our performance needle upward.
2. Excitement - Both in yourself and the people you are working with. You can do this early by establishing the direction you are heading and the outcomes they can expect. You’ll have done some homework to ascertain what’s important to them and what message will resonate the most. Bring your on-stage A-Game; this helps communicate that we’re not in a classroom but a learning-rich environment. With regard to your own excitement levels remember that you are putting on a performance - a big challenge can be learning to prep yourself for a peak performance so that you’re “playing from a 10” and bringing the best version of yourself. Remember that it’s a skill and, like any skill, takes purposeful practice to get better and more automated over time.
3. Empathy - Early on, it’s important to establish with the audience that you’re here for them - you are here to listen, help, assist, understand, guide and empower them….You’ve got to establish a trust and gain their faith in you as a trusted ally. So whilst they have to do the work on their own, because you are in their corner they don’t have to do it alone.
4. Energy - Appropriate pace and momentum offer huge return. The setting, your materials, the complete environment have to lend themselves to the notion that this is a shared learning journey and everyone is being brought forward. No one will be left behind. Making sure you’re only ever a half-step ahead of your audience is critical. Getting to grips with the cadence of communication and seducing the audience with your stories are really effective tools. If you want the people in front of you to visualise success then you need to know how to play in the dynamic zone.
5. Engagement - So this is all about seeing, sensing and hearing where people are at throughout the whole conversation, presentation, meeting etc. It’s about your pitch, pace and passion and about using and leveraging elements like use-case and real-life examples where your approach, message or expertise has worked with people like those sat in front of you. Share how you can help them not just read the map but navigate the terrain. Your focus may well be for your audience to think “Coach understands me/us and knows how to help people just like me/us…it’s just what they do.”
6. Expertise - Your tone, body language and/or source materials all have to communicate loudly that the people you are talking with are in safe hands. That they can trust what they are hearing and seeing. And because of this they can surrender, without fear, to your process, principles and promise.
In leadership roles, everything is a communication.
What matters most is how you position yourself and your message for your people and colleagues.
Make it easy for them to tune in & buy in. Craft your sessions as something they look forward to.
Your words and language, verbal and non-verbal, will flow from there.
What you say is important; how you say it is vital.
This week on YouTube 🎥.....The Leaders Equation..A+B=C
Think about it - tactics, behaviours & processes that were once 'revolutionary' in your game are now commonplace. And all introduced by folks no smarter than you.
Have courage & back yourself. You just might be right!
"Fine Lines" - For leaders in commercial, sport & volunteer-led organisations who'd rather be told the truth than told they're doing fine. We talk weekly about human performance under sustained pressure.
Fine Lines is a weekly newsletter at the intersection of organisational prosperity and human development - for leaders who have already tried the obvious fixes and are now asking better questions. Each Tuesday: one idea from real experience and research, examined with enough rigour to be useful and enough honesty to sting slightly. The equation running underneath every edition: Capability × Ability = Performance. Most interventions address the Ability side. Fine Lines addresses the variable nobody is measuring. If you want frameworks and inspiration there are better newsletters. If you want your thinking challenged and, occasionally, your assumptions dismantled then you are in the right place.
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