Why leaders need to communicate with conviction, 5 tips to do it
The way leaders communicate is critical. As humans, we move toward others we know, love and trust. Communicating with conviction is the cornerstone of trusted leadership. Our purpose shines through and leaves a lasting impact. We are unafraid to be authentic, which earns loyalty and trust. We communicate with clarity, confidence, and compassion, which motivates, educates and inspires.
Conviction creates change, energises individuals and teams, leads to alignment of values and purpose, and achieves greater results. When we communicate with conviction, we have confidence. We are also more likely to communicate with heart, as we understand and prioritise our people. We demonstrate empathy, compassion, generosity, and a willingness to listen.
In his Forbes article Why the Best Leaders Have Conviction, Travis Bradberry wrote, ‘Leaders with conviction create an environment of certainty for everyone. When a leader is absolutely convinced that he’s chosen the best course of action, everyone who follows him unconsciously absorbs this belief and the accompanying emotional state.’
The cost of poor communication
One of the greatest benefits of communicating with conviction is that we save our organisations a lot of money. Poor communication costs millions – in lost sales and at a fundamental level. Did you know that, on average, workers waste almost an entire day every week because of inefficient communication and substandard collaboration?
Poor communication can lead to:
- pointless meetings that should have been a phone call
- time wasting emails
- increased reputational risk
- loss of credibility and trust
- loss of morale and staff feeling unvalued
- reduced innovation
- delayed or failed projects.
And then there is the cost of staff turnover. This goes beyond the obvious costs of recruitment, onboarding and training. Consider the loss of knowledge and the overall productivity and performance of the team, especially if the members worked well together.
Critically, good communication helps avoid the cost of misunderstanding and positively impacts financial performance.
Towers Watson found that companies with highly effective communication practices had forty-seven per cent higher total returns to shareholders over five years (2004-2009) than those with less effective communication.
5 tips to communicate with conviction
- Prioritise time for strategy: Good communicators prioritise time for strategic thinking and planning and working through what and how they need to communicate so they meet the needs of their audience. Yes, it can be hard to find time to be proactive, for deep work and strategic thinking, but it’s a critical part of leadership today. Not taking the time to plan and prioritise, leads to increased stress and anxiety, which creates personal overwhelm and distracted teams.
- Communicate with heart: When we communicate with heart, we focus on our people. We demonstrate empathy, compassion, generosity, and a willingness to listen. The workforce of the 2020s is increasingly based on relationships, and leaders today need to understand and value the importance of creating connections. Those who operate out of self-interest are more likely to have disconnected – if not dysfunctional – teams.
- Keep your ego in check: People driven by ego, can come across as cocky or arrogant. They harm collaboration, innovation and motivation with their strong need to always be right. They are known for changing direction on a whim, have poor listening skills and don’t even try to tell them what to do.
- Know what gives you energy and what saps it: When your energy is depleted, it’s so much more difficult to demonstrate compassion, to really listen and to focus on building strong relationships with others. Energy is dependent upon nutrition, exercise, sleep, doing work you love and being mentally fulfilled, and spending time with people who lift you up.
Think about your day. How do you ensure you have time to eat the right foods, get enough exercise and take regular breaks? If you are you all-systems-go from the moment you get up, with a jam-packed to-do list and a calendar filled with meetings, it might not be surprising if you always feel exhausted.
- Prioritise self-care: Self-care isn’t selfish and it looks different for us all. For me, it’s a walk on the beach at least five times a week and reading crime fiction while sitting on my daybed with a cup of tea or a G&T. It also looks like regular medical appointments to keep on top of my physical and mental health. If you haven’t been to the doctor in a while, make an appointment today to make sure that all your bits are doing what they should be doing.
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Mel Kettle is an internationally recognised expert at fully connected leadership and communication. With more than two decades of experience, Mel is a valuable asset to leaders and teams that want achieve real connection and sustained engagement. She is the founder of the award-winning menopause blog, Just as Juicy, host of podcast This Connected Life and author of two books, Fully Connected and The Social Association. Visit www.melkettle.com.
