The Power of Communication-Great Read Review & Excerpt
Great Read | Review & Excerpt
The Power of Communication by Helio Fred Garcia
Irene Becker | Just Coach It-The 3Q Edge™ | QBlog
Bill Gates said many years ago the 21st century leader will be a leader who empowers. It was a visionary statement that has resonated with me since I first read it. Empowerment refers to engaging constituents up and down, vertically and horizontally with the power of a vision and their potential to make this vision really.
A global marketplace, an interconnected social world, make communication a critical skill and KPI (key performance indicator) for effective and agile leadership. Leadership empowers and demands great communication. Is anything more important than building trust, inspiring loyalty and leading effectively?
Thank you Fred Garcia for a truly empowering, insightful Great Read! Leadership builds trust and loyalty. Understanding, empowering and delivering great communication is what The Power of Communication is all about.
Excerpt/Adaptation from The Power of Communication: Skills to Build Trust, Inspire Loyalty, and Lead Effectively by Helio Fred Garcia, FT Press/Pearson, 2012
COMMUNICATING WELL IS A LEADERSHIP DISCIPLINE
The present environment of social media, of instantaneous communication where audiences have multiple sources of information available to them at any time, creates new burdens. Stakeholders expect leaders to be good at connecting with them.
In more than 30 years, I have coached more than 250 chief executive officers and thousands of executives and other high-profile people in complex fields, including doctors, lawyers, financial executives, and military officers. These leaders were in sectors as diverse as pharmaceuticals, heavy manufacturing, energy, biotechnology, computer software, financial services, law firms, advertising agencies, religious denominations, universities, and not-for-profit advocacy groups.
What they all had in common was a need to win hearts and minds. And, a sense that they weren’t quite up to the task. They all needed to get better at this core leadership skill.
GETTING GOOD AT COMMUNICATING WELL
The skills that get many leaders to the top of their organizations are not sufficient to do the work at that level. The higher one goes in a company, not-for-profit, or government agency, the more success is measured in winning hearts and minds rather than in the mastery of some technical skill—from medicine, law, finance, education, engineering, and the like. It isn’t that their core disciplines don’t matter—they do. But they’re table stakes. They’re what’s minimally necessary to get the job. But they’re not enough.
I have found a high correlation between leaders seeing part of their work as continually developing their communication skills and their overall success. One of the burdens of leadership is to get good at engaging stakeholders well. They need to master basic skills, practice those skills, and continually enhance their capacity to lead verbally.
At a very basic level of tactical execution, being good at engaging well starts with understanding the physicality of audience engagement. The audience makes judgments based on nonverbal cues. A leader is judged based on, among other attributes, his or her bearing: how he or she carries himself or herself. First impressions matter, and the first impression is often visual.
The most effective leaders take seriously the physicality of their performance: Standing or sitting in a posture that creates a stable platform. Gesturing fluidly. Making eye contact and locking in the audience’s attention. Using visuals to amplify the speaker’s points, and not the other way around.
THE FUNDAMENTALS WORK
The fundamentals work. And from those physicality fundamentals a leader can build an effective presence to convey content well. But executives need to take those fundamentals seriously. I sometimes tell a bad joke in response to a client’s question about whether the boss will improve as a result of coaching: How many executive coaches does it take to change a light bulb? Only one. But the bulb has to really want to change…
The skills that get many leaders to the top of their organizations are not sufficient to do the work at that level. The higher one goes in a company, not-for-profit, or government agency, the more success is measured in winning hearts and minds rather than in the mastery of some technical skill—from medicine, law, finance, education, engineering, and the like. It isn’t that their core disciplines don’t matter—they do. But they’re table stakes. They’re what’s minimally necessary to get the job. But they’re not enough.
Rather, leaders need to be good at interpersonal verbal engagement—one-on-one and large group, in person and at a distance. I have found a high correlation between leaders seeing part of their work as continually developing their communication skills and their overall success.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR – HELIO FRED GARCIA
For more than 30 years Helio Fred Garcia has helped leaders build trust, inspire loyalty, and lead effectively. He is a coach, counselor, teacher, writer, and speaker whose clients include some of the largest and best-known companies and organizations in the world.
He tweets at @garciahf. www.thepowerofcommunication.net
More on Communication? YOU Betcha:
From Now to How: Building Social Virtual and Cross Generational Leadership
Constructive Discontent-A Critical Leadership & Life Skill
Turning Conflict Around-7 Steps
Communication-The Coachable Moment-5 Posts in One
The Real Deal: 7 Powerful, Practical Ways to Accelerate Results
Helping smart people and organizations communicate and lead forward
smarter, faster and happier is what I do best . Executive coaching, consulting, keynotes and articles with a 3Q Edge™ for greater reach, resonance and results
Irene Becker | Just Coach It-The 3Q Edge™ | 3Q Leadership Blog
Career, Communication and Leadership Programs & Services with a 3Q Edge™
Toronto & Virtually Everywhere | (1) 416-671-4726 416-671-4726 Skype: beckerirene