Shut-up & Listen
By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
Great leaders are great listeners, and therefore my message today is a simple one…talk less and listen more. The best leaders are proactive, strategic listeners. They recognize that knowledge and wisdom are not gained by talking, but by listening. Take a moment and reflect back on any great leader that comes to mind…you’ll find that they are very adept at reading between the lines. They have the uncanny ability to understand what is not said, witnessed, or heard. In today’s post I’ll quickly examine the merits of developing your listening skills. Warning: this post isn’t going to coddle you and leave you feeling warm and fuzzy – it is rather blunt and to the point.
Leadership is a full-contact sport, and leaders that cannot effectively deal with conflict are not really very good leaders are they? From my perspective, the issues surrounding conflict resolution can be best summed-up in three words…”Deal With It.” Conflict Resolution is a skill set necessary for survival in today’s business world. While you can try and avoid conflict (bad idea), you cannot escape conflict…The fact of the matter is that conflict in the workplace is unavoidable. It will find you whether you look for it (good idea) or not. The ability to recognize conflict, understand the nature of conflict, and to be able to bring swift and fair resolution to conflict will serve you well as a senior executive or entrepreneur. In today’s post I’ll share my perspective on the art and science of conflict resolution.
Regardless of your station in life, both what you say, and how you say it matter…It matters to an even greater degree for those in positions of leadership. Leaders simply don’t have the luxury of choosing their words in cavalier fashion. Whether in written or oral form your vocabulary matters. Few things make an impact, or lack thereof, like the words you allow to flow from your lips or from your keyboard. Even when you think they don’t, people really are listening to what you say, reading what you write, and making important decisions about you based upon your choice of words.
Do you ever grow weary of listening to the verbose, or reading the work of those that have issues with clear articulation? I certainly do…but fear not; the lost art of brevity is making a comeback. Those of you that know me have come to understand that I prefer to cut to the chase. I like to get to the root of an issue as quickly as possible. While I appreciate the great oratory skills of those who communicate using wonderful word pictures, or the academics who can wax eloquent while always using the best form of prose, I prefer my business communication to be quick and dirty. In the immortal words of Jack Webb: “The facts ma’am…just the facts.” In today’s post I’ll look at the benefits associated with the resurgence of brevity.
Leadership that is not deeply rooted in a foundation of truth is leadership destined to fail. The reality is that the best leaders are also absolutists when it comes to truth – they view truth as a non-negotiable. However in the wake of some of the recent, and highly publicized business, financial, and political scandals, it’s not too difficult to understand how some may actually question the existence of truth in business or government. If you peel back the layers on most of the debacles that often transform themselves into highly sensationalized headlines, you’ll see that said problems often begin with rationalizations, justifications, posturing, and spin being substituted for the truth. In today’s post I’ll address the often overlooked benefits of truth telling as a key success metric…
Few things are as annoying as those who can’t get to the point, don’t have a point, or have the wrong point. If you’ve ever found yourself adrift in a daydream because you were being told how to build a watch when all you wanted was to know the time, then you understand the importance of relevant messaging. Fact: It is simply not possible to have a well received message that is not relevant. That said, I’m always amazed at those who believe that just because something matters to them, that it must matter to others. Remember that just because you have something to say doesn’t necessarily mean that other people want to hear it. Furthermore, just increasing the volume or frequency of the message doesn’t make it any more relevant. The good news is that you can take specific steps to increase the relevancy of your messaging, some of which I’ll share below…
It is simply impossible to become a great leader without being a great communicator. I hope you noticed that the previous sentence didn’t refer to being a great talker – big difference. The key to becoming a skillful communicator is rarely found in what has been taught in the world of academia. From our earliest days in the classroom we are trained to focus on annunciation, vocabulary, presence, delivery, grammar, syntax and the like. In other words, we are taught to focus on ourselves. While I don’t mean to belittle these things as they’re important to learn, it’s the more subtle elements of communication that are rarely taught in the classroom (the elements that focus on others) that leaders desperately need to learn. It is the ability to develop a keen external awareness that separates the truly great communicators from those who muddle through their interactions with others. In today’s post I’ll share a few of the communication traits, that if used consistently, will help you achieve better results in the workplace.
One of the most effective ways to order your world is to simplify everything you encounter. However the problem is that keeping it simple often becomes very difficult when our basic human nature is to over-complicate everything we touch. In thinking about the people I respect the most, to the one, they possess the uncanny ability to take the most complicated of issues and simplify them. You will find that the best leaders, communicators, teachers, and innovators have a true knack for taking extremely complex, dense or intricate content and making it engaging and easy to understand. In fact, it was Leonardo Da Vinci who said: “simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.” In today’s post I’ll take a look at the often overlooked benefits of keeping it simple…
There is simply no substitute for the truth. That said, how do you measure a person’s positional conviction? How do you know if someone is sincere in their communication? How do you know if you’re being told the truth, or just being spoken to in a manner designed to elicit a desired response? Listen to what’s being said…When attempting to evaluate the shifting sands of fluid messaging, or what I like to refer to as spin, examine the choice of words used in the composition of said messaging.