Enjoy monthly reads, reflections, and thoughts from our wisdom filled team.
As a leader, words, actions, and even silence carry weight. Your team will scrutinize everything you say and how you say it. Understanding the root causes of miscommunication and addressing them proactively is a skill separating effective leaders from the rest. The second part of this series will focus on internal communication breakdowns - examining how personal barriers, unchecked assumptions, and unintentional listening habits shape what is heard, interpreted, and acted upon.
As a leader, words, actions, and even silence carry weight. Your team will scrutinize everything you say and how you say it. Understanding the root causes of miscommunication and addressing them proactively is a skill separating effective leaders from the rest. The first part of this series will focus on external communication breakdowns - what is being conveyed and how it is delivered.
We often wear masks and armor to protect the people around us: our families, our friends, our teammates, and more than anything, the people we are charged to lead. We think our masks protect the people around us from the things we see as vulnerabilities: fear, anger, disappointment, overwhelm, uncertainty. If we show them our fear, they will be scared too. If we show them our uncertainty, they will lose hope. If we show them our weakness, they will lose trust and faith in our leadership. This is what we tell ourselves when we put the armor on.
The statement, “Leaders Are Readers,” as others point out, has become ubiquitous on social media platforms like LinkedIn. Whether or not people who share that sentiment know of President Truman’s quote doesn’t diminish what he meant by saying it. Some people do innately possess powerful leadership attributes and abilities, most do not. Leadership is learned, and anyone, in my experience, can become better leaders through educating themselves.
As many sectors of the economy were forced to telework or adopt some sort of alternate/hybrid schedule, resumed more in-person work following COVID, many workers were welcoming the return of face-to-face camaraderie and collaboration. Leaders were excited to be physically back with their teams, leaving the Zoom gallery behind. The immediate reaction was a rebound of sorts, striving to make up for lost time with maximum in-person engagement.
