Hi everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Less Chatter, More Matter. It is a delight to have you tuning in to this week's episode, and I'm super excited about some of the feedback that's coming through. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the reviews, ratings, and the episode topic ideas. Keep them coming. In this week's episode, we're delving into the world of leadership communication skills.

I've heard so many times that a key skill of leaders needs to be communication, but that could mean almost anything. So what are the specific communication skills that a leader needs to master? This is something I really love teaching clients about in my workshops because I often find when people get into leadership positions, they, well, they default to management rather than actually leading people. And, often people are elevated to these new roles and responsibilities and then just kind of left to fend for themselves. I know when I first got my first leadership gig, I was pretty much just thrown into it. I had no idea what I was doing, really. And I was acting in someone else's role who, to be honest, at the time, wasn't much of a leadership role model.

So I muddled through, made a stack of mistakes, but I kept learning and growing and eventually got to a point where I could put my hand on my heart and say I was a good leader. I wasn't perfect. Nobody is, but I knew that 80 to 90% of the time I was leading well. And the times that I wasn't, people would let me know about, trust me.

I think many people find themselves in similar positions where they are promoted or they go for a new role. They've never been a leader before, or they've had very minimal experience and they're expected to know what to do and how to communicate effectively. And that really sets people up to fail, or it sets them up to have a much longer time to succeed than they should have. And that's not good for that person. That's not good for their team. That's not good for the business, right? So today I'm going to unpack five key leadership communication skills that I think every leader should master and how they differ from management communication. There is still very much a place for management communication. I'm not saying it's wrong. Per se, there's operational day-to-day work that needs to be done. That's the management communication. But if you want to motivate your team and progress in your career, you will have to master leadership communication skills.

So hopefully today's brief overview will get you thinking in the right direction. If you want to be a leader, if you are a first-time leader, or if you actually coach leaders in communication skills. Let's get into it.

The first communication skill leaders need is being able to communicate to give clear direction, but allowing autonomy within that direction. And that differs from management communication, which is largely just about delegating tasks and expecting them to be done exactly the way that you want them to be done. So what does that look like in practice? It's really about communicating what outcome you need the team or the individual to achieve and then inviting them to come up with the solution or a variety of solutions that you choose from. There is still a place for clear delegation. Don't get me wrong, especially in particular industries and team structures. But if you want to improve productivity and performance, you need to engage your people. And to do that, you need to empower them, give them a sense of autonomy and an opportunity to get a sense of mastery in their skills.

Now, someone reached out to me on Instagram about this one a little while ago, and she asked how that works because she has a junior comms team member who is meant to do X, Y and Z, but wasn't doing those things or prioritizing the wrong things. So she found at the start of the week, she was having to give a clear list of tasks to the person that they needed to complete. Now, obviously, that puts a lot of extra pressure on her, and doesn't help her to get things done. But also this person is not using their initiative and they're very used to being directed to do work. So I asked her to try a change of approach. In that weekly meeting, ask the team member to come to them with a list of tasks they think they should be doing that week, and then review that with her. It's a small change but can be a significant one in helping that team member to build a more strategic mindset and show more initiative. And they do that by being empowered to do that.

Now, to be honest, I don't know if that's worked. I need to check in, but it is an example of using communication to help a person get that sense of autonomy while still getting the work done. So that's the first skill. The second communication skill a leader needs to master is avoiding labouring on achieving KPIs and instead focus on building a link between the person's work and the bigger picture. Now we know from research, like worldwide research, that when employees see a line of sight between what they do every day and the organization's strategy and purpose, their performance and engagement improves massively.

So I'm going to say that again, because it is really important when a person can clearly see a line of sight between the work they do every day and the organization's purpose for being their engagement and productivity and performance improve. That is huge. Now, again, there is a balance here. Sometimes there are KPIs that must be achieved. Okay, I get that, but don't forget about building that biggest sense of purpose because that's what builds engagement and that's what keeps team members in the team and it keeps them growing with the team as well.

So for example, you might talk about a new piece of work or perhaps there are some new targets, but how do you relate those back to the bigger purposeful goal of the organization? What's the ultimate why? That they are helping the business to achieve. Maybe it's to help customers get better financial outcomes. Maybe it's to help children have the best childhoods they can. There are a lot of reasons why organizations do what they do. A lot of them are built around that Simon Sinek premises - start with why being purpose-led businesses.

Now you obviously won't do this for every piece of comms because some of what we do is just kind of what I call the hygiene factor stuff. But where you can, you should be reinforcing the big why behind your team's reason for existence. And helping them to discover how they are contributing to that bigger purpose.

The next communication skill that leaders need to hone in on is having coaching conversations rather than performance conversations. Now, what I mean by this is that all too often we fall into the trap of trying to address performance. Usually when performance is already below expectation and has been for some time. And sometimes those conversations, particularly when we take it from a management perspective, are very cut and dry. They go something like You're underperforming in this area and you need to fix it and this is how. A leader will instead have coaching conversations. They'll ask the person what they think they're doing well, where they think they can improve and invite them to co-create solutions. But more than that, their conversations are goal driven.

So these discussions are designed to help people focus or refocus, if need be, on their goals and assess how they're progressing towards them, what some of the roadblocks might be, what some of the opportunities are, and help them create an action plan to keep moving forward. Yes, there are absolutely going to be times when you'll need to address performance head-on. But that also shouldn't wait until a formal performance review. And as a leader, you need to be creating a culture of continuous feedback and accountability so that any coaching or performance conversations don't come as a surprise. That's when people feel like they work in brave, safe spaces where feedback good and bad is part of the everyday process.

It's how you work and people are open to being coached to continue to grow and learn. It's like Adam Grant said recently, the best athletes open to coaching. The best leaders and the best people are open to coaching as well. So we want to build that culture. So we do that by role modelling that behaviour, coaching conversations rather than performance conversations. Another communication skill that leaders need to master is the ability to adapt their communication style to meet the needs of their team, instead of simply broadcasting a message through a one-way channel, in one format.

So a good leader knows their team exceptionally well, and therefore they know that not everyone gives and receives communication in the same way. If you've been following me for a while or listening for a while, you know that I have a communication personality style quiz you and your team can take to help you understand a bit more about each other's communication preferences. If you want to know more about that, go back and listen to episode six of the podcast, and I'll put links to the quiz and the previous episode in the show notes.

So we won't labour on that, but then layer on top of those preferences, things like cultural considerations and neurodiverse considerations. And there is a lot going on as a leader that you need to be aware of. For example, what I've discovered through my own experience is in some cultures, people just will not speak up or ask a question in a group setting. If it feels like they might lose face, so to speak, so they will not challenge an authority figure. For neurodiverse people, like people like myself with ADHD, there's a whole other set of nuances that we need to consider, like the ability to read and respond to social cues or paying attention in a meeting, even, but putting in the work is so worth it because tailoring your communication to meet the needs of your team, not only gets more resonance, but also shows that you care. And we've all heard that Maya Angelou quote, nobody cares what you know, until they know that you care. It is so true. A good leader will take the time to repackage communication where it's needed to meet the needs of their team. Especially those who are struggling to understand, or perhaps even follow basic instructions sometimes. They won't blame the team member. They will ask, what can I do differently to help you understand? That's a big difference and one that will not only help you develop your leadership skills, but your relationship skills and ultimately engage your team.

So, again, we don't blame the team member for not listening. We ask, what can I do differently to help you understand? Now, finally, a really important communication skill that leaders need to master is the ability to personalize and contextualize information for their team, rather than just simply passing it on with that see below message.So what do I mean by this?

Let's say the CEO or the CIO, whoever, some senior leader has passed on a message to you as a leader and has said, can you share this with your team? Your job as a leader is not to just hit the forward button and tell the team to read it. Your job is to read that message, work out its relevance to your team, and then add in that context and personalization before passing it on. And your job is also to decide what channels to use. If it's really important, just passing on an email with your own message probably won't cut the mustard.

A leader will know this and will communicate in other ways, like verbally, in a team meeting, for example, or a conversation over the water cooler, whatever. Is this extra work? Yes, but you're a leader. That's your job. You need to help people understand what they're doing, why they're doing it and how the bigger picture impacts them. Your ability to build that context and personalization through your communication, especially when it comes to big things like a business strategy or purpose is what's going to engage your team. It's going to keep them around for longer and set you apart from other managers.

So let's recap our short episode for today. The key communication skills that leaders need to master to elevate their thinking and their own leadership communication performance are: Number one, give clear direction with autonomy to make decisions within that direction rather than simply delegating tasks bit by bit.

Number two, help team members to draw a line of sight between what they do every day and the organization's purpose and vision. In short, give them a compelling case for why they do what they do.

Number three, have coaching conversations rather than performance conversations. And through everyday conversations and role modelling, build that culture where feedback every day is the norm and it's appreciated. So it's not a surprise but taken with gratitude.

Number four is adapting your communication style to meet the needs of your team members rather than simply a one-way broadcast. This means having two-way channels of communication and repackaging the same message in different ways to help different people understand it.

And number five, personalize and contextualize messages before they are passed on, rather than simply just forwarding them to your team. This is so important to show relevance to the bigger picture and support your organization in meeting its objectives, showing your own value. Now, apart from these skills that I've mentioned today, there's also other things like body language and so on that are important skills to master. If you're interested in learning more, I have a free leadership communication self-assessment quiz on my website. I'll put the link in the show notes or just go to heymelcomms.training/freebies comms to get into it. It's a really comprehensive quiz that will help you identify your leadership communication strengths and the things you need to work on.

If you're already a leader, maybe ask a couple of your team members to complete it as part of a feedback piece for you as well. Again, if you want to create a culture of continuous improvement, you need to be brave and role model that behaviour. Okay, that's all for today. I'm going to pop a stack of useful links in the show notes, but I'm also keen to hear your thoughts on anything I've covered today or any other topics or ideas you have.

In the meantime, thanks again for tuning in and to those who have taken 30 seconds to rate and review the show, you are most wonderful.Everyone.I hope you have a great week and I'll be back next week with a fresh episode of Less Chatter, More Matter. Keep doing amazing things. Bye for now.