{00:00:56] Mel: Hi everyone. And welcome back to the show. If this is your first [00:01:00] time stopping by, I'm excited to have you here. And if you're a subscriber and this isn't your first rodeo, I'm equally excited that you keep coming back. Speaking of subscribers, a big thank you to those of you who have subscribed to the show so far and rated and left a review.

[00:01:16] It means so much more than, you know, putting together a podcast takes a lot of work, especially when you commit to a weekly show like I have. So having your reviews really helps me to know the work is worth it. Also, the more ratings and reviews, the more this show bumps up in people's feeds, which means the more people who can learn, which is the ultimate goal after all.

[00:01:37] So if you are a passionate learner like me, please share the love with a quick rate and review. Now, speaking of being passionate about learning, let's get stuck into today's episode. So the term effective communication in air quotes gets thrown around a bit. We talk about doing it. We talk about being effective communicators.

[00:01:57] But what does that actually mean? [00:02:00] So, for me, there are two parts to this. Effective communication is achieving the outcome you want. And the way you go about getting that outcome is the second part. So, let's start with what effective communication looks like when you achieve it. If you remember from some of my previous episodes, I'm always banging on about having three key outcomes for your communication.

[00:02:23] Know, feel, and do. What do you want people to know? What do you want people to feel? And what do you want people to do as a result of your communication? So essentially, if your audience is doing those things, you can rest assured that your communication has hit the mark; in short, it's been effective and you can measure those outcomes in a variety of ways, which I talked about way back in episode four, if you want to go check that out.

[00:02:51] So that's one part of effective communication, achieving your outcomes, but to get there, obviously you need to be an effective [00:03:00] communicator. And what does that actually look like in practice? I have four C's of effective communication I'm going to share with you today, but I also encourage you to check out Lisa Partridge, who is another comms consultant, and she's based in Singapore.

[00:03:14] Lisa's business is SIXCOMMS so she has her own set of communication principles that actually align quite nicely with mine, and she's a smart and a good human. So go check her out on LinkedIn and on your podcast app. I'll put some links in the show notes. Okay, so let's get into it.

[00:03:30] The four C's of effective communication are clear, concise, considerate, and connected. So again, clear, concise, considerate, and connected. Let's start with clear. Brené Brown says clarity is kindness, which I absolutely love.

[00:03:49] When we're not clear with people, we're not helping them understand what they need to know or do, so you effectively set them up to fail. We're keeping them in this state of confusion or we're [00:04:00] causing frustration, and that is not kind. But what often happens is we worry about how something is going to be perceived.

[00:04:08] So we use a lot of spin basically to try and take the attention away from the uncomfortable core messages. And when that happens and the point of the message is hidden in a whole lot of corporate waffle and spin, not only do you frustrate the person on the other end of the message, but the whole purpose of you communicating in the first place is pointless.

[00:04:31] If you want, people to know or do something you absolutely have to be clear on those requirements. And if you want to engage your audience, then you have to be clear and a lack of clarity can also come from communicating from your own perspective, not the perspective of your audience. So what I mean by that is it usually shows up by people using too much jargon or really specific terms that.

[00:04:56] People just won't understand. And when you're using [00:05:00] that kind of language in your communication, you are not thinking about your audience. And you'll be unclear because you're using terms not everyone will understand. So if you want to be clear in your communication, here's some tips. In written communication, don't be afraid to be really obvious on any action required.

[00:05:19] So, for example, put for action in the subject line of an email or have a subheading in the email that says actions required. The second tip is get someone else to read your work before you send it out to your audience. Even better, if that person has no idea about the subject matter. Because remember, you have the curse of knowledge.

[00:05:39] That's when you know so much about something that you forget others don't all have the same background information and minute detail that you do. So someone who is not a subject matter expert or involved at all in the work that you're doing, we'll be able to tell you if you're being clear or not, but most importantly, tip number three, start with the end in mind, [00:06:00] know exactly what you want the key message to be, who you're talking to, and those two things will get you to the right place.

[00:06:08] The second C has been one of my toughest challenges; concise. Being a concise communicator without sounding like an asshole takes time to master. I often find too that people who have an academic background find this one really tough too, because we're taught to write in a certain way when you're at uni or you write for journals, for example.

[00:06:30] So fun anecdote, I was doing an advanced instructor module once for Body Step. If you're not familiar, it's a Les Mills group fitness program. So yeah, I was doing this instructor module and we were getting feedback from the trainer after teaching a track and he said to me, do you have a university degree?

[00:06:45] And I was like, yeah, a couple. And he said, yeah, I can tell... people with higher education often find it harder to speak less when coaching. So. In a nice way, he was telling me to shut up, but what he said really resonated clearly because I still talk about it [00:07:00] today and it did change the way I coached, but also the way I communicated in general.

[00:07:05] These days, I am the queen of cutting out waffle, especially in written communication and just getting to the point, but that took a fair bit of practice. Now, I've done a whole podcast episode with tips on concise writing, which you can go back and listen to - that's episode 17, and you'll be able to find that in your podcast app or go to the website, heymelcomms.training/017

[00:07:29] So I won't go into all the tips again, because you can find them there, but let's instead think about why being a concise communicator is a good thing. Number one, it respects the time of your audience. Everyone is busy. They don't have time to sit and listen to you waffle or read a really long email.

[00:07:46] And number two, you are able to be clearer because you have to focus on your message. And as we just said, being clear is one of the goals. So that's why this podcast is only a maximum of 20 minutes per episode. I want it to be concise, [00:08:00] punchy, and I want to respect your time as well. So that's the second c concise.

[00:08:06] The third C is considerate. So what I mean by that is a few things. Firstly, considerate of the fact that you're talking to humans, not robots, and humans have different ways of communicating. So as we've talked about extensively on this podcast, we have to adapt our communication styles to meet the needs of our audience.

[00:08:27] Humans have feelings and emotions, and you can't discount those when you are communicating, especially when it's about change. So considerate also means thinking about the environment or the context your audience is working and living in. Are they busy and time poor? Are they already going through a lot of change and you're about to hit them with some more?

[00:08:48] Have they got other big projects they're working through? Is there a lot of noise in the business right now? Essentially, it's about being aware of where your audience is at and showing some empathy. [00:09:00] The considerate piece is really about hearts and minds. You want to reach people, but also show you understand them and the world they operate in.

[00:09:08] If you can't win hearts and minds, you can't win. So effective communication really puts people and their experiences at the very center. The final of the four C's of effective communication is connected. So this is really about connecting people to strategy. So they can see a line of sight between what they do every day and the organization's purpose, vision, the bigger why. There's credible research from Gartner that shows that employee performance improves, the more people are aligned to purpose.

[00:09:42] And that's not rocket science. If you have a strong sense of purpose and a compelling case for why, and you feel like you're contributing to a bigger, worthier goal, then that's super motivational. But unless you know about that goal. Why it matters and your part to play, then it's all a bit pointless. So when communication is connected, [00:10:00] it gives clear links back to organizational strategy.

[00:10:03] It's really important. This comes from leaders, especially a team leader or a person's immediate leader, because we also know from research that people trust their immediate leaders, but are less likely to trust people higher up the food chain. And again, that makes sense, right? You'd hope you can trust your immediate leader.

[00:10:21] I won't labor on this point because I've done a whole episode on leadership communication skills that you can go back and master. Also, it's not just leadership communication. Communication on internet news sites, in a newsletter, at town halls, et cetera, et cetera. All of that should be connected to purpose and strategy where it makes sense.

[00:10:41] So that is the sticking point here. Not everything will be tied to purpose and strategy. Some things like, for example, just changing an accounting code or seating arrangements, that's just operational and that's fine. But when you're trying to encourage bigger transformational change in ways of working, use of technology, [00:11:00] your products or services, or your organizational model, for example, then those things should absolutely be linked to strategy.

[00:11:08] Okay, so here's your episode recap for today. I talked about how we hear the term effective communication, but we need to drill down to what that actually means. If we are to achieve it, it starts with knowing and achieving your communication outcomes and how we achieve those outcomes comes down to the four C's.

[00:11:27] Number one, clear. Being very clear in your communication about your key messages and speaking directly to your audience. Being clear on what you want people to know, feel, and do. The second C is concise. Cutting out the waffle and the spin and getting to the point, but still in a way that's approachable and on brand.

[00:11:49] The third is considerate, remembering that we're talking to humans who have feelings and emotions and operating in very unique, often challenging work and home environments. [00:12:00] And the final C is connected. There is a line of sight between a person and their role and the bigger picture or the organization's purpose.

[00:12:08] They have a why. So that's all for today. Hopefully I've stuck to the four C's myself and have effectively communicated them. That's a little bit meta, isn't it? As always, shoot me a message. If you'd like me to cover a particular topic or if there's a challenge you're facing and you think I might be able to provide some helpful insights in the meantime, have an amazing week, keep doing amazing things, and I'll see you next week on a new episode of the show.

[00:12:34] See you then.