How can you avoid common communication pitfalls when sharing your business strategy with stakeholders?

Make certain key decisions early, and intentionally. 1. Deductive vs. inductive story-telling - how do I want to present information so that we are clear on the key message, but in a way that acknowledges audience's hopes and fears? 2. Inputs vs. information - what topics do I want to have decisions made, seek inputs for, or only share for awareness? 3. Pre-empt challenges - an accurate stakeholder mapping will ensure that you're able to anticipate constructive comments. The way to use this most skillfully is to know which key stakeholders to invite and represent the opposing view once a challenge is posed - instead of fielding all as a project team.

It's really important to classify the stakeholder persona, their impact from the resource/financial ask(s) approval(s), as well as their past background. For some important marquee stakeholder, a thorough preparation and investment of time in knowing them really helps. Best way is to ask around the people who know them well and their past experience handling them. Empathy maps work well too but ensure you don't make it a full blown project if you have little time. Go first by data, then your own judgment and structure your content accordingly.

To help improve you knowledge of your audience, I like to use the concept of WIIFM (what's in it for me). This forced perspective taking highlights the importance of addressing their individual interests, needs, and motivations. It's essential to consider what they stand to gain/lose from your business strategy. By understanding their WIIFM, you can tailor your message to address their concerns and priorities, increasing their engagement and buy-in. By empathizing with your audience and demonstrating how your strategy aligns with their WIIFM, you can effectively engage stakeholders and build support for your initiatives. This approach fosters a sense of partnership and collaboration, leading to better outcomes for all involved parties.

Avoiding common communication pitfalls in sharing business strategy involves clarity in articulation, ensuring alignment with stakeholder interests, active listening to address concerns, and utilizing varied communication channels for diverse audiences. Providing transparent and consistent updates helps manage expectations, and addressing potential misconceptions promptly fosters trust among stakeholders. Regular feedback loops and fostering an open communication culture contribute to a successful and well-understood business strategy.

Knowing your audience means ensure your message resonates. This means adjusting your language, tone, and the level of detail to match their expectations and knowledge level, avoiding technical jargon if they're not familiar with it. Otherwise you will loose them even the strategy is good. By anticipating questions or areas of potential confusion and addressing them proactively, you can create a clearer and more engaging dialogue about your business strategy.

Clearly articulate the purpose and objectives of sharing the business strategy with stakeholders. Determine what specific outcomes or actions you hope to achieve through the communication. Ensure that your purpose aligns with the overall goals and vision of the organization. Tailor your messaging to resonate with the interests and priorities of your stakeholders, demonstrating how the strategy supports shared objectives.

Defining the purpose helps drive clarity and alignment in a conversation upfront. The key assumptions you have on your strategy proposal help ensure topic relevance and resonance. When stakeholders see the direct connection between the strategy and their own goals or values, they're more likely to support it. If there are fundamental misalignments it doesn't matter how great everything you say is. You need to make sure you are identifying the correct business problem. When done well this drives increased engagement and enthusiasm which will motivate stakeholders to be more engaged in implementation and execution. Ultimately sharing their time, resources, and expertise to achieve the objectives of the proposed strategy.

LEAD & COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR STRATEGIC PURPOSE IN MIND. Stakeholder management is one CEOs' greatest leadership challenges in the purpose-driven era as corporations' ability to fulfill their strategic purpose involves stakeholders beyond the traditional boundaries of the firm. The key I see resides in articulating one's strategic purpose in a clear, inspirational, empowering, and compelling way that mobilizes energies. Hence, by so doing, CEOs can not only minimize communication pitfalls, but they can also federate stakeholders' hearts, minds, and souls around their strategic purpose and lay down the foundation of a fruitful cooperation towards a positive impact for society.

To ensure transparent communication of business strategy with stakeholders, establish a clear purpose as a baseline, aligning it with organizational goals and values. Tailor messaging to stakeholders' needs, fostering open dialogue, honesty, and authenticity. Regular updates, proactive concern addressing, and celebration of successes are essential. Utilize visual aids, diverse communication channels, and accessibility measures for effective engagement.

Clearly articulate the purpose of the strategy, emphasizing benefits and objectives. A cohesive narrative provides a clear context, engaging stakeholders meaningfully and fostering a shared sense of purpose.

Choose the most appropriate format for communicating your business strategy based on the preferences and needs of your stakeholders. This could include formal presentations, written reports, interactive workshops, or virtual meetings. Consider the complexity of the information being communicated and the level of detail required for different stakeholder groups. Use visuals, charts, and other supporting materials to enhance understanding and engagement. Be mindful of cultural and language considerations if stakeholders are diverse or located in different regions. Adapt your communication style and format to accommodate varying preferences and ensure inclusivity.

Format while it can seem like a small non-issue, can play a huge role in effectiveness of your communication. Ensuring you can communicate with your audience in the form they want to be communicated with. Understanding if the content you share is likely to be shared beyond your intended audience - are there risks of things being taken out of context? While a PPT might be great for storytelling, can it be misinterpreted if it gets forwarded in a 100K person org? Can you approach developing content with appropriate foot notes, links, statistical references, etc. to avoid this? Lastly, don't let the format detract from your message! If you can't land format well, how can you create confidence that you're the one lead strategy and execution?

Whether you're communicating to your investors, customers or employees, it's important to take your stakeholders on a journey and ensure you choose the right format when communicating the direction of the company. Tailoring your approach is crucial. For your team, it may involve workshops to get buy-in. Whereas, your investors would prefer a summary with the thinking behind the decision-making process. Your business strategy needs to be communicated and reinforced. Approaching it in a static capacity is a common pitfall and it can easily lead to misalignment in the business. If people are surprised, then you haven't done a good job communicating.

When sharing your business strategy with stakeholders, ensure effective communication by tailoring the message, being transparent about successes and challenges, providing context, encouraging dialogue, setting clear expectations, and following up consistently. This approach fosters understanding, alignment, and support for strategic initiatives.

Choose the appropriate communication format based on the audience and message, enhancing the effectiveness of conveying the strategy, whether through presentations, reports, or interactive sessions.

Soliciting feedback is invaluable for fostering continuous learning, enhancing performance, building trust and relationships, promoting engagement and ownership, facilitating alignment and collaboration, driving innovation and creativity, improving customer satisfaction and loyalty, fostering adaptability and resilience, and promoting accountability and performance management. It is an essential component of any business strategy that contributes to long-term organizational buy-in and successful execution.

Ensure that your investors, employees, and other stakeholders have access to timely, tailored information. This empowers them to contribute effectively and stay aligned with the business's direction. Lack of such information can lead to stakeholders struggling to add value, diminishing the utility of their feedback and potentially leading to misalignment within the overall strategy of the company.

Encourage active participation by stakeholders, seeking their feedback and insights. This inclusive approach not only enriches understanding but also allows for adjustments that can improve overall strategy acceptance.

Maintain consistent communication throughout the implementation phase, providing regular updates on progress. This ongoing engagement reinforces stakeholder commitment and facilitates adjustments to the strategy as needed.

The good old "Explain it to me like I am a 5-year-old" is actually about your ability to break down a complex topic into understandable pieces. Understandable in the sense tailored to your audience, in that case a 5-year-old. That is a skill but a necessary one to avoid stakeholders not getting your message. They will not get onboard rather than telling you they have not understood. Make sure your message matches how much your audience knows, so everyone can understand the big ideas.

When communicating, your goal is to create clarity and trust. Jargon can have the exact opposite effect. Why does it help? * Increases clarity * Promotes inclusivity * Increases comprehension * Enhances trust * Indicates professionalism You should be able to communicate in a manner that everyone can understand you. A great litmus test is to try explaining it to a family member and see where they get stuck. The better you know something, the simpler you can explain it in meaningful terms and analogies.

Be honest about the challenges and risks associated with your strategy. Transparency builds trust and helps stakeholders feel more confident in your plan. Be upfront about the potential risks and challenges associated with your strategy. This could include things like market volatility, regulatory hurdles, or competitive threats. Acknowledging these challenges shows stakeholders that you've thought critically about your strategy and are prepared to address potential obstacles.

The problem with communicating strategy is audience bandwidth. Winning over stakeholders is key to implementation. It's impossible to take months of work developing a complex understanding of a topic, and then expect your audience to comprehend and decide on it in a few meetings or a matter of days. If you want stakeholders to understand and execute the strategy, they must be part of the process from the very beginning. They need to be engaged in every step of the strategy cycle, so they have skin in the game and understand the context and nuance. They need the time and respect of being an actual participant in the strategy if you expect your stakeholders to be of value in executing the strategy and achieving wins.