Effective Leaders Prefer Straightforward Communication

“Truth is always straightforward.”

Sophocles

Often during trainings some leaders we work with, ask me what is an effective way to communicate with our team members, especially when we have to tell them bad news.

And I often start my answer with this story:

A young lady decided to take a well-earned vacation and asked her brother to watch her cat Fluffy while she’s away.

On the second day, she called him to see how things are going. He said: “Well, the cat is dead.”

The lady was really devastated and very upset: “You can’t tell a person bad news so bluntly. You should break the news gently. The first day, you should have said that Fluffy was stuck on the roof and couldn’t get down. The second day, you could have said that she had fallen, but the vet said she would be okay. Then on the third day you could have said that she died from complications.”

The next day, the brother called his sister and said: “Well, Grandma is stuck on the roof and can’t get down …”

...

Joking aside, the answer to this question is always the same - giving people bad news is a hard task, but the best we can do is to try to be as direct as possible, to always tell the truth and, of course, to avoid giving mixed signals and ambiguous information.

A successful delivery of our messages requires to formulate it really well, by carefully choosing the suitable communication channel. The clearer and simpler the information is "coded", the easier will be for the receiver to "decode" it. When in leadership position and not only, the most preferable channel, in my experience, is face to face communication.

But regardless of the channel, we must keep our messages as short and simple as possible. The more complicated words we use, the less effective delivery we have, because of the speed of the process of apprehension.

Of course, for most of us, including me, being direct, short, simple and clear in our communication is quite a challenge. One of the main reasons for that is that we always have in mind not to offend in some way our partner in communication, especially when we have to share an information with negative connotation, or we tend to think, usually on subconscious level, that being indirect, verbose, complicated and vague will somehow make the impact of the bad news lesser.

For us, as leaders, it doesn't matter how do we label the information we share with our team members - whether we label it as "Good" or "Bad", the most important thing was, is and always will be to be processed and understood correctly.

In my experience, a good strategy for that is:

1. Openness.
2. Truthfulness.
3. Specificity.
4. Conciseness.
5. Preciseness.
6. Clarity.
7. Adequacy.

In face to face communication is critically important to be open and honest and truthful. There is no point to hide information, especially from our coworkers. The more transparent we are, the better. That is the easiest and long-lasting way to create mutual trust and to build strong relationships.

The more specific, precise and concise our language is, the clearer our messages are. Vague statements are usually more abstract and can be interpreted in many possible ways. A careful preparation makes our communication much easier and effective. It is always a good idea to prepare our own choice of words and their possible interpretations.

When we clear our language from the so called "filler" words, and we make it short and straight-to-the-point, our message quickly becomes much more comprehensive to the addressee.

And last, but not least, to make sure that style of our verbal communication is adequate to the receiver's style. We, as leaders, have strong interest our message to come across. That is way is better to adapt our language for each and every single situation.

And finally, we, as leaders, are responsible for the impact of our words. That is why it is good to remember to always give people time to process the information.

Having a good communication strategy is crucial in situations of organizational cataclysms. In Bulgaria, for example there are many international companies. They often do mergers, some buy and or acquire others. That often results in lay-offs or other difficult situations. When communication is not open, truthful, specific, concise, precise, clear and adequate, it carries additional uncertainty and leads to stress, fear for the future. And many talented, knowledgeable, experienced professionals quickly start looking for other options.

Do we want to lose them?

-Stoyan