Speak something to say not to say something

“I think for any relationship to be successful, there needs to be loving communication, appreciation, and understanding.”- Miranda Kerr

Communication has been always a biggest strength of all successful individuals. Consider any name from the history of mankind and you will find one thing has been common in all that is communication. After spending more than a decade in corporate, the belief on the strength of communication has become even stronger. Today is Ambedkar Jayanti, a day which is celebrated as birthday of Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar, who wrote the Indian Constitution, a living document of communication. Today, our PM Mr.Narendra Modi also addressed the nation to let the people of India know the stand of Indian Government on country wide lockdown. The intention of this article is neither to support nor to defy any decision, nor to appease anyone politically. This is an article on communication in difficult time. So, I will strictly restrict myself to the style of communication and delivery of content which is essential for everyone to understand in any sphere of life.

Empathy: The biggest ingredient of a communication. It is believed that communication is a combination of 7% verbal and 93% non-verbal (body language & voice tone) content, yet people emphasize on verbal. But, unfortunately, most of the communicators tend to forget this basic principle and they fail miserably! In our day to day life, we see few really connect well with people, get along with people and people like to get along with them, they share their stories with lot of confidence and trust, whereas, few don’t. The simple reason is either the content was not empathetic or the body language or tone. Most of the cases, the non-verbal gestures create the difference.

If we observe the speech of our PM today morning at 10am, his mastery on non-verbal communication was so evident that you would believe that he feels the sorrow, the sacrifice, the pain people of India going through during last 21 days lockdown.

Hence, it is quintessential to demonstrate empathy not only by the content of communication but also on the body language and tone of our voice.

Sharing credit: As they say, if you want to walk fast go alone, if you want to go long then walk together. It is imperative for anybody while communicating the success in tough time need to show the maturity to share the credit because nothing can be achieved alone. To overcome tough time, you need everyone, even the last man standing on the field. Without everyone’s contribution, we can’t achieve any big height in our life. Together everyone achieves more.

During the speech, the PM reiterated multiple times that how people of India have helped him to achieve the success in fight against covid-19. He did not forget to share the credit of success so far.

We see many hesitate to share the credit of any sort of success rather they try to hog even the credit of others. Sharing the credit of success does not reduce you as a person but it lifts your height in front of the audience.

Delegation of power or decentralizing of power: During tough time, one man show does not let us achieve a bigger goal. We need to decentralize our power, we need to delegate the power to the right people to uphold the decision we make at the top. We need to believe in our people and on their ability. The same has to be communicated to everyone while delegating the power, so that they own the decision and implement the way we want them to implement.

While PM addressing the nation, he did not keep all the authority with the central government, he decentralized to the state government, to the state authorities, local bodies in order to ensure the right implementation happens across the country seamlessly.

Many of us hesitate to delegate power and authority in crisis situation due to the mistrust and disbelief on the ability of our own people and we invite bigger mayhem and peril for our own team, own organization, own family. We believe controlling the power will make the decision secure, which is just a myth! We need to communicate clearly on our stand and communicate the trust we have on our people to own them our decision.

Listen to all, involve everyone in decision making, but communicate what suits the best: Tough time requires tough calls. Tough calls taken single handedly makes us dictator, an arrogant individual, creates more rebels than followers and we fail as a leader. Tough calls demand lot of ideas, lot of view points, and many devil’s advocates. During tough time, include everyone in your communication and integrate their view points but communicates what suits the best for the larger goal.

The speech our PM delivered today morning had demonstrated the collaborative communication. He emphasized on the decision to continue lockdown and increase it for another 3 weeks was a collective decision after listening to the advices of experts, state governments and officials.

Communication during tough time has to be more collective, collaborative than individualistic. The clarity of communication has to ensure that the decision taken it is the best suits considering the time and it is taken to reserve the larger interest and well being.

Communicate achievement through data: Data is understood by human being on any day better than the mere emotion or lecture. Show them the data, give them the reference point and quote them the achievement which reflects on the number and people will understand it better as the brain is devised to process data faster than anything else. When we run an organization or a country, or manage a team, it is obvious that our decision will be criticized, our decisions will be challenged. The best way to bury all these is presenting data.

The honorable PM clearly mentioned few data points which could be understood by anyone on the achievement to instill the trust on the decision. He answered all the criticisms, challenges that were raised in last few weeks on social media, by intellectuals, on print media, with data.

Highlight achievement while communicating through data that is known to most of all which will build trust and better buy in. The objective of the communication will be achieved effortlessly.

Communicate assertively: We need to be assertive while communicating during the tough time. We need to state few facts and few stringent actions against the defaulters. We need to make the audience understand the seriousness of the situation and the reason for such action is to protect the larger interest of the people.

The PM gave a clear direction on the stringency of the next phase of lockdown and the reason for which it is taken and it will be followed.

We should not hesitate to communicate assertively, but we must not sound rude. We must remember the definition of assertive communication which says, “Assertive communication is the ability to express positive and negative ideas and feelings in an open, honest and direct way. It recognizes our rights whilst still respecting the rights of others. It allows us to take responsibility for ourselves and our actions without judging or blaming other people. And it allows us to constructively confront and find a mutually satisfying solution where conflict exists.”

Assurance: It is highly advocated that we entrust confidence and assurance during tough time to stand by the people, for the people and of the people. People exist in dilemma, uncertainty and confusion during this time; they look up to someone who can provide them assurance to be side of them.

At the end of today’s speech Mr. Modi gave that assurance to the people of India.

We must ensure the same kind of assurance to our people so that they don’t take any wrong step to ensure their safety and security. Assurance in communication will play a crucial role in communication during the tough time.

Last but not the least, communication does not mean the language but the way it is getting transferred from one to another. We must understand that the every individual is different and understanding of each is the key to communication. We need to keep the language very easy and understandable so everyone understands the depth of the communication, need not to use a master piece of vocabulary. Speak something to say and not say something to speak.