Why Should We Communicate?
Carly Fiorina
Building leaders & problem-solvers. Keynote Speaking I Consulting I Leadership Development I Author
Have you ever seen a native English speaker talking to someone who doesn’t speak English well? They just keep raising their voice and raising their voice and it doesn’t help at all. It doesn’t help at all because it’s not a volume problem; it’s a comprehension problem.
Or have you ever sat through a long, rambling presentation without a clear point that loses the audience??
Or, on the flip side, have you worked with somebody so bombastic and over-confident that everyone is immediately turned off??
Have you ever been so bored listening to someone that you really just tuned out completely? Nothing they said made any difference to you.
Those examples are common examples of failed communication. What made them failures??
In each of those examples, nothing was achieved. Nothing changed. There was no impact – other than, perhaps, that you felt annoyed afterward.
Why do we communicate and why is it so important?
We communicate because it amplifies and expands impact. We can do more when we collaborate with and listen to others – when people are bought into our vision and understand how to participate in our plan; when they can problem-solve alongside us and offer new ideas.
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We communicate because, if we don’t, people assume the worst. People fill in the blanks with bad stuff, not good stuff. You know this is true. You’ve probably done it. We all have.
It’s hard to communicate bad news, but no news is worse than bad news.
We communicate because, when someone hears something new, they need to hear it 7-10 times for it to sink in. So you can’t just say something once and assume they’ve got it. You need to communicate over and over again, in a variety of different ways, so that they will actually understand it.
We communicate because it builds credibility over time. People need to hear from you all the time so that they can trust you and what you say when times are tough.
In other words, we communicate because it’s an incredibly important part of leadership. As a leader, your job is to challenge the status quo and to solve problems. To do that,?you need to amplify and expand your impact.?You need to mobilize people around your cause – which means understanding them and getting them excited about the good stuff. It means bringing them along with you. You need credibility when the going gets tough.?
You have to constantly remind yourself of those things because it’s easy to put your head down and focus on the work in front of you. It’s tempting. Other people are less predictable. Sometimes, they’re less reliable. So when something is hard, it can be tempting to say, “I’ll just do it myself” or: “They don’t need to understand why – they just need to do what I’m asking.” We’ve all been there.
That may work for a little while, but it’s not sustainable in the long run. It’s not sustainable if you want to solve problems, lead, and change the order of things for the better.?You have to collaborate and therefore, you have to communicate.
Communication is critical to leadership
(Super Affiliate) Internet Marketing List Operations Manager/n H/Q American - Traffic, Training & Tools Provider:
2 年I enjoy the difference from miscommunication or just choosing to be or just stay uneducated and ignorant with life period, I choose to reevaluate myself constantly reminding myself, which helps me maintain a diligent healthy role with my team as a strong foundation no matter what is going on. ??
Partnering with high-growth companies and driven leaders to deliver big wins with Corpsulting?? and Datapreneurship | Author of “The Intrapreneur.”
2 年Excellent points Carly Fiorina. Communication sometimes is misunderstood for messaging out. A focus on talking and less attention to listening. More importantly, with failed communication, it is not just the chance to get the opinion across or hear the other person’s point of view - what is lost is an opportunity to drive change, initiate transformation, or bring out practices that must have been stopped long back. Sometimes the people we are communicating with are not receptive at the same level of enthusiasm or importance for the topic discussed. When that happens, after a few tries, it’s hard for many leaders to continue. I have given up in some cases - probably too early. Later incorporated team members with higher EQ than me into those conversations and discussions with resistive receivers - and was surprised at the rate at which we could influence change. When communication is hard for whatever reason, change the communicator and don’t give up the underlying cause. It may be as simple as a mismatch in personalities that caused the other parties to put up a wall. Thanks for sharing.
Director of Enterprise Architecture/ Chief Data Architect/ SVP @ Huntington Bank | Leading Technology Transformation Treasurer & Board Member @ United Way | Driving Social Impact in Delaware County
2 年Great reminder on the “seven times” AND “seven different ways” to ensure we are effectively communicating. #leadershipcommunications
Lead Software Quality Assurance/Testing Officer at EastNets
2 年The main point I think is to make sure that we actually communicate not just move our mouths to say words, and thank you Carly Fiorina for this article