Great leaders capitalize on key communication secrets to inspire their teams, navigate business deals, and grow their personal stock. Without this competitive edge, they would be just another manager. Curious what those secrets are and how they can transform your ability to lead? Read on.
The Difference Between Managing and Leading
There are people in this world with authority but no future – all because they lack something. They have a title or a position of influence, but they just spin their wheels. They are responsible for making things happen, but really, they’re the modern equivalent of a schoolmarm or taskmaster. They lack the life traits and communication secrets necessary to really accomplish significant progress.
So what’s the difference between those who manage and those who lead?
Much has been written on this, but it boils down to the fact that leaders think differently than the crowd. While managers wrangle and prod and blame, leaders don’t. They view the world from a different perspective and proactively shape circumstances to affect the outcomes they desire.
- They see the big picture rather than the immediate situation.
- They ask questions more than declaring things to be so.
- They view risk as something to leverage rather than avoid.
- They understand that actions speak louder than words and set an example.
Leaders Convert Their Communication Secrets into Business Success
Great leaders aren’t just wise sages sitting on hilltops inspiring the masses. They typically understand how to shape their lives to touch other lives and create business opportunities. Highly successful business leaders march to the beat of a different drummer, leveraging everything to mastery and opportunity. Their life traits are far different from the average Joe. And their ability to communicate with others is extremely effective and powerful when they need to use it.
The result?
Highly fulfilled and successful lives, a lifestyle of financial security and options, and a deep network of meaningful contacts. Indeed, communication is consistently rated as the most valuable business skill to have. As stated by the biblical proverb our business derives its name from (Prov. 25:11), “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”
So what are these valuable and effective communication secrets?
5 Communication Secrets of Great Leaders
1. Personal-Level Connection
Great leaders aren’t satisfied with arms-length conversations. They connect with their teams and contacts on a personal level to cut through the sterilized narrative and get at the real issues.
2. Honesty Above All
Demanding trust of colleagues and direct reports never works. But refusing to deviate from the truth inspires trust that makes things happen. When people trust you, they take risks and invest in being honest with you as well.
3. Reading Between the Lines
One of the most powerful communication secrets is to develop a conscious ability to read an audience or individual beyond their actual words. Effective communicators understand there is much more value in observing others than filibustering and lecturing.
4. Agility of Message
Every audience, individual, and situation is different. And they can all change on the fly. Great leaders have the uncanny ability to tailor the message to meet these evolving nuances. Changing delivery, attitude, or approach is a crucial communication skill.
5. Listening
It’s so simple, isn’t it? So why is it so rare? The ability to listen is a rapidly appreciating commodity as it becomes increasingly scarce. Shutting up and listening to the messages of others enables great leaders to connect on a meaningful level and more effectively respond.
Powerful communication secrets like these propel careers, relationships, and businesses to greatness. Indeed, effective leadership is crucial to growing a business. And it is simply impossible to be a great leader without being a great communicator. Acquiring the skills of effective communication will require diligence and deliberate effort. But the payoff is priceless.
