November 11th, 2010
Tony Hayward appeared on a BBC documentary last night and continued to confirm his status as the worlds worst corporate communicator.
His complete lack of awareness of ( or willingness) to acknowledge the need to communicate well and appropriately with the media and public was again revealed with a number of quotes that make the top ten list of corporate “ howlers”. His comment that he should have had an acting degree not a geology one, reveal an attitude that suggests dismissive distain for the whole idea that he might need to communicate well to people whose livlihoods have been destroyed by his company’s activity. His comments exercerbate anger against BP rather that mitigate it in any way. Small wonder that this man’s disasterous communication skills cost him his job.
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October 1st, 2010
A client of mine held a meeting with her multi-national team and at the end of it asked for feedback on how the team felt the meeting was and what they could change for it to be more effective. An English person said there needed to be more banter, the Indian team member said there was too much frivolous banter and the Finnish team member asked, “What is banter?”
To me that sums up the challenge of multi-national working. Different cultures have different ways of behaving, different norms of how to express themselves in business and different understanding of words and phrases. For example, joking, sarcasm and even good humoured teasing/abuse is a standard form of expression in UK workplaces but does not work well in other cultures, especially Asian cultures. Working and communicating effectively in this environment requires sophisticated skills. Misunderstanding, misinterpretations and bad feeling can happen very easily.
Many years ago, I was once working with a European group and was explaining a particular sales approach and I was seeking to convey that this particular approach was but one, of many options available to them. What I actually said was “There are many ways to skin a cat”. The look of horror on German and French faces was enough to tell me that this particular English idiom did not translate well!! An idiom is a phrase where the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words and English is a particularly idiomatic language. The Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms explains over 7,000 idioms current in British, American and Australian English. When you add in the effects of jargon, acronyms and business buzzwords it’s not surprising that there is often a poor level of understanding in multi-linguistic environments.
What are the solutions?
In multi-cultural environments simplicity and clarity are key to good communication. If you become more self aware of your own communication style then you can identify whether you tend to use idioms, jargon, acronyms, humour, sarcasm or if you tend to speak particularly quickly. Once you are aware of these things you can start to self edit and pare down your communication style to be clearer and simpler to help wider, multinational audiences understand you better. It takes effort and constant adjustments when you‘re doing this, but it can make a dramatic difference to how well you are understood.
Another key area is around checking understanding. If something’s important it’s never safe to assume that once you have said it, others have understood it. You cannot assume. You need to take responsibility for the other person’s understanding and check that they have received the message you sent. This is true of everyday communication but even more so of cross cultural communication. An Indian client of ours frequently has difficulty in managing their client’s expectations. When the client asks for something that is essentially not possible, Indian engineers will say they will try to achieve it. In Indian culture it’s impolite to say a direct no, so in saying it’s difficult but they’ll try they are essentially communicating; “No this is not possible”. The UK client’s interpretation is more usually “great, they said they’ll do it”. So if you think you’ve communicated that something is not possible you need to check that the other person has understood. How do you do that? By repeating your message, several times in different ways and by asking them questions to check their understanding, you might ask, “so, given we are not able to do that, how would you like us to proceed?”
The ability to communicate well with colleagues around the globe is clearly an area that is not easy but also an area that is a key communication skill for 21st business environments
Posted in authentic communication, Communication, impact, voice and accents | No Comments »
September 27th, 2010
This is the internet age, the information age, the age of perfect communication isn’t it? If we want to communicate with someone we can call them, email them, text them, tweet them or facebook them (yes, facebook now seems to have morphed into a verb! ) But does all this make for perfect communication ?
Actually in working with clients around the globe across the last 12 months I have noticed that the effects of the information age are creating as many challenges as opportunities. Many people are drowning in information and over-communication. Did you know that more than 171 billion emails are sent everyday! i.e. more than 2 million per second. Clients have told us that they often get over 300 emails a day. At only one minute, on average per email that’s 5 hours a day just on your inbox!! This is particularly bad for people working for organisations based in another time zone when an empty mail box can contain hundreds of new emails by the morning!
To thrive and survive organisations are increasingly working at a pan-European or global level, of in matrix-ed, virtual teams. The challenges of multi-cultural, multi-lingual communication are many and various. Handling the challenges of accents, idioms, acronyms and cultural norms is a communications minefield.
Many businesses are now operating on a European if not global level and many have moved to digital solutions (phone/ webinar/ video conference) in response to broad geographic spreads and credit-crunch induced travel restrictions. Indeed even those geographically co-located don’t necessarily take advantage of the proximity. A recent study showed seventy one percent of managers communicate through emails and only fourteen percent face to face.
If 75% plus of the meaning we take from a communication is from body language or para-language (tone of voice), that explains why virtual communication is so much less effective than face to face communication. It also means that our communication needs to be significantly better and more sophisticated to be effective in these virtual and cross cultural environments. It’s surprising though that organisations typically are not doing much to help employees deal with these challenges. I worked recently with a client that said they had been asking for several years for some training on virtual communication.
What’s your organisation doing to “up” it’s communication game ?
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July 13th, 2010
Why ?
The messages that many speakers will need to deliver in conferences and key note speeches across the country this autumn will probably be challenging, uncompromising and in many cases, unpopular. With dramatic cuts being made in the private and public sector alike, the “doing more with less” message is likely to be a common theme. In tough times leadership is all about communication and being able to deliver difficult messages and yet still keep people engaged and involved.
One of the things that contribute to people’s dislike of change is the uncertainty they have to live with which causes them fear and anxiety. If a leader is able to communicate well, keep people informed and be open with them, this can lessen anxiety and help people cope with ambiguity.
Against this backdrop, keeping people motivated and focussed is a huge task. It is going require Churchillian or Lutheran grade rhetorical skills (along with authentic, congruent actions too). It’s going to require masterful preparation and delivery of these speeches to enable the speakers to achieve these almost diametrically opposed objectives.
The best speakers in the world know that to be that to be this effective takes hard work. They know that powerful and effective speakers are not born but created from force of effort. There is no substitute, there are no short cuts.
Many leaders are tempted to downplay the importance of speeches as the tip of the iceberg, style not substance, starter not the main course. They don’t want to have to assign the time to deliver excellence in this area. We can only hope that this conference season most leaders will recognise, now more than ever, the importance of the messages they need to convey and put in the “hard yards” to optimally communicate with their people and their organisations.
Posted in authentic communication, Communication, presentation for conferences | No Comments »
May 24th, 2010
Top Tips for Your 30 second networking introductions.
I went to a recent networking event where you have to do the 30 second introductions. I have to say that the quality bar was not high! So here are some top tips for a good networking introductory pitch.
- Start strong
One lady started her 30 seconds to sell herself with, “sorry I’m not nearly as interesting as the last person”. You don’t need to brag and be boastful but the purpose of networking is to persuade people that you are a credible and useful person to know, such that they might recommend you or use your services. Creating an apologetic first impression is not going to help.
- Be audible and speak at an authoritative level
Mumbling quietly or worse being inaudible does not make you sound confident or convinced of whatever it is you’re there to promote. You don’t need to shout or boom but just take a good breath and make sure your sound is right for the size of the room or number of people there.
- Practice!
If you know you’re going to one of these events take the time to prepare and have thought of something relevant and interesting to say and have run it through your head enough times to be confident. If you’ve bothered to take the time to be there it’s worth taking a few minutes to think what to say to create the right first impression on people.
- End with a Bang not a Whimper
It’s good to have a strong finish, something to remind people why they might want to talk you or look you up later. It’s good to have a snappy, “because you’re worth it”, L’Oreal style strap line if you have something appropriate. “We build websites that build your business” was a good one I heard recently. However if you are going to have something like this, you need to deliver it with conviction and not sound like you’re bored of it because you’ve said it too many times or slightly embarrassed by it. And whatever you do don’t finish with something appallingly weak like “ sorry, that’s it”
- Watch the risqué
One summary strap line I heard was, “Think of us as Viagra for your business, if you want to improve the penetration, reach and depth of your business talk to us”. I guess it was memorable and may have worked if you were pitching to a rugby club, but personally I remember it for thinking that it was tacky. Risque humour is always dangerous unless you know your audience very well. It risks offending and alienating people, never a good idea when you’re trying to build bridges and network with people.
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May 17th, 2010
Several days past the end of the election we do finally have a government, the Queen is no longer on standby, and she can relax having appointed her 12th PM!
But now the dust is settling and the campaign posters are filling the recycling bins, can students of communication and public speaking take anything from the election?
Was it just a big game show, where there was an eviction from the Big Ben house and Gordon Brown finally said “ I’m a politician get me out of here” and Nick Clegg won the show and became the Apprentice?
Actually No. The ancient Greeks knew rhetoric was a crucial skill especially in a democracy and I think this election highlighted that the importance of communication and public speaking, showing that it is as critical as ever in engaging and influencing people; whether it’s 20 people in a meeting room or an entire electorate.
You could argue that the TV debates were political theatre, long on sound bites short on policy but in reality they were 90 minutes of articulation of issues, views and ideas. The media storm around the impact of Nick Clegg’s stellar performance in the first debate drove further interest and upped the stakes for the other leaders in the last 2 debates. The debates were popular, attracting large audiences.
Compared to the dumbing down of politics to 9 second sound bites and 2 minute party political broadcasts, this surely has to be good for democracy. Some people think that serious subject matters by definition must mean dull. I don’t believe that’s true. People do need to be entertained if you are to capture their interest. If the style, the delivery and the format create enough interest for people to want to listen, and listen for a length of time, that’s better than disinterest and disengagement for any speaker and particularly for national politicians.
More than anything the C (Clegg) factor showed that speaking skills matter; (If Obama hadn’t already taught us that!)The power of speech can change hearts and minds, it can influence people to think and behave differently and hence it is a vital skill to be worked at, honed and refined, for anyone who needs to influence others.
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April 26th, 2010
Did you know that eyes are the only visible part of the brain ? Not sure whether they are also the window to the soul but eye contact is undoubtedly a critical way we in the western world interact with other human beings.
Why then do we so often get this wrong. I recently worked with some young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and they had great difficulty in looking directly at people. George Osborne, in one of the chancellor’s debates was berating Alisdair Darling who was standing right beside him but did not look at him, it made Osborne look like he didn’t have the courage to directly face him. On the TV debates, part of Nick Clegg’s success was that he actually looked at the other candidates when they were speaking and looked straight into the camera when delivering his key point to the television audience.
Getting the eye contact right is vital to good communication. So why don’t we ? Is it lack of confidence ? discomfort ? fear that the other person will bite? that they will “see through” us? Is it the digital age that makes it harder to interact with other people directly rather than by some digital interface?
The reality is these are probably our irrational, subconscious fears surfacing. Rationally we know they don’t bite, they don’t have x-ray vision, they are just another human being.
Strange that with all sorts of complex communication techniques on offer, one way to improve our ability to establish some rapport, empathy and communication with other humans is as simple as giving them eye contact.
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March 7th, 2010
At a conference last week a speaker shared with us the recently researched fact that the information we are exposed to in a day is the equivalent to a lifetime of information for the average Elizabethan ! Apparently the amount of information we are exposed to in a year is the equivalent to a pile of books stacked 7 feet high, and enough piles to cover the whole of the USA (including Alaska and Hawaii !)
So the challenge of our times is how to create order from the chaos of information overload ? How to think clearly or indeed to have time to think at all! What we need is clear vision of what we want to achieve and equally clear processes to help us utilise what we know in getting there.
So for all that sales methodology may not be the most beloved phenomenon amongst sales people it is the most crucial in cutting through the noise and getting to what really matters to get results.
When communicating the “less is more” adage could not be more true than it is now. You need to chose a clear message and communicate that well and often to have a chance of penetrating the fog of information and actually making an impact on your audience.
Posted in Communication, LESS is MORE, over communication, Uncategorized | No Comments »
November 16th, 2009
I went to a church service on Sunday and it epitomised for me eveything that is wrong about the Church of England. I talk a lot about congruence and how important it is to be congruent if people are going to believe you. Why then were we assailed with a reading from the bible that frankly could have been the phone book being read for all the joy and enlightenment it spread ! Using words like joy, salvation and triumph with a flat monotone is counter intuitive,and frankly wrong. The vicar then droned out a sermon in similarly sinful dirge like voice. In a funeral tone he delivered some infinitely depressing message about how the church was becoming too intenally focussed and irrelevant. I hate to think what tone he does for actual funerals! Maybe it’s to drum up business as it’ll cause a spike in the funeral trade as people are moved to slit their wrists rather than listen to any more! What of the church leadership? are they any better at broadcasting the good news and uplifting and inspiring us? When the Archibishop of Canterbury appears on the TV he always looks and sounds like like he just stepped out of the theological college to share a few intellectual words with those of us less gifted . Why does the Cof E chose leaders that nobody in the real world can possibly relate to? Bring on the David Cameron or the Barrak Obama of the Church!
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November 11th, 2009
Authentic Communication for Leaders
If you accept that the role of leader is to articulate the vision for their organisation and then to motivate people toward that vision, then spending resource getting your communication right is critical. But what are people looking for from their leaders? What does 21st century communication tell us about how good leaders need to communicate with their teams or with the public?
What people have learnt to expect is openness and transparency. The internet, Google, Wikipedia and open source movements like Linux have taught us that we should expect open access to almost all information and to be able to have that information in a way that is quick, accessible and free.
Web 2.0, Blogging, Twitter and interactive voting game shows have all taught us to expect that we should have a say, that we should be part of the decision making or at the very least, we should expect to be able to comment on it and get some immediate feedback.
But what does all this mean to leadership communication?
It means that expectations have changed. An annual speech from the chairman/ CEO / leader and maybe a quarterly newsletter just doesn’t cut it anymore. People expect to hear from their leaders more frequently and more informally. Blogging, Twittering, frequent, brief webcasts, polling via Survey Monkey type software all these are part of the toolkit of the contemporary leader to give and receive information.
What it also means is that Spin, paternalistic notions of a “need to know basis” and “being economical with the truth”, really don’t work. Open access to information, citizen reporters, internet chat all mean that the old saying that “the truth will out” is truer than ever. The recent political maelstrom over expenses was considerably exacerbated by public outrage at the withholding of the truth on MP’s expenses for so long. Authentic communication in the 21st century means a new level of honesty and directness is required and expected from leaders. We saw David Cameron and George Osbourne at the Tory party conference giving the nation the unvarnished truth about how tough recovery from this recession will be. Most commentators agreed that this blunt honesty went down reasonably well with the public.
Lastly, what it means for how you communicate is that stuffy, formal language and formats are also no longer effective. People have become astute media consumers; they are very intolerant and unforgiving of poor media and speaking skills. The rough ride Gordon Brown is getting is testimony to that! People vote with their ears and their attention and instantly switch off when faced with leaders mumbling platitudes, trudging through text heavy PowerPoint’s and using phrases like “exciting developments” when in reality, their tone sounds bored silly. They also they also mentally disengage when they hear what I call “MBA-speak”. “We’ll run this one up the flagpole and monetise this as a best in class solution”, is an instant turn off when, “let’s test this and make some money out of this great new product” would have been clearer and more straightforward.
One of the challenges for many leaders is that 90% or more of them come from Baby Boomer or Generation X age groups. (i.e. born before 1976) They found success in a very different world. Leadership has always been about good communication but what it takes to articulate a vision and inspire people, to be a great leadership communicator has changed.
Have you embraced the changes?
Posted in authentic communication, emotion, impact, social media | No Comments »
