CHAPTER 2
LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION PURPOSE, STRATEGY, AND STRUCTURE
1. Why does Leadership Communication need to have a clear purpose?
Communication at any level has consequences, and leaders recognize that. To ensure that those consequences are what we intend them to be, it is important to establish a clear purpose. In a professional environment there are usually four goals for communication:
a. To inform – transferring facts, data, or information to someone
b. To persuade - convincing someone to believe or act in a certain way
c. To instruct - Instructing someone in a process, procedure, or policy
d. To engage – Involving someone in a collaborative exchange of ideas
In all these cases the purpose of the communication is action-oriented. It is usually expected from receiver to respond, follow up, or to do some kind of an action in response. For that reason the communication has to have a clear purpose so the receiver knows what is expected.
2. What are the main decision-making styles in audiences, and what are the effective ways to deal with them?
Winning over clients, partners, suppliers, etc. is critical in any professional communication setting. It is important to understand the way our audience makes decisions so we can pitch the message the right way. Main decision-making styles are:
a. Charismatics who show enthusiasm during a sales presentation, but yield a final decision on a balanced set of information
- In dealing with Charismatics it is important to focus on results, begin with bottom line, and use visual aids.
b. Thinkers who exhibit often contradictory points-of-view within a single meeting through a list of questions
- Thinkers required a lot of data to be presented, open and up-front communication, and multiple perspectives to make decisions.
c. Skeptics who remain highly suspicious of each data point due to their very strong egos
- Skeptics required credibility and trust, so it is important to build credibility with the help of someone they trust. Emphasizing credibility and using concrete arguments is a good way of communicating with Skeptics.
d. Followers who make decisions based on how other trusted executives made them or decisions they’ve made previously
- It is important to present multiple options, provide details, and use case studies while pitching to followers.
e. Controllers who focus on the pure facts and analytics of the offering due to their large amounts of fear and uncertainty
- Controllers require structured arguments, detailed expertise, and flexibility for decision-making. Don’t push too hard, and leave them to decide after providing the facts.
-- Yuva
CHAPTER THREE
THE LANGUAGES OF LEADERS
1. What are the essential tips for a clear and concise communication?
Being clear and concise in writing and speaking has become essential in professional communication and includes several guidelines like the following:
a. Avoid the overuse of the passive voice. (e.g. “The HR administrator sent the email.” Instead of “The email was sent by the HR administrator”)
b. Avoid the use of prepositional idioms. (e.g. “Because the sales are low.” Instead of “Due to the fact that the sales are low.”)
c. Avoid the use of relative pronouns. (e.g. “Mr. Smith is never late for work.” Instead of “Mr. Smith is a person who is never late for work.”)
d. Avoid the overuse of descriptive words, particularly adverbs.
e. Use the minimum amount of words/sentences, and state the purpose right away.
f. Review for clarity, ambiguity, and conciseness.
2. What are the important steps at the end of every communication in writing to verify the correctness?
It is very critical for communicators to edit and proofread their own work before sending or submitting their work. Editing means reviewing documents, emails. etc. to verify clear, concise, and correct communication. It is better to edit with a fresh mind to provide a different perspective.
Proofreading, which occurs after editing, is the last step to verify correctness by detecting previous errors in grammar, spelling, and formatting. Another effective way is to ask someone else to proofread the document to provide a whole new perspective. Important rules for proofreading include:
a. Proofreading after you’re finished. No new content should be added at this stage.
b. Giving it sometime after finishing the work, and proofread it.
c. Proofread using a hard-copy instead of digitally where we tend to miss our mistakes.
d. Proofread by reading backwards from the end of the documents, letter, and email. When we proofread our own work we tend to read what we think is written, instead of what is actually there. By reading backwards we can focus on each word.
CHAPTER FOUR
CREATING WRITTEN LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION
1. What is the importance of having a writing skill in Leadership Communication?
a. In a Leadership Communication, both oral and written communications are fundamental skills, which combined called cognitive skills. Purpose of these skills is to clarify the subject to the audiences.
b. Moreover, written communication is more critical than oral communication, hence it should be more precise and concise. Professional written communication should have one of two broad types: (1) correspondence (text message, emails, blog posts, memos and letters) and (2) reports (proposals, progress reviews, performance reports, and research documentations). Through their correspondence and reports, leaders assert their influence in a wide range of organizational settings. Leaders write correspondence several times daily. They also write different kinds of reports, from complicated studies and white papers with recommendations and pages of analysis to shorter progress reviews.
2. What are the most common mistakes of Business E-mail correspondence?
The most common mistakes of Business E-mail correspondence are:
a. Unclear subject line.
b. Poor greeting (or none at all).
c. Unfamiliar abbreviations.
d. Unnecessary copies (CCs).
e. Sloppy grammar, spelling and punctuation.
f. All caps in the message.
g. No closing or sign-off.
h. Rambling, unformatted message.
i. Unfriendly tone.
j. No clear for action.
-- Yuva
