Every day people in leadership and management positions speak and share at the individual, group and whole company levels. What they say and how they say something is routinely discussed, explored and interpreted over and over by all involved.
Sometimes the result of all this communication is clarity and other days it is confusion. Most days, the listeners pick and choose the parts of the message they like, and then dump the rest.
As an executive coach, I am constantly asking leaders to define their message and then strongly encouraging them to stay on-message. Some leaders will work a theme or message for three to six months. Others will change their core messages every sixty to ninety days. There is no one right way as to how long to stay on message. The key is to have a message that can be shared broadly with many different people and then to stick to sending it and sharing it. By the time, you as the leader are feeling like you’re a broken record, constantly repeating yourself over and over, I will assure you that people are finally just beginning to hear you for the first time.
Therefore, I ask clients to make sure the message they are sending is clear and concise. I also remind them that the listener should not need a dictionary or a United Nations interpreter to understand what you are saying. If we need to spend hours focused on understanding the message, then more likely the message will end up in the dust bin of communication, namely just one more piece of information that does not make sense and is an obstacle to getting through today and on to the next thing on the ever growing list of things that must get done.
The best leaders get this. They choose their words and their examples carefully. They want clarity to translate into unified action and positive results.
This week sit down and think through your message. Remember - words matter.
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