Communication Actions for Optimized Results
Action Steps for Success
There are steps you can take right now, that will help you achieve success with less stress and more joy. They don’t require any expense, and they’re within your grasp. These four communication shifts have turned faltering companies into wildly successful ones. Applying Conscious Communication shifts the entire culture of an organization, and brings it into the 21st Century.
1. Start with what if questions, not decrees.
As a leader of any kind, regardless of your intentions, there will be a natural sense of resistance to virtually anything you have to say. That’s just the way it is. Most people are completely unaware of how much unconscious “power struggle” they’re involved in. It’s probably leftovers from a parent/child dynamic that comes up when they feel they have less power. Decrees feel like being told to “take out the trash,” or “clean your room.”
On the other hand, when people are asked questions that create the image of your desired outcome in their minds, they start seeing where you want to go. When this desired outcome clearly has their benefit built in, acceptance is even easier.
2. Take the top off Top-Down Management when it comes to communicating what’s going on.
You need to enroll your people in any plan, initiative, or process you want to implement, plus you need their input and help to make it happen. In keeping with the first communication shift, your what if questions might be: “What if you had a say in how we did things around here,” and “what if you shared in the profitability that you help create?”
Although some may accept your intentions, you might also face some skepticism. Not to worry; this leads you to the next level of agreement. Now you can ask another question: “What would you need to see, to believe that this is real?” This will give you great, useful information. The answers will clarify where the perception of a credibility gap is, so you can address and correct it. Once you honor this agreement, there is an opening for their leap of faith in you.
3. Share the big picture, and invite people to share in the opportunities.
In building the trust necessary to enroll your staff in any plans or initiatives, you need to share information with them that may previously have been thought of as being for “management eyes only.” When they understand for example, that payroll will be a fixed percentage of revenue; rising and falling together, the organization’s income becomes personally relevant. They become stakeholders in your organization. When they’re personally involved, and that contribution is rewarded, you’ll get more of that positive behavior, and new ideas for increasing revenues.
4. People are not interchangeable; everyone has a unique key to their motivation and language.
We often try to treat everyone “the same” either for ideological fairness, or because it’s easier. The fact is, exactly what gets through to and excites one person will bore or not be heard by another. By getting to know each person, you may discover mismatches in talent or temperament with tasks and responsibilities. You’ll be able to help people do work that is more suited to them, with less resistance, errors, or stress.
Putting all four of these shifts into play creates an environment where the “us or them” dynamic dissolves, and you become a team.
* The “what if” questions become a seed for letting people dream about possibilities, rather than putting up defenses or objections.
* By listening to their ideas about how they do their work, and how they might do it better, and then implementing those ideas and standing behind the people who contributed, you build trust. This gives you the ability to implement the process improvements leading to profits.
* By showing how people fit into the big picture, they’ll see how they can impact their own income. They’ll become a workforce of enthusiastic “consultants” looking for innovative ways to cut costs, and increase sales.
* By listening to them as individuals, with different motivations and interests, you’ll be able to help them succeed in helping you succeed.
How well does this work? For one example, a while back, I implemented these four communication shifts in a client company, resulting in the annual sales of $363,000 rising to $1,212,000 over 2 years, while customer satisfaction ratings rose from 61% to 98%, and turnover completely ceased. Conscious Communication is more than theory; it raises the level of the playing field for everyone involved.