Leadership is Communication - How Do You Coach It?

June 21, 2010 — Anonymous

It’s Monday morning – leadership day on FocalPoint Business Coaching Blog! Hope you had an amazing Father’s Day and found a way to watch the FIFA World Cup and mow the lawn at the same time.

Leadership is communication.

Working with a client to improve their communication skills will involve some observation, obviously.

Fortunately, as FocalPoint Business Coaches, we are all about clarity and we know that clarifying things usually – well, makes them clear, and once things are clear – paths become obvious.

Any client who is having issues with communication, who has called you in for help, is at least on the right track.

The ones who don’t realize they have a problem are going to be more interesting because you get to communicate that bad news to them. Then it becomes your communications skills and leadership skills as a business coach that are being challenged.

If you have a seriously bad communicator, you probably figured it out when you first connected with the guy. So you’re probably coming into coaching sessions well prepared. Consider using one of your FocalPoint Certified Coaching mentor calls to prep yourself.

Consider some questions you might ask, because the best way to get a client to understand their problem is for them to tell you it themselves.

Lead by example: start by addressing how the two of you are going to communicate. Show how you, as a mentor, communicate:

  • Ask open-ended questions that let the client explore the situation as they answer,
  • Listen and paraphrase, empathise and be engaged – but also keep the conversation on the right track by questioning back into the topic at hand.
  • Act on what your client is telling you, and let them see the action clearly.

Assign homework: this is always a good idea because it is empowering and action oriented. Homework could include one-on-one meetings with key players, whether they are customers or staff:

  • Prepare some questions together that the client can take to those meetings,
  • Help the client develop scripts to use for customers,
  • And help them create some systems that will ensure they keep regular contact with the important human elements of their business.

Role playing is another great way to practice communicating. Create a situation that requires communication – let the client practice on you.

We, as Brian Tracy Certified Business Consultants know that communication it isn’t just about the time spent talking. For communication to be effective you have to take into account:

  • When the communication happens;
  • How the information is delivered; and
  • What happens between the communication events.

That finishes today’s communication. What would you do? Got any scripts for role playing? How about some suggested reading? Thanks for reading!

Comments

FocalPoint Business Coaching

June 21, 2010 — Chris Allen (not verified)

FocalPoint Business Coaching provides for a highly customized approach to each client even though it's built upon the great approach and curricula established by Brian Tracy and through our extensive business experience.  As such, I'm addressing the question a bit differently.

One of the things that can help a business owner who has not established the culture they expected to within their company is to go back to the basics:

1) What is their vision?  Describes to themselves, their employees and their customers an overall picture of what the company provides including ultimate benefits to its clients.  This can be a powerful motivator for the employees to help achieve what the owner has envisioned.

2) What is their mission?  Describes how the company will go about achieving the vision.  With some specific focus area, the employees really know what they need to deliver against to contribute towards the company and its vision.

3) What is the company's powerful marketing message:

10 second message describing the "What (does the company do)?"  The immediate response generated should be, "How do you do that?"

40 second message describing the "How (does the company do that)?"  Answer the question

What is the company's Unique Selling Proposition (USP) [also described as Unique Value Proposition (UVP)]?  These are the reasons (key benefits to the clients) someone becomes a client and continues buying from this company.

Relating back to the post, some of the scripting can really be developed using these basics.

There are other things too, but this is a good start towards developing the right culture.  The more the business owner has clarity on what he/she wants to achieve in the business, the more likely the employees will drive things in the right direction.  Although this doesn't fix direct communication issues, it can go a long way towards gaining alignment throughout the company to meet the most important objectives.

Chris Allen, Owner & Certified Business Coach, The Business Spotlight, Inc.

"Lighting the Way to Your Success!"

Cincinnati, Ohio

www.TheBusinessSpotlightInc.com

513-272-6224     [513 27COACH]

www.linkedin.com/ln/christophershawnallen

 

FocalPoint Business Coaching

June 21, 2010 — Chris Allen (not verified)

FocalPoint Business Coaching provides for a highly customized approach to each client even though it's built upon the great approach and curricula established by Brian Tracy and through our extensive business experience.  As such, I'm addressing the question a bit differently.

One of the things that can help a business owner who has not established the culture they expected to within their company is to go back to the basics:

1) What is their vision?  Describes to themselves, their employees and their customers an overall picture of what the company provides including ultimate benefits to its clients.  This can be a powerful motivator for the employees to help achieve what the owner has envisioned.

2) What is their mission?  Describes how the company will go about achieving the vision.  With some specific focus area, the employees really know what they need to deliver against to contribute towards the company and its vision.

3) What is the company's powerful marketing message:

10 second message describing the "What (does the company do)?"  The immediate response generated should be, "How do you do that?"

40 second message describing the "How (does the company do that)?"  Answer the question

What is the company's Unique Selling Proposition (USP) [also described as Unique Value Proposition (UVP)]?  These are the reasons (key benefits to the clients) someone becomes a client and continues buying from this company.

Relating back to the post, some of the scripting can really be developed using these basics.

There are other things too, but this is a good start towards developing the right culture.  The more the business owner has clarity on what he/she wants to achieve in the business, the more likely the employees will drive things in the right direction.  Although this doesn't fix direct communication issues, it can go a long way towards gaining alignment throughout the company to meet the most important objectives.

Chris Allen, Owner & Certified Business Coach, The Business Spotlight, Inc.

"Lighting the Way to Your Success!"

Cincinnati, Ohio

www.TheBusinessSpotlightInc.com

513-272-6224     [513 27COACH]

www.linkedin.com/ln/christophershawnallen



A great way to engage a

June 22, 2010 — Mike Alpert (not verified)

A great way to engage a client about communication is to take a current situation and role play possible ways to handle the situation.  In some cases the reality may be that the client already handled the situation in one particular way and that the role play will help them examine alternatives that might have produced a better result.

I think that many times people have developed their own communication style and just experiencing another approach can be very enlightening.  When role playing I like to use a method taken from coaching youth soccer that is taught by the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO): 

SAY, SHOW, DO and REVIEW

When applying this to a role play I simply SAY how I am going to play the role, where I want to guide the conversation, and what techniques I will use.  Then we begin the role play and I SHOW how to do it.  Then I let them play the key role so they can DO it.  Then we review how it went and where to make modifications.

This technique works great and can be used in coaching clients but also by managers to work with their direct reports to improve their communication skills.

Mike Alpert, Certified Business Coach

Orange County, California

949-278-8652

www.mikealpert.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljalpert

I believe the essential

June 22, 2010 — Steve Hering (not verified)

I believe the essential element of communication as a leader is to make sure there is a simple and easy to understand message.

Too often, ineffective leaders give fuzzy, confusing and conflicting messages.

I worked as a Director of Business Development at an aerospace company.  In the same conversation, I visited the potential client too much and too little - depending on if we were talking about travel and living expenses or how to develop the potential client into a contract.

I left those meetings totally confused as to how to proceed.

Eventually, I left the company becuse the communication of the goal became so confused.

 

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