How effective communication can transform your leadership style

This post is about “communication” – a topic of frequent conversation among the execs and leadership teams I work with. In it I share a little of what learnt from when I had a proper job and from the people I coach. Also, I attempt to distinguish between dialogue and debate.
… “it’s all about communication”

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How to be a great mentor

I got a call from a construction leader, he asked me how to be a great mentor and then we worked it out together. This is kind of the write up, what we arrived at and the key takeaways.

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Focus on the next lamppost

You got a big challenge ahead; you can see a large part of it. Its daunting, even overwhelming. I remember as a young trainee civil engineer on Howdon Sewage Treatment Works thinking how does the Site Agent manage all of this. The size of the task seemed incomprehensible to me. Round about the same time I watched a film about the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon and thought wow! I could never do that. Well, that was in the late seventies and I’ve come a long way since then, thanks to this little strategy…

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What are you watching?

I’ve stumbled on a great way to start a meeting. Recently, on a long journey to one, I was listening to some amazing music by an artist who inspires me. It made me wonder what the people I was about to meet were listening to, watching or reading, so when we were all together I…

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Any questions? – How to elicit a response from an audience

We have all been to the industry conference where the experts ‘broadcast’ for an hour and then the chairman asks “any questions?” Then awkward silence, no response. So how do you elicit questions from your audience? Here’s a three step approach that works: 1. Ask the people to write a few notes on what connected…

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When we meet

I’m really interested in people and their stories so if we were to meet I’d like to find out about your story: your early years, how you got into your job, your best achievements and some of the hurdles you overcame to get here. I’d love to hear about what you are doing now and…

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