Open and honest communications are always important, but in times of major change, communication is critical. When people are unsure and insecure and feel as if they don’t know what’s going on rumors and innuendos abound, and blame generally gets placed on management. Not knowing is worse than knowing (even bad news). Take the time to communicate face-to-face if possible, one at a time. This gives you an opportunity to show your concern and respect. It also gives you and them the opportunity to address questions and feelings, as well as discover the best solutions. What and how you communicate is critical.

Communication is the exchange of ideas between two people. It involves more than telling. Effective communication is “connecting.” Effective communication results in understanding and it involves feeling. It is an active two-way process. It is not accurate to think that when we communicate with others, we transfer a precise piece of information from one mind to another. Words in and of themselves do not have explicit meanings that are unaffected by other influences. Instead, people have meaning for them. The meaning that any one person places upon words is influenced by gestures, expressions, intonations, and beliefs.

It is in the sharing of ideas and thoughts and emotions between 2 or more people that communication occurs. Exchanging facts or data is only part of the process. The feelings and emotions that develop during the course of any transaction strongly influence the behavior of those involved, and ultimately the outcome of the conversation. Human behavior is rarely a result of strictly logical and rational thought. Effective communication hinges on our ability to make emotional contact with the listener.

Once you understand the role that emotions play in communication, you can begin to put yourself in the other person’s shoes. This is called empathy, and it is a quality that can be cultivated by developing genuine interest in other people. It is far easier to do this when you are authentic, genuine, and honest.

Empathy is not to be confused with sympathy, nodding your approval, or simply agreeing with another person’s point of view so as to appear understanding. Empathy is recognizing the fact that others are entitled to their beliefs, just as you are, that they have certain needs to satisfy and goals to achieve, just as you do. Communicate with both words and actions that reveal genuine interest in people as individuals and in what they say and feel. They need to know you appreciate their efforts and their accomplishments are recognized. Knowing their needs, you can chart a career path designed to give them what they want and contribute to the overall achievement of the organizational goals. People respond positively to this type of leadership because they realize that they are actually only doing what you sensed they wanted to anyway.

For some reason, many people believe that the ability to speak articulately is an important prerequisite to successful communication. St. Francis of Assisi said that we should “Seek first to understand then to be understood,” It is impossible to find out what someone is thinking or feeling unless we listen to what they are trying to tell us. In valuing others, what others are trying to tell us, we establish value for what we are trying to communicate to them. By valuing others we add value to ourselves.

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in helping businesses and individuals achieve high levels of excellence and success. Learn how at www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.

“Your listeners won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

One fundamental truth about effective communications is that people will not believe what you say if they don’t believe in you. Credibility is the cornerstone of successful communication. To be an effective communicator, you must be believed. To be believed, you must be credible. To be credible, you must be authentic. To be authentic, you must be genuine. You must be you! Accordingly, authenticity is a state of constant evolution. The authentic person is someone who knows who they are, who they want to become, and what their core values are. Authentic people value themselves and give value to others. They are usually confident and open, trusting, trusted, and believable.

Authentic also means genuine and trustworthy, and trust is vital. People trust you when you are honest with them. Honesty is a critical leadership trait. People need to know you have no hidden agendas and that you honor your commitments and promises. Trustworthiness and believability are synonymous. You can’t have one without the other. To communicate persuasively and effectively you must earn trust, and to earn trust, you must be believable. So, how do you do it?

The first step in being more believable is being yourself. By knowing yourself and understanding your own fears, anxieties, goals, and aspirations, you will be able to relate more closely to others. The key to understanding others is self-understanding. People are more inclined to hear and believe someone who is honest and genuine. Belief is acceptance on faith. Some people will believe you on first impression. Others will need more time. They’ll want to get to know you and need to realize promises kept and will want to know that you walk the talk.

Most people learned early in life who should be trusted. Generally it was those people who were easy to understand and read. People who were happy, warm and caring made you feel good, and you trusted them. Others whose competence and confidence in you and gave you confidence to grow, were also people you trusted to help you achieve goals. These are the same qualities you look for today. These are the qualities others look for you to exhibit. Learn to recognize and speak the language of trust. Strength in your voice, confidence and openness in your posture, and genuine interest in your expressions are all qualities you can use to create trust. Use your personal energy, enthusiasm, and facial expressions along with your words. When you coordinate your vocal tone with your words, with your actions, and with visual messages, you are more likely to be trusted and believed. Trust is one of the most basic but most powerful tools for change.

Many will hear everything you do and say. Your words and actions should be consistent to send the message you want to send. Your personal values and beliefs will be evident through your actions and behavior more than by your words. The only way to communicate values is to act in accordance with them. You can write volumes about the right way to treat people or speak about customer focus or cost containment, but if you publicly berate a staff person, or make a customer wait while you finish a personal matter, or blatantly waste supplies, your message will be what your behavior shows, not what your words say. The more congruency there is between your words and your actions the more people will trust you. As Jack Welch said, “Trust is enormously powerful in a corporation. The only way I know to create that kind of trust is by laying out your values and then walking the talk. You’ve got to do what you say you’ll do consistently and over time.”

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in helping businesses and individuals achieve high levels of excellence and success. Learn how at www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.

We have discussed in previous posts the need for a leader to be a visionary because involving people in realizing a compelling vision provides a beacon for the future and a standard of excellence. We have also talked about the leader’s role as a coach. A leader as a coach reinforces the results they believe people are capable of achieving as winning depends on execution.

In addition to the roles of visionary and coach there are two additional roles that round out an exceptional leader: The role of mentor and the role of director.

The Leader as a Mentor

While many aspects of the mentoring role are similar to coaching, the significant differences lie in the mentor’s advisory or teaching role. A mentor is a trusted advisor and tutor. Mentors share the benefit of their experience and knowledge. It is a critical role in developing individuals who will collectively be responsible for the success of the organization. As a mentor you should seek innovation, encourage experimentation, reward appropriate risk taking, drive out fear, and create an environment where everyone communicates freely, honestly, and positively.

Establish an environment that encourages and rewards people to develop their skills, improve their results, and learn new skills. Actively seek to help people learn from your experiences and knowledge. Develop a culture where people feel responsible for their own results and are supportive of others, as well as provide the model, knowledge, training, and freedom to achieve their goals. Today’s leaders must foster a culture where continuous learning and continuous improvement are the norm not the exception.

The Leader as a Director

In the director’s role, the leader is like a symphony orchestra conductor. Everyone knows their part, comes in on cue, and maintains the tempo that had been established. The conductor does not play the instruments, that is the role of the musicians. Each musician does not decide when to play, that is the role of the conductor. The role of the conductor is to elicit the best possible individual performance in concert with the entire orchestra to create a symphony of sound. The leader/director establishes the direction for the organization and for the people. This does not mean the leader is the authoritarian expert who knows all of the answers. Rather, it means that the leader, as director, gathers the input and ideas from everyone in the organization, establishes goals, and aligns the resources to achieve those goals. The director creates conditions under which peak performers can thrive. The director continuously evaluates whether the direction serves both the organization’s best interest and the best interest of all individuals involved.

All leadership behavior must create an environment in which people are encouraged to seek out innovative ways of doing things which will ultimately lead to more revenues or lower costs. Excellent leaders use their complimentary skills as a visionary, a coach, a mentor, and a director to accomplish just that. In the words of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he/she wants to do it.”

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching, and youth leadership. For more information visit http://www.resourceassociatescorp.com/ or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.

Much like a football team that is playing in the Super Bowl, having a game plan and the desire to win is important. Unfortunately, my Steelers will not have a chance to repeat this year. However, winning depends on execution. One of your primary roles as a leader is that of a coach. Coaches reinforce the results they believe people are capable of achieving.

One way to develop a winning team is to surround yourself with extraordinary people. Another is to surround yourself with ordinary people who through your leadership and coaching achieve extraordinary results. As Sam Walton once said “ … there’s absolutely no limit to what plain, ordinary working people can do if they’re given the opportunity and the encouragement and the incentive to be their best.” As a coach, your role is helping people develop winning attitudes and improve their skills. A coach helps people see beyond the problems, the limitations, and the “known” to focus on solutions and opportunities which are sometimes found by venturing into the “unknown.” If you are to create a winning team, you must be good at coaching. You must be able to inspire extraordinary performance from ordinary people. Coaching is seeing new possibilities and providing the support and guidance to help people and organizations to achieve new heights.

Coaching, though highly individual, has three basic functions. The first function of a coach is getting to know every person as an individual. If you are to coach them to higher levels of performance, you need to know what their skills are, what their level of knowledge is, what their goals are, and what you can do to help them reach their goals.

The second function of a coach is developing people and challenging them towards higher levels of achievement. Create a detailed development plan for and with each individual with whom you are directly working. Set goals, both short and long-term. Develop action steps and target dates along the way. Focus on those critical few action steps that are essential for personal and organizational goal achievement.

The third function of a coach is creating an environment for motivation. A motivating environment helps people become excited about setting and reaching goals. Figure out what inspires people and use this knowledge to create an atmosphere that stimulates high levels of productivity and effective decision making. Get to know what issues are important to each individual, Encourage people to talk openly and discuss problems as well as opportunities. Challenge them to go beyond their comfort zone. Help them to have the confidence to stretch themselves.

Your goal as a coach is to make the most of your most valuable resource, your people, and to maximize the skills, abilities, and knowledge of each person in the organization. Inspiring people to higher levels of performance has a lot to do with spirit, creating excitement, commitment, and desire. It is coaching ordinary men and woman to extraordinary achievements.

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching, and youth leadership. For more information visit http://www.resourceassociatescorp.com/ or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.

• Successful leaders have mastered the art of self leadership and authenticity. Authenticity implies genuineness, reliability, and trustworthiness.
• Successful leaders have taken time to crystallize a personal vision of the future which will become the foundation or cornerstone for a shared vision. They are able to attract as well as inspire commitment among the people whose collective effort will make this vision a reality.
• Successful leaders understand how to align and maximize resources to realize a vision. The leader’s role is to create alignment between vision, strategy, structure, processes, and people with focus on attracting and maintaining a loyal customer base.

As a leader, you must be many things to many people. First, you must have the capacity to create a compelling vision. If your vision is to excite people, it must take them to new levels of achievement. Then, you must be able to develop and implement the strategies that will guide people toward the vision, analyze the alternatives and possibilities, and set goals that will drive the organization to sustained success. To do this will require that you are able to function successfully in several areas. The first is your role as a visionary.

Leaders who are able to involve people in realizing a compelling vision provide a beacon for the future and a standard of excellence. Vision plays an important role in developing a winning organization. A compelling vision can play an important role in developing a winning organization. A compelling vision can motivate and empower everyone in an organization to seek higher levels of performance and achievement. People want to do a good job because realizing the vision is important to them. A compelling vision is inspiring and it is energizing. It provides an image of a better future that causes people to drive themselves to higher levels of achievement.

In the final analysis, you can’t really force people to be motivated. You can only create an environment in which people are motivated. A vision will release creative energies to successfully attain the desired results. It provides a reason for change and exploring possible uncharted waters with enthusiasm. It gives meaning to work and it encourages innovation. Individuals recognize the importance of their personal contribution to the overall whole. Vision helps everyone realize that their best interests are served by the success of the entire organization.

Vision alone is not enough. Look for future posts on the leader as a coach.

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching, and youth leadership. For more information visit http://www.resourceassociatescorp.com/ or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.

Authority is the right granted from a person or organization to another to represent or to act in a specified way. For example, a CEO of a company is given the authority by the Board of Directors to run the company. In turn, the CEO places managers in positions of authority over the various divisions, business units, or departments of the organization.

Power is the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others. Former United States President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, captured the essence of this definition when he said, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” Everyone possesses the potential to be powerful. Power is a personal talent that you can develop and use to achieve worthwhile goals. It does not depend upon title, rank, position, or authority. It’s simply the ability to motivate others to take specific actions.

Authority is granted but always has defined limits. Power is earned and can be limitless. Authority is derived through the position. Power is derived from an individual’s personal influence, which increases effectiveness. Two leaders in exactly the same position of authority can and will have different amounts of power. A person can possess a great deal of power and absolutely no authority. Conversely, someone can have authority and absolutely no power. Leaders who have not earned sufficient power sometimes make the mistake of trying to influence others by overexerting their authority. But excessive use of authority can cause employees to rebel in much the same way that children rebel against restrictive parents.

Effective leaders recognize authority as a valuable and necessary tool when used judiciously, and they invoke their authority extremely sparingly. Instead, they use the power they have earned to create a climate of trust, cooperation, and accomplishment in which people are positively motivated to pursue their own goals and the goals of the organization. In fact, the amount of responsibility you take on is directly linked to the amount of power and influence you possess. One way to further increase your personal power is to seek additional responsibility.

To be a successful leader, you must always be yourself. Be intentional about shaping your life according to your values and priorities. Trust yourself, believe in yourself, and be honest with yourself. Others will then trust, believe, and be honest with you. It is this foundation which enhances personal power. Excellent team leaders establish healthy open relationships with others. They foster mutual commitment in the pursuit of shared goals. Effective leadership is founded on cooperation never coercion.

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching, and youth leadership. For more information visit www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.