This Week: Telling Does NOT Equal Communicating
It’s kind of funny, when a leader realizes that people “aren’t getting it,” typically I find there is an inverse relationship between the level of emphasis an executive will use to say, “but I was very clear” and how much has actually been internalized by their audience!
The fact that you have presented your new strategy has almost nothing to do with whether or not something has been communicated. Simply telling people your strategy does not mean they heard it.
In fact, you should be ready to consider this first telling of your strategy to your organization as pretty much a throw-away effort. Yes, it’s a necessary step in the process.
But you cannot assume that just because you have told everyone your strategy (for the first time!) …that they were listening carefully, internalized it, know what they need to do personally to act on it, know how to optimize it with regard to their current work, and will actively do the right things to implement their piece of it.
The right measure is never about how clearly you think you have communicated. The only right measure is about how much your audience has internalized.
To genuinely communicate, and to get your message internalized, and for your strategy to take hold, you need to create a fundamental shift in the way that you think about communication.
You need to change your existing idea of communication to instead become conversation — conversation that involves everyone.
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Patty Azzarello is an executive, best-selling author, speaker and CEO/Business Advisor. She became the youngest general manager at HP at the age of 33, ran a billion dollar software business at 35 and became a CEO for the first time at 38 (all without turning into a self-centered, miserable jerk)
You can find Patty at www.AzzarelloGroup.com, follow her on twitter or facebook
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