7 Powerful Rules to get your point across to Big Boss -The Unsaid Leadership Competencies Series - 4

Arvind was so excited about annual meeting that his department have conducted and he shared his experience with his colleague akash. Akash also wanted to conduct such meeting in his department as it will help team bonding and he approached his big boss and requested for this.

Big boss started shooting questions.

Big Boss : How was the program?

Akash : Excellent feed back, we should also do this.

Big boss : Why do you say so.

Akash : All people are happy about the program.

Big boss : Whom did you discuss this with?

Akash : I spoke to Aravind and he was thoroughly impressed.

Big boss: Lets not take this, as he always goes and attend programs for enjoyment his words cannot be taken. How can you take HIS words ??..

Akash :((..........loosing energy or in high energy for fighting.....))

.....This happens to many of us ??

What happened here?

Please understand there is difference between sharing expressions/ emotions etc and communication!!

what Akash did was sharing expressions and his emotions !

This will not impress big boss to buy his idea.

Lets see what can be done in scenarios which involves high stakes and communicating with senior officials.

Rule  1 : Business leaders want clarity on why they should listen to you, in the beginning itself !

Rule 2 : You are in communication not in exchanging emotion.

Rule 3 : Follow 3 T - Tell them what you are going to tell them - Tell them - Tell them what you have told them.

Rule 4 : Most important rule ,

Follow SCQA Rule .

S - Situation ( Our present situation , example : Our team lack motivation)
C - Complication ( present issues , Example : Productivity target is increasing and margins are lowering and our budgets are limited so have to do the best possible program to motivate team )
Q - Question  ( Question to our self , Example: We were discussing who were the best vendors who will help us in conducting an annual meeting with in budget , which we can do immediately and in cost effective manner!)
A - Answer :( Possible answers ,Example:  I compared cost of 3 best possible options for conducting annual meeting as a solution 
Cost of XYZ is Rs 1000000, Cost of ABC : is Rs 800000, Cost of ZXT is Rs 12,000,00.
I also had chat with few team members of other department who did this program before and the feedback was excellent for XYZ. 
Even though his cost is not the cheapest , it is reliable. request your concurrence sir.)

Rule  5 :Please remember to give logical sequence to your answers like Time - Cost - Quality benefit for the suggested solution.( like provided in above example)

Definitely this method will create wonders.

Please practice before trying this method on how you are going to present.

Rule 6 : Even after this  if questions arises, never move to state of  - Inside shell or Blast . always remember the objective of communication and what made you to start the communication.

Rule 7 : If you feel that in one sitting solution cannot be achieved ask for time and represent with solid details instead of rushing for solution.

Kindly practice the steps consciously. 

Hope this will help you in your day to day work. Happy reading.

Please feel free to write back if you need any further clarity on this. 

Vijay

The Unsaid Leadership Competencies Series - 3 Introspect!

First step in treating any disease is identifying the disease and cause , Similarly first step in improving the voice is to Identify the problem  in our voice and cause.

In situations where we have to represent our concern or performance , we may have identified that a significant amount of pressure comes up while presenting. But After presenting the case , the discussion may not go well and we complain that " Boss is not in good mood today". Is it so? or we have not made an impact !.

Understand that In 80-90% cases , it is we who have not made an impact with the presentation.

So what is the issue?

Issue is in the way we speak. It is not your problem , it is because nobody trained you on how to speak, what you see in society is what you absorb . This is the precise reason why many of us have slight issues in the way we speak. The Good thing is, it is possible to improvise through conscious practice.

Lets discuss about few of the specific problems that any individual may come across, Post understanding this , please identify which is your communication issue.

1. Fast Talkers: Rate of your speech may fit your temperament and you may feel comfortable with that but rapid pace of speech production may result in shortcut in articulation which force other person to work to understand you.

People may develop this as a cultural style for example : family members speaking fast , this would make listener to follow the sense of urgency of speaker rather than speaker following the need of listener.

Is your rate of speech is high ? Then you need a strategy to break your habit!

2.Loud talkers :Few of us have tendency to increase (amplify) our speech volume during emotional exchanges  and then whole office knows about this. In normal circumstances we may speak at average volume but it does stay consistent. People may not agree to this or justify saying that they were upset or happy , in fact it is an issue in communication.

Is your volume of speech is high ( fluctuating) ? Then you need a strategy to ensure consistency!

3. Soft talkers:People talk soft cannot share their confidence to the listener. This happens because of lack of

A. Motivation : They may have put a lot of effort into a preparing plan/ achieving targets but have they organised their content to speak! If no , it directly reflects in the motivation.

B. Energy : Energy plays vital role in communication, this can be explained in simple way.

C.Air : Like a trained singer , any individual who is in the business of communication ( every professional) requires a skill to develop a tone through preparation and effort , a good supply of air and confidence to use it.and ensure the person is in a breathing friendly posture.

Is my voice soft ! Then i need a plan to practice!

4. Raspy Talkers : If you see professional shuttle players , first thing you can notice is their placement of shuttle. You can hear the voice from shuttle bat which is clear and crisp. How much ever a novice try , it takes effort and practice to develop this skill. Similar to this is the placement of voice.
People may hold back their voice in throat or they speak from their nose in both case communication end up in muffled articulation. If we miss to place our voice correctly that will end up in rough hoarse sound irritating the receiver.

Is your placement of speech is right ? We have to first identify this and If the answer is no , we have to work on this!

5. Indecisive talkers:This happens when people miss to realise the word which requires stress and ends up in fairly flat tone. They fail to organise the communication and neither give clarification. If listener ask or interrupt they try to act tougher , this ends in social disaster.

Are you falling in this trap!

6. Breathy talkers : This happens to professionals in Asia . In Asia , soft and breathy voices are encouraged at home and when the professional interact in office , it reflects in their voice and it sounds as intimate and sensual.

Is my voice breathy!! time to observe!

7. Fading talkers : Communication is an art , to be specific it is an art of mixing speech with air, that is when the great voice is produced. For few professionals , they start the conversation with right mix but towards the end they miss to take enough air ending in a low tone communication. The colleagues and Bosses interpret this as lack of confidence . The fact is missing proper mix.

Is this a feed back i have receive in my work !!

Now that we know one of the major issue is with the way we use the voice . 
Design your action plan in improving the voice !

Problem is yet to resolve, what about articulating the thoughts!

Is there any simple way to articulate things while presenting to my Big Boss!

Lets see in the next series! Happy Learning.

Reference  : " Its the way you say it " by Carol. A. Fleming. 

If you need more discussion on this topic please feel free to write to me.

The Unsaid Leadership Competencies Series - 2

When i was studying in 8th standard, I had a classmate who  was struggling to write even English letters. Teachers named him lazy and parents treated him as good for nothing!! He was excellent in drawing and painting but weak in studies. From the way society treated him, he slowly started loosing confidence and gradually started fading away from society.

Today if you notice, a kid having issues in writing is considered as a normal child as we know that  learning disabilities can be cured with proper support. We also know that it is not the attitude but it is a disability where we need to work on.

Similar to my classmate there are lot of aspiring leaders who are given feedback as employees with low confidence to speak , unable to articulate , not clear , not persuasive, and even not knowledgeable by their supervisors or their colleagues.

Are they not confident ?

If so how are they interacting with their customers with ease?

Are they not knowledgeable ?

If so how are they performing in their work ?

Are they not clear in what they speak ?

If so how are they managing team beautifully?

So what is the problem here !

Problem is , Some aspects of their speech calls for attention which distracts others from the message they deliver. 

If you are thinking it is communication or speech issue. Yes you are Right !

In majority of the cases we give feedback to employee as they need better presentation skills, articulation skills but all these are "tip of the Ice burg", which you see as outcome of something deeper inside them .

Real issue is the way they speak ! The way they construct voice ! The way they say things!

Lets see the competency through the eyes of a Speech Pathologist!

Its not the confidence of your colleague that brings him a better communication ability , Its the skill and practice in which he speak!

The Good thing is, you too can !

Let's change the paradigm , lets work on improving our internal skills which intern will be reflected in the way you speak and gain confidence of supervisors.

Lets work on the Unsaid competencies of a Great Leader!

How can we identify , how good we speak and areas of improvement ?

How can we resolve specific problems?

Lets discuss in next series! 

Note : Post completion of the series i will share the books which you can read on the topics!

The Unsaid Leadership Competencies! Series 1

Thomas! a great performer, that's what his colleagues  say in ABC international ! .

He is in  ABC International   as senior executive for last 6 years. Counting the overall years Thomas served the same industry, it is more than 20 years . 

It was another performance appraisal time in ABC International, and Thomas was expecting a leadership role post appraisal. Management granted him  "good" as feedback . 

Thomas was upset, he was expecting "great" as feedback but the management limited that to good!

What made the difference? 

What pulled his performance down from reaching Leadership pinnacle in ABC International....

Its Unsaid competencies.

Unsaid competencies are everywhere , nobody tells, but everybody expects those in you!

Its like an unbranded mobile phone,  people buy for great performance but unspoken expectations are basic working of mobile.

People don't trust an unbranded mobile when it comes to a significant need, Similarly a mobile with excellent basic functionalities also seldom creates impact.

So what makes the difference!

Whats pulls him back from moving up the ladder to a leadership role!

What are those unsaid leadership competencies!

Lets discuss in next series!