You don’t get into a position of authority without have an opinion or knowing what you want to say. Most business and government executives have big ideas, and you’re going to hear about them. That’s part of the job. However, the same personal qualities that make good executives fearless communicators often also keeps them from being able to relate to the people they are speaking to. The problem: It takes introspection to formulate a message. It takes empathy to communicate in a way people truly understand and identify with enough to take action.
Let’s say a company CEO has a great idea for a new product. She ‘s thought it through, believes the market is there, knows other CEOs who have released similar products and agree this new product would be a great investment. She calls a meeting with staff, describes the new product and shares market analysis to back up her decision. She assigns staff members to validate the research and get the ball rolling on product research. Everyone responds enthusiastically (they know that what their leader expects), and heads to their desks.
Once the CEO is out of earshot, do you think people begin to talk about the product and work feverishly to make it happen? In this case, that doesn’t happen. They are busy with other things, yes. But the biggest problem is that they don’t know how this product fits into their line or the big picture. They know their CEO is jazzed about it, but they don’t know why. She has told them what to do, but she hasn’t given them perspective or context. Some of that will come later as they see the reasons for this product themselves, but until then the CEO will find it’s like pulling teeth to get them to think for themselves about this opportunity.
What could she have done better? First, she could have gotten people on board one at a time long before they joined her in the conference room–especially those who would be expected to take the reins of the project. She could have presented the idea as a possibility and asked her staff to participate in research to determine whether it is feasible. They could have discovered together how exciting the possiblities are.
Second, she could have transferred her enthusiasm to them by sharing something of how she came up with this idea and how her enthusiasm grew. She can’t order people to be enthusiastic, she has to transfer it through some conduit of communication that has no breaks between her and those listening.
The conduit that works best is context. If the staff has produced a previous product, the CEO could help them visualize the success of that product and explain how this new product will work, with a few differences. She also could have used personal context. If the product is for consumers, it will in some way solve problems for consumers. She could have asked her staff to think like a consumer and imagine how this product could improve their lives. She could even have brought in a target consumer to talk about why he or she wants this product.
There are other important aspects of transferring an idea from your head to your audience’s. You need to know what kind of language to use, for example. If you are talking to line workers, the language will be different from the language you use with supervisors.
Overall, my advice to get-er-done CEOs is to slow down. Allow the targets of your message to catch up with you. Give them some of the background that got you to where you are with these thoughts. Help them connect the dots. And allow them to ask questions that help you see the conduit and language you can use to send the message.
If you don’t take time to connect before sharing your message, no matter how hard they try, they won’t really be listening.
