What Can We Learn From Transformational Leader’s Communication Tactics

Two quotes come to my mind when I think about the importance of good communication with team members to reach productive objectives in the workplace. The first quote is by management consultant and author Peter Drucker who once said “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said”. The second quote by author and former presidential speechwriter, James C. Humes, goes “The art of communication is the language of leadership”. Perhaps the worst nightmare an Optometrist can have in a fully booked practice is to have a dysfunctional team with a suffering culture and organizational operativeness. Successful Optometry teams interact with a clearly understood and agreed purpose. Good communication in such teams respects members’ behavioral differences yet embraces the practice’s vision and mission. The job of the Optometrist or manager is to prioritize team development. Communicating with team members based on Drucker’s point of view should be frequent and should promote the members’ ideas. It is only through promoting members’ ideas and seeing how team members do things they think about that Optometrists can tell what is not said. Appreciating members for their efforts, ideas, and results should also be accompanied by encouraging debates rather than accepting the first piece of information being shared.

Sébastien Ricard, Co-Founder, and CEO of LumApps, a leading digital workplace communications solution for the enterprise, highlights five strategies to improve communication with team members.

1- Purposeful communication focuses on improving the quality of communication by making it clear to everyone that every interaction should have a clear purpose. therefore, avoiding water-cooler gossip and other unproductive interactions;

2- Productive meetings that consist of short meetings with detailed agendas hosting only team members who need to be there;

3- One-on-one interactions that are very effective and show how much you care about solving individual issues;

4- Using effective channels of communication using the appropriate technology to ensure continuity of purposeful communication;

5- Progress Update ensuring follow-ups and interactions are efficient and productive as well as beneficial to all team members.

Harvard University instructor, and the author of “The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman“, Carmine Gallo, while working on his book, found a number of common tactics top leaders use when communicating with their teams;

1. Use short words to talk about hard things. The simpler you make things the more you will be able to communicate them with team members and make sure they turn everyone’s attention;

2. Choose sticky metaphors to reinforce key concepts through storytelling. Metaphors are strong stories that teach and unite team members on a common purpose.

3. Humanize data to create value. put numbers in perspective and articulate data in a way team members see how data reflects the true human situation;

4. Make mission your mantra to align teams. A mission statement that is not tucked in a drawer and largely forgotten drives team members to strongly stick to the practice’s mission and aligns team members around a common purpose