Communication-Being an Effective Leader
Today Bethany and I spent our Veteran’s Day at a fantastic Leadership Conference called Catalyst. Catalyst is a one day or two day event where a community of like minded people who LOVE the church and want to become more effective leaders in every aspect of their lives gather for encouragement and teaching.
Everyone of us has a leadership role somewhere in our lives-we might lead people in our job or in our family, in our community or in our church. Being an effective leader involves communicating clearly and learning how to motivate people to join in.
One of the speakers, Craig Groeschel, talked about the four qualities of effective communication. He began with a quote from George Bernard Shaw- “The single biggest problem in communication lies in believing that it has taken place.” Craig challenged us to remember that just because we say something, doesn’t mean the people we are saying it to are hearing or understanding us. We need to bear in mind that often times people do not think like we think, see what we see or care as deeply as we care. But in light of that, we can become better leaders if we recognize our responsibility and are willing to do our part. Here are the four qualities of effective communication that I learned today. They can be applied to our lives in our leadership roles as well as in our day to day lives.
Be CONSISTENT in my values, my vision and my direction. Be true to my values in how I live my life because values communicate what I stand for. My vision is expressed in my purpose and works itself out in my life as I discover what I am here for. My direction is demonstrated in my life by where I am going. If I am communicating effectively, people will be able to follow my lead because they will experience consistency in my values, vision and direction.
Have a specific STRATEGY because general communication does not usually get the results you want and general ideas do not usually result in specific actions. If I want to see results I need to communicate effectively by letting those I am leading know my specific strategy about WHAT I want us to be doing, WHO is going to do it and WHEN it will get done.
Craig went on to teach us that “Truth trumps all” so he challenged us to be AUTHENTIC! When I make a mistake I need to own it. If I let my pride creep in and try to pass off the responsibility of the mistake, I lose my credibility. When there is a problem, I must acknowledge it. When I am not sure about something I must admit it. “People would rather follow a leader who is always real than one who’s always right.” In our family we have a truth that we remind each other of often-It is better to be kind than right!
We were given a title today that we must all embrace-each one of us can consider ourselves to be the CRO of our family or the CRO in our sphere of influence as a leader. The CRO is the Chief Reminding officer. It is my job as a wife and mother to remind my family of our Values, Vision and Direction and that it is important to have a specific strategy and to be Authentic!
My challenge is to be PASSIONATE about my role as a leader in my family, in my community and in my church. If I take my passion of being a “light to the world” and an encouragement to those I can influence and I communicate my values, vision and direction to them, I believe I can become an ambassador of change. For me, my passion is generated by my faith in Jesus and my vision is to share my heart with those I love and those I can influence to move people forward in their search for meaning and purpose in life.
Do you have values, vision and direction? How are you communicating these to those in your circle of influence?
