Communication for Great Leadership and a Thriving Corporate Culture - Leadership Communication and Life Coaching

If companies stepped back and did an assessment of how important communication was for the success of their leaders, teams, and growth, they would be astounded at how it affects every aspect of their business. Communication that connects creates a culture of trust, efficiency, productivity, and high performing teams. Yet, how many leaders or companies assess and improve their communication skills to ensure it is creating the results they seek?

As a leader, communication may very well be your greatest asset to be able to lead people and the company. Do you know if your communication is hitting the mark or does it fall into the statistic of 7 out of 10 conversations missing the mark? To learn and develop your communication as a leader, there are some feedback markers that will give you a benchmark of your performance when it comes to your communication skills.

Feedback on Your Communication as a Leader

Without feedback, we live in our own world of perceptions which is isolated and never realistically depicts the impacts of our interactions with others. The first step towards being a leader who has excellent communication skills, is having awareness on how your communication is being received by others. Here are ways you can receive informal and formal feedback on the way you communicate:

Are there signs that your team trusts you such as being able to share their mistakes, concerns, challenges, and vulnerability with you?
If you judge, criticize, or blame your team, communication needs to be improved
Have you ever had a confidential, anonymous 360 review of your performance as a leader where you ask them directly to share their feedback on your communication? This is direct, valuable feedback.
Do you and your team feel connection to each other and the projects or goals you work on together? If you do not feel connection, most likely they do not either and connection is key to great communication.
Ask your boss or leader to give you feedback on how you are doing communicating as a leader or even ask a peer for what your strengths and weaknesses are or if you have any blind spots. The only thing with asking them directly, is they may not be honest and that is why 360 degree reviews can be so powerful as they are confidential.
Reflect on if problems have arisen due to miscommunication as this will tell you it needs to be improved
Know that if it is only one person you are having a challenge with, this does not mean you have poor communication skills; rather it means you both need to work on communicating better with each other

How to Create a Corporate Culture with Great Communication

When we look at creating a culture of great communication in a company or organization, it really does need to be lead from the top. One of the C-Suite leaders needs to make communication a priority, but also model great communication in every action and conversation they have. In order for a culture to be created, there needs to be many leaders aligned with and acting in accordance with the mission and vision set forth. In order to reinforce this, there also needs to be emphasis and feedback on their performance both as a reminder to its mandate and also an assessment on how they are doing.

“Creating a culture of great communication is not born, it is lead. It begins with one leader, but evolves to a culture with many leaders who model the behavior daily in every action and conversation. It only becomes a culture, when it is the norm, not the exception and when every employee is a leader of its expression.”

Steps to a Culture of Great Communication

Here are the steps of how you can set your company, team, and organization up for a culture of great communication:

Provide Communication training or coaching for all leaders
Learn the neuroscience behind communication with C-IQ
Set systems, procedures, and feedback assessments in place to measure and deliver great communication daily
Lead your company with We-Centric leadership and review all leaders performance on delivering it
Engage the Catalyst Tool or Trust Catalyst tool to have a 360 review of your company and its current communication culture and trust level
Weekly or Monthly meetings on leadership communication training, coaching, facilitation
Develop your company communication creed that sets the framework and benchmarks for success
Ensure your employees or team have a voice or process to share their feedback and clearly communicated expectations around its implementation
Create team communication opportunities facilitated by a leader who is coached in guiding a safe, trust worthy, collaborative environment
Recognize, award, and praise great communication publicly

How to solve Communication Problems at Work or With Leaders

Now that you have learned what creates great communication for companies and leaders, know that every conflict in communication or any problem you have communicating with others can be improved and in most cases solved! It can be uncomfortable, disappointing, a source of stress, and impact your self esteem when problems in communication arise at work. Yet with every problem and challenge, there is a solution and growth.

C-IQ or Conversational Intelligence is the neuroscience of communication and it provides a foundation of guiding steps for leaders and companies to improve their communication. It has over 35 years of research and has developed tools whereby you or your team can be coached or lead in a partner or group facilitation to build trust and improved communication with each other. As an INC rated top 5 business skill, it’s results are profound and one only needs to learn and experience it once to positively alter their communication and trust with others.

If you are a leader or company experiencing conflict in communication, here are a few steps you can begin with:

Receive communication coaching or C-IQ coaching for yourself
If there is conflict between 2 or more leaders or co-workers, invite a C-IQ certified coach to facilitate a 10/10 partnering and TRUST process
Organize Communication training and a C-IQ group workshop
Bring in a neutral third party communication expert to facilitate and work through the conflict
Hire a communication consultant to assess, design, implement a new corporate culture of great communication and leadership, trust, and connection

C-IQ Communication Coaching and Workshops for Your Company

One of the best ways to improve your corporate culture of great communication and leadership is with specialized coaching and training on C-IQ. As a certified C-IQ Coach and facilitator for teams and company’s, I deliver communication workshops and coaching in Vancouver, B.C. Canada, but I am also available to travel to other locations in North America. Together we assess your company’s and leadership’s goal around communication and co-create a training and coaching program for your team.

To learn more about communication and C-IQ coaching or workshops to improve communication as a leader or in your company, contact Jody at [email protected].

Here is what another leader at a company had to say about the C-IQ coaching Jody provided to their leaders and team:

“The impact Jody has had on our company has been wide reaching and immediate. Through her research, advice and coaching, we have vastly improved communication between staff at all levels and have made significant progress in improving organisational structure, vision and process.”

To learn more about C-IQ visit: https://jodykennett.ca/conversational-intelligence/
For C-IQ Coaching and Workshops, visit: https://jodykennett.ca/c-iqcommunicationskills/

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