March 2

304 / 61

Exodus 4:12
Amos 5:14

Communication

What you say matters, and it should be as clear and concise as and affective as possible

Communication is an essential part of leadership. It’s how you take something that is in your heart, mind, or imagination, and get into some-one else’s heart, mind, or imagination. Successful communication might be the most challenging leadership task you’ll face — and also one of the most important. Your effectiveness as a leader is in the degree to which you mobilize your team, which means you have to get really good at communicating to others what is important to you. We could compare the elements of communication to the process of mailing a gift to someone: you start with the gift in your possession; then
Communication broken down is; a sender, a recipient, a message, a code, a channel, and a response. Each component is crucial.
The sender; it starts with you. Your message might convey instructions, values, visions correction affirmation or any number of other things the message starts with you, which means you are responsible for communicating before you speak check your motivation check your attitude check your facial expressions and make sure you know what you want to say be careful and intentional about what comes out of your mouth and onto your screen

The recipients it’s all about them. The recipient of your message might be an individual a team and entire organization customers church members volunteers or any number of others it is to reach a specific audience whether that’s one person or 1000 people with a specific message what you say needs to be more about your recipients than it does about you don’t get offended if your message is not well received if what you say doesn’t meet a felt need or if people don’t see the point of or understand the relevance of your message getting mad at them won’t help your role as the communication center is simply to do the best you can to reach your recipients with your message. Tweak your communication based on feedback from your heroes don’t just repeat the same thing louder find a better way to say it pay attention to how well they are paying attention to you. Good communicators don’t jump into the heart of their message until their audience is engaged. Know your audience the better you understand your audience the better you’ll know how to speak to them
Three the message what you want to say Think before you speak identify exactly what you feel believe and want break your message down into distinct parts and ensure each one makes sense.
For the code language matters how does your message cross from your mind to the mind of the recipient it must be encoded in written or spoken words body language pictures charts tables models lists or anything else that expresses your message messages don’t telepathically appear in someone else’s brain they must be translated into a shared code that conveys your meeting you have to make sure your message was properly deciphered on arrival that’s on you as the sender more than the recipient and it comes back to knowing your audience well speaking the same language as a hero use words illustrations logic and humor that will be understood by your heroes communicate emphatically that is put yourself in the recipients shoes for a minute communication is a skill you have to learn how to say things in a way that people understand finally make sure your verbal and nonverbal communication are aligned consider how your body language tone and approach will be received and whether they support or contradict your words you may need to remind your face to reflect your thoughts and your words
Five the channel reaching crowds not crickets you can send out Ellicott messages all you want but if no one is tuned into the channel you’re not communicating as a leader utilize the means of communication best suited to reach your target audience whether that is a person your team or the public at large communication is never easy or perfect so you’ll continually be looking for ways to send out your message more effectively
Six the response communicate for change what is the one thing I want my audience to know what do I want them to know or do about it your goal in communication is generally to both convey information and to persuade because you are a leader and you want to take people in a certain direction the response of the recipient indicates the effectiveness of the communication even if the response is not what you were hoping for it at least tells you the extent to which your message was received key take away communication is more than just taking or talking at people it is understanding your heroes reaching them affectively with your message and obtaining results.

Communication.