Mastering Executive Communication With Melinda Lee

Welcome to the speak in flow podcast, dear

listeners where we dive into techniques and strategies to

change the way our world communicates for the better.

Today's episode is all around executive communication. I had

the opportunity to interview an entrepreneur Kimi, and also a

corporate leader, Michelle, around executive communication.

And so in this episode, I thought to bring in all the

learnings that I've discovered through our interviews, as well

as bringing some components that I've developed along the way,

and what executive communication means to meet. Let's face it,

our world has changed quite a bit. And I think that before

executive communication meant that you had to have a pedigree,

you had to have the right education knowledge, and that is

how I demonstrate executive communication. That's not true

anymore. So today, we're gonna dive into the eight components

of what it is. And first, its vision. Then second, be concise,

third, present powerfully to a group. Fourth, influence. Fifth,

know how to manage a crisis takes provide powerful open

feedback, seven, be authentic. And then eight, know whether to

do digital or life. First, a clear vision, have a powerful

vision for the future, make it so clear in your mind. And once

you have that clear, you communicate it in a way that is

concise, and effective. Without having a clear, concise vision.

People are lost. People don't know what their role is, people

don't know what to do. So you lose productivity. And you lose

your respect as the leader. So take the time to reflect and

take the time to find relevant examples, stories to illuminate

the direction that you want your team to go. Really paint that

visual picture of where you want them to be, and be clear and

specific. Then for have some follow up right and tie your

goal, your team's objectives and goals to the strategic direction

to the vision of the future, and then have regular follow up.

Once you have the vision, once you're following up with where

the team is going, then you want to be to continue to be concise,

concise with your words, bottom line it How am I going to say

what I need to say in the fewest words possible? That's a

question you can ask yourself. If you don't, if you're spending

a lot of time bringing too much fluff in or going off on a

tangent people get annoyed, we just don't have the time and we

don't have the luxury of time. So ask yourself, How can I say

the exact thing in the fewest words possible. And then if you

need to add to it great, I be intentional about what you add

to your communication. So once you've mastered the skill of

being concise or understand how to do that, third, go to

presenting powerfully develop your ideas and present it to a

large group. This demonstrates your ability to lead, lead and

be effective as a leader in front of a group one to one is

important one to one builds meaningful relationships. And

then go to the group and present it in a way that exudes your

leadership. If you're still feeling nervous, and I know a

lot of you may still feel that way. I share a lot of techniques

and tools to help you get more into a confident state. Using

some breath work. This is a this is a really powerful one that I

like and I've been using lately, which is taking one breath and

then another one. And then you can do one, hold it at the top

or exhale, but you could take two after inhale, inhale and

then take another one and then exhale. And if you're still

feeling nervous, use your nervousness to elevate your

performance. Those nerves are there to actually elevate so if

you not if you're not afraid of them, use them to turn your

nerves into excitement. My daughter uses a very fun phrase

called nervous sighted. I'm not I'm nervous related to

transforming your nerves into excitement and elevating your

performance. Even in presenting to a large group, you will be

seen as an effective leader. And after you present your ideas,

the fourth key to executive communication is influence. How

do you influence people and the ability to embrace help them to

embrace your idea? How do you transform naysayers into

believers of your idea? And that begins both at the beginning

before you even enter the room. Michelle, it's that this great

pre socialising before you enter into a meeting, talk to the

individual naysayers that may not be on board with you. Ask

questions. When someone is furious, get curious, ask

questions. Where are they coming from? What causes them to be a

naysayer, what causes them, they're probably really

concerned. And you want to give them the time to talk to you

about their experiences, talk to you about their concerns, and

ask the relevant questions and really put yourself and when

you're listening to them, really listen, be present, and put

yourself in their shoes. And then include relevant examples

and stories. And how to potentially help them to

transition where they're, where they're from, to where you want

them to go. And so that is one key technique you can use for

building influence. Then once you built up influence, you have

the allies, you have people on board with you, you move into

crisis management, of course, not everything is going to go

the way you want, there's going to be some crisis, there's going

to be some obstacles. So your ability to manage the crisis is

also included in your executive communication. Most people will,

will go into the crisis and get consumed, they get emotional,

and then and then suddenly everybody's communicating the

wrong information. When there's a crisis, it's important for you

to take a leadership role, and breathe and be objective. Ask

the right questions. Sometimes the people's perspective, even

though it seems real in their mind, is probably not the real

story, or real objective perspective. And so you have as

a leader can ask the right questions, and then formulate

what the objective communication is, be authentic, be timely,

with your communication. If you don't have all the information

talam, right, be authentic, I am waiting for the right

information, I'll give you this is what I know. And if when I

have the relevant information, the more accurate information

I'm going to share that with you. Right now, this is what I

have. So be timely with managing the crisis, as well as be

accurate in information you share with people. And that

requires that you answer you ask the right questions. Then

providing effective feedback, the sixth component of executive

communication, provide open honest feedback. I know

sometimes feedback can be very challenging, because you don't

want to hurt people's feelings. You don't want them to feel bad.

And there's a way to do this so that it's both respectful, and

also mutually beneficial for everyone, you're going to have

the opportunity to get to know the person, they're gonna get to

know you where you're at. So don't be afraid to have this

open dialogue. As a team leader, you want to have the entire team

feel comfortable providing feedback in a way that's

respectful, specific, objective, timely. And then, and curious.

Also get to the perspective of the person that you're talking

to. Which leads me into the seventh piece, which is

Authenticity. Authenticity is interesting, because as I

mentioned before, executive communication can be perceived

as I have authority over you. And I have all this experience.

And so I'm only going to show you that. Nowadays, authenticity

means that I am real, I'm a person. Yes, I have experienced

and I also have some potential areas to improve. And it's okay

for me to show that. I talk about how authenticity when you

hide some of your potential perceived weaknesses. People

can't get a sense of you, they can actually sense that you're

closed off

to allowing yourself to do some reflection of where your

strengths are and also where your perceived areas of

improvement Don't accept them, be accepting of them and find

help to either improve it or find other allies to help

support you in this area that will help you to feel authentic,

and be seen as that leader of respect, because most leaders

are respected when people can connect with you. But if you

have a guard not being authentic, they're not going to

be able to connect with you. And then therefore the trust that

you lose trust as a leader. Then finally, the eighth component is

know when to use live or digital communication. With so many

modes and platforms and how to connect digitally, I think it's

powerful to be able to know when you talk live and when to talk

digitally. Because as a team, it's, it's important, it's

important, especially if you so there's two things that you want

to consider. How will you know each other, and how clear the

situation or the direction is? First, if you don't know each

other, well, then maybe a team is forming. And you don't know

the direction people don't know the direction, it's very

unclear. that lends itself to a live meeting, when it's unclear

when you don't know it. Because when you're live, and people can

read each other's verbal cues, body language, you miss that

when we're in the small box virtual box. So take the time to

gather people, especially when it's the time is complicated.

You don't know what's happening, and they don't know each other.

But if there's clear direction, and people know each other, then

digital communication is a powerful way you save time, you

don't have to travel back and forth. But you could do follow

up so you can have a quick conversation over a digital

platform. So knowing when to use each is an important skill as a

leader, and demonstrates your executive communication and

intention for your meetings. So you know what the purpose of the

meeting is, and the platform. So all of these components I know I

said a lot today, but those are your opportunities. When you

dive into each and master each, you will have an executive

presence, that communication that demonstrates you as the

powerful leader that you are that appear to make a

difference. If you have any questions about these, I invite

you to message me I invite you to just get on a call with me.

And I'm going to start to break these down in the following

episodes and give you more clear strategies and techniques to do

each. But in the meantime, I can't wait to see you on the

other side to the next episode. I'm your sister and Flo take

care