Good Leaders are great communicators. They set the right tone, convey the right voice and display the right body language. A leader who understands the principles of great communication can make the difference between a collaborative team and one that hits a roadblock.
Strong companies – and strong teams – are built through effective communication that combines wit, humor and a good ear.
Here are some great principles to remember from Inc.:
- Customize your communication.
Consistency is important, but that doesn’t mean you should speak the same way to everyone. Customize your messages in light of what you know about the listener. Some people like details, some like the big picture, and some people want to hear only about the bottom line. Pay attention to their cues and tailor your communication accordingly.
- Actively listen.
Good listening is among the most important, and overlooked, principles of great communication. Don’t zone out when someone else is speaking, and make sure that your own body language indicates your interest. Maintain eye contact and respond with small gestures that show you are listening and receiving the message. If you have any doubts about what you’re hearing, try paraphrasing or repeating what you have heard.
- Let others finish.
If you’re anxiously waiting for an opening so you can jump and speak, you are not really listening. Train yourself not to think about interrupting other speakers but instead to make sure they have had their say before you begin speaking.
- Ask simple questions.
You learn the most when you keep your questions simple and open-ended. Why, what, when, where, and how are still the gold standard. If you ask the right questions you will always find the right answers.
- Be polite.
Don’t check your phone or look at your watch when someone else is speaking. Give the respect of your undivided attention.
- Use the power of “I” statements.
Communication becomes more productive when you avoid stating your thoughts as facts. For example, instead of saying, “This project is a failure,” you might say, “I am very concerned about the sustainability of this project.” Try to avoid “you” statements (“You haven’t done anything”) that set up a cycle of judgment and defensiveness. Instead, say, “I can see there’s still a lot to be done.”
- Pay attention to what your body’s saying.
Some researchers find that body language makes up more than half of what you’re communicating. Is your posture open and confident, or closed off?
- Watch your tone.
Make sure your tone matches what you’re saying to ensure clarity of message.
- Avoid sarcasm.
It has a high failure rate – and even when it works, it mostly builds walls and destroys strong connections.
There are few things you can do that will benefit your leadership and organization more than working to improve your communication skills.
Make sure you and those on your team communicate clearly and with purpose, and your odds of success grow astronomically.
Facebook Opens Instant Articles to Newsrooms
In a long-awaited move, Facebook announced plans to open up access to its Instant Articles program to publishers around the world, giving every news organization the capability to publish their content on the social network.
The program, which was previously available to a select group of publishers numbering in the hundreds, will be available to any Facebook user who owns a page. This opens the program to individual bloggers as well as larger newsrooms. Instant Articles is slated to launch for wider use at Facebook’s F8 conference on April 12.
The announcement is a watershed development in the ongoing trend toward “distributed content” – the idea that news organizations will increasingly publish their stories and videos on a variety of platforms without expecting readers to refer back to their websites. The distributed model allows publishers to maximize their readership on social media and elsewhere, but it also means that publishers are no longer the sole arbiters of the channels people use to find their news.
When Instant Articles launched in May, the program was the subject of much concern among media types who were wary of giving social networks like Facebook too much power by using it as a means of distribution. But some publishers have embraced Instant Articles: The Washington Post, for example, is posting all of its stories on the social network in a bid to reach the widest possible audience.
Since Instant Articles launched, Facebook’s gotten “thousands” of request from news organizations interested in publishing their content on the social network. The company is prepared for a flood of stories to be published on Instant Articles but doesn’t want to speculate about how many news organizations will sign up.
Since it launched with a handful of publishers, including The New York Times, BuzzFeed and National Geographic, Facebook has been steadily adding to its roster of publishing partners and making tweaks to its advertising offerings. Early complaints with the number of advertisements Facebook allowed on Instant Articles resulted in tweaks that have reportedly been amenable to publishers.
Publishers are offered two monetization methods with the Instant Articles program: They can either sell the ads themselves, or use Facebook’s network for advertising. Publishers keep 100 percent of the revenue on advertisements they sell themselves and split the revenue with Facebook for use of its ad network. Facebook doesn’t break out the specifics of the revenue split publicly, but an article from The Wall Street Journal published in March put the proportions at 70 percent for the publisher and 30 percent for the social network.
When New York Times media columnist David Carr first outlined the contours of Facebook’s (then-unnamed) Instant Articles program in 2014, he compared the social media giant to a big dog running toward you at top speed: “It’s hard to tell whether he wants to play with you or eat you.”
Now, it’s clear Facebook wants to play – and it’s inviting a ton of people to the party.
Golden Mic | Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird Author, Gave Flight To Civil Rights Justice
Harper Lee, the Pulitzer-prize winning author of the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, who died last Friday at 89, gave flight to civil rights justice in an era and South that needed to hear the message of grace, understanding and acceptance of all people.
Her famous novel about a young girl’s experience of racial tensions in a small Southern town has sold tens of millions of copies and been translated into dozens of languages.
When it was published in 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird found immediate success. Lee won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction the following year, and the novel inspired a film adaptation that came out in 1962 starring Mary Badham as Scout and Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. The film was also a smashing success, garnering numerous Academy Award nominations and several wins. The book and movie changed a generation, inspired millions and became a stalwart fixture in schools.
In 2007, Lee was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and she was honored with a National Medal of Arts in 2010.
She published a companion to her beloved novel last summer, called Go Set a Watchman. Although she was a guardedly private individual, her work echoed across the world and bridged racial barriers to make our society better. Lee changed the way we saw each other and the way we saw ourselves. Through the eyes of a child, she brought clarity and vision for a better way to live. The Spin Cycle was forever changed by her words of wisdom and inspiration. For that, Lee takes the Golden Mic!