Be prepared to speak. Obviously, you have a message to get across in a public speech or in talking to your staff, but make sure you anticipate some of their needs versus what the speaker thinks their needs are. Talk to some people that are going to be in the audience. Say, ‘These are some of the key things I’m going to be talking about. How do you react to that? Is there anything you think I should cover? Any part of those key ideas that you think would be helpful?’
Getting some feedback before you ever do the speech is really important. Talk to the staff, meet with your board, it’s the same idea. If you know you’re going to be talking about something, have the opportunity to talk to someone who is in that potential audience group who can give you some insight that may add to your content.
Having access before you speak to a few people that you have confidence in that are kind of well-centered on what some of the issues that people would like to hear about is really important.
You could be the smartest guy in the world on a particular topic. But if you don’t know how to deliver it, you’ll lose 75 percent of the audience in five minutes. On the other hand, you could be the world’s greatest deliverer, but if you don’t have any content, they’ll quickly be amused, but they’ll walk away with nothing.
Have a plan. Figure out what two or three points you want them to walk away with. Start with it, repeat it and finish with those two or three ideas. If they are going to retain anything, it’s going to be the things you frankly beat into them.
If you want people to retain something other than from memory, you need to give them walk-away points. You’ll have more retention if they have something to walk away with.
Make listening a priority. As a leader and also as a personality type, I oftentimes feel like I need to rush to action or speak to action sometimes sooner than I should. Within an organization, there’s a lot of really good people that want to do the right thing for the organization and want to offer up their point of view. There is a tendency where it’s easy to follow into a trap of not listening to that. It doesn’t mean you have to agree. I’m constantly working to listen first and speak second. That’s not as easy as it sounds.
It’s something you have to discipline yourself to. As much as a leader needs to be a good communicator as we’ve talked about, it’s absolutely just as important for the leader to be a good listener.
People will reach out if you allow them or if you’re open and they know you are willing to listen. Let people finish out what they have to say. If you like it or not, do everything you can to not respond immediately and let the communication soak in.
How to reach: CAMICO Mutual Insurance Co., (800) 652-1772 or www.camico.com