Q. What advice would you have to communicate better?
Ask those around you how your communication might improve. See if you have a written style or an oral style that there is one element that drives people nuts, if somebody is willing to tell you that. You have to have a good climate. Ask others how they see the possibility of improving. If you don’t have good grammar and structure and all those things, then that is certainly something you want to work on.
Another piece is to read other folks’ communications and see what you like about it.
Q. How do you go through the feedback you get?
I seldom do anything by myself. I can. I’m very capable, I feel good about it — but (I bounce) it off of either one or two vice presidents because the topic might be appropriate. We have a group of 10 or 12 that we call the president’s council. So, those are where I bounce ideas most. Then I bounce ideas off folks at lunch, which could be just about anybody.
So, bouncing ideas off and then distilling to, ‘OK, this one makes a lot of sense. That one we’ve already tried. That one is not me.’ You have to be authentic in what you do. So, that’s where we kind of distill down to what we should try.
Q. What is a pitfall to avoid when being a good communicator?
You need to remember you never have all the answers. If you end up communicating that you think you know the answer before it’s had a wide audience that can get you in trouble.
Q. What advice do you have for dealing with failure?
If it’s really failure, and it isn’t actually always failure, but it’s an opportunity to learn and improve. Sometimes failure is like a dead end — it’s over, it’s done, it’s not happening.
But, most of what we do, if it hasn’t worked out well enough, we come at it differently or, in the end, we still work on whatever that was. It’s an opportunity to learn and improve.
One of my favorite people that I worked for years ago, he said, ‘Today’s news in the newspaper is lining the birdcage tomorrow.’ It’s that notion of, ‘The world didn’t end. We’re going to be fine.’ Yes, these things happened, but stay with the big picture and stay with the long horizon. Take your lumps, learn and move forward.
How to reach: Northeastern Illinois University, (773) 583-4050 or www.neiu.edu
