The post The 5 Pillars Of Influential Leadership – Part 13: Their Communication appeared first on BUILDING WHAT MATTERS.COM.
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This is the 13th of 16 weekly installments on The 5 Pillars of Influential Leadership. Every Thursday, I will break down the 5 Pillars and show you how becoming and influential leader will not only improve your job skills but your personal life as well.
The 5 Pillars is a project that I have been working on for almost two years and had a great time with the official launch of “The 5 Pillars of Influential Leadership” Coaching program on May 23th.
Why the 5 Pillars? I have spent more than 30 years in the business world and although it has been primarily in the Construction world, the 5 Pillars philosophy works across all industries. In fact, while developing this program I realized that it can have a significant impact on your personal life as well.
I will break down each Pillar into three sections, personal, business and community. Any growth or improvement needs to start within, with the end goal of influencing the community you live in. In this post we will take a look at COMMUNITY COMMUNICATION.
We communicate in a variety of ways. The way your brand or organization is represented to the community may have nothing to do with verbal communication. Your reputation “always” speaks louder than words.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
I have found that referrals or “word of mouth” recommendations are one of the most powerful ways to build or maintain a business. If I apply the 80/20 rule, I can make the statement that 80% of your business is due to return customers or referrals. Is customer service important? What do you think?
VALUES
Some, but not all by any stretch, of businesses can tell you their value system. When a business has a strong and identifiable value system that they live by, it helps to hold them accountable. Knowing your values and living them out in your specific region will identify you as someone people want to do business with. Do you know what your values are? More importantly, does anyone else?
RESPONSIBILITY
If you are in business you have multiple responsibilities. To your employer, your customers, your co-workers, those that are above and below you on the food chain and so on. I believe that your biggest responsibility is to yourself. When you are responsible to yourself and live up to the standards that you have set for yourself (hopefully you have) you will fulfill the obligation that we all have to add value and serve others. Do you have a set of standards that you live up to?
REPUTATION
Ah yes, your reputation. It doesn’t matter if you are a sole proprietor or part of a global organization, you are a reflection of what and who your business represents. Reputations are the result of built trust over time and just as trust is hard to build and easy to lose, so is your reputation. Guard it with your life because your life, at least in business, just might depend on it.
MISSION
We are all aware of “mission statements.” If you don’t have one, you need to create one. Why? Because your mission statement provides the blueprint for the purpose of your business. If you are unclear on your mission, you will send an inconsistent message to the people you are doing business with. How many of your customers know your mission or purpose?
MANAGEMENT
I believe that the number one responsibility for management is to be the big picture thinkers. Managers need to look uphill and downhill at the same time. They need to understand where they have been and why they were there and at the same time know where they are going. Now you may thing this sounds more like a leader than a manager but when a manager understand these concepts, he will have the vision needed to lead.
The 5 Pillars coaching program will take each topic to a much deeper level. We will explore open ended questions and how they are directly impacting your life and more specifically in this segment, will allow you to evaluate and understand your role in growing your business.
In the mean time, start asking the type of questions that will result in better answers. When you ask “How can I” you get an answer that will move the needle. “What can I do today to make sure that people know what my (our) mission or purpose is in business?” Answer that question, act on it, and you will succeed.
RELATED:
- Click here to see Part 1
- Click here to see Part 2
- Click here to see Part 3
- Click here to see Part 4
- Click here to see Part 5
- Click here to see Part 6
- Click here to see Part 7
- Click here to see Part 8
- Click here to see Part 9
- Click here to see Part 10
- Click here to see Part 11
- Click here to see Part 12
- For more on The 5 Pillars of Influential Leadership and to view my video click here
- To view my guest post in the 2013 International Leadership Blogathon click here
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Barry Smith 7/25/13 photo by author © Building What Matters 2013
The post The 5 Pillars Of Influential Leadership – Part 13: Their Communication appeared first on BUILDING WHAT MATTERS.COM.
]]>The post Do Your COMMUNICATION Skills Tell People You Care? appeared first on BUILDING WHAT MATTERS.COM.
]]>One of my favorite quotes by John Maxwell is “People don’t care about how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
I believe that the best way to let people know how much you care is to communicate in a way that tells them you do.
One of the biggest challenges I have had to overcome in an ongoing effort to improve my communication skills is active listening. In the past, I have had a tendency to respond with my opinion before the other person had even finished their thought. My guess is that if you are willing to be honest with yourself, you have been guilty of the same act.
It takes effort to be a great communicator and we all know the importance of communication. The problem lies in the fact that we are typically more concerned about adding value with our “opinion” then we are will simply listening to someone else’s. OK guys, I know we are “fixers” and have some strange desire to save the world by solving every problem that comes along. Guess what? Most of the conversations we are involved in, don’t require any fixing.
Have you ever wondered why women speak more words per day then men do? It’s because they are more concerned about the relationship and less concerned about “fixing things.” Intentional or not, women are better communicators. Their genetic makeup allows them to care more about what is being said.
Alright, this post is not about a battle of the sexes, it is about being a better communicator and how that can improve our lives and raise our level of success in whatever we are doing.
The thing that people want more than anything is to feel valued. The best way we can do this is to validate their feelings. I know … guys don’t talk about feelings, right? Well, that is right to a certain extent. Remember when I said that women are better communicators? This is why – their focus is on the relationship.
Again, this has statistically been shown to be true so it’s not just me saying it. The fact is, women are better at validating the feelings of the person they are communicating with. So let’s all take note here, not of the gender issue, but of the simple fact that validating a person for how they feel, regardless of how you may really feel, opens the door to interject what you believe and creates an environment that is conducive to better “two-way” communication.
Are you being HONEST and AUTHENTIC when communicating? Do you practice PATIENCE when LISTENING? Are you ENTHUSIASTIC and CHARISMATIC about the things that matter to you?
Do you use words that AFFIRM and ENCOURAGE? Does your DECISION MAKING help in PROBLEM SOLVING and CONFLICT RESOLUTION? Are you being held ACCOUNTABLE for your PLANNING and TIME MANAGEMENT practices?
Are you clear on your MISSION and your VALUES? Is MANAGEMENT being RESPONSIBLE in protecting your REPUTATION and in providing CUSTOMER SERVICE?
We need to let our conversations focus on the person that we are communicating with and allow them to write us into the conversation. Until that happens, they are not going to care what we know anyway.
So today’s encouragement is this: The next time you want someone to care about what you know, you better let them know how much you care!
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On May 23rd, at 8:00 pm ET, I will be hosting a free call introducing “The 5 Pillars Of Influential Leadership” Coaching Program.
This will be a content filled call that will not only teach you about influential leadership but also about leading an intentional and successful life. The words in capitals above are topics within Pillar #4 – COMMUNICATION.
This is the fourth of five posts related to the 5 Pillars that will go out prior to the call on the 23rd.
For more information and to register for the free call CLICK HERE.
To see the first video on Pillar #1 – AWARENESS click here
To see the second video on Pillar #2 – ENVIRONMENT click here
To see the third video on Pillar #3 – GROWTH click here
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Don’t miss a single post from Building What Matters by subscribing at the top left of this page.
Help support us by clicking here and Liking our facebook page
Barry Smith 5/20/13 photo by author © Building What Matters 2013
The post Do Your COMMUNICATION Skills Tell People You Care? appeared first on BUILDING WHAT MATTERS.COM.
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