What Does It Mean To Be A High Level Communicator?

In meetings today, getting talk time can be a challenge. Often there are levels of seniority and cultures that do not promote just anyone jumping in to speak. So when you speak, you must make sure you make a comment that will have some teeth in it. One that will resonate with the rest of the team and ideally one that will leave them feeling you contributed something of value. After all, you are at the meeting for a reason: what you think and contribute is valued by your colleagues.

I coach my clients to answer the following question: “What does it mean to be a high level communicator?”

Here are the three key aspects:

  1. The ability to give a 360 degree perspective. Picture yourself looking completely around you, what are you seeing and hearing? Visualize yourself three feet over the group in the room, literally. What comment will you share that shows you see where the momentum of the group is going?  For example: “We’re talking about creative ways to offer the team more support.  I heard three different ideas that we agree have some real merit.”
  2. The ability to give an editorial. An editorial refers to a comment that you make based on your experience, perspective, opinion, and recommendation. For example: “From what I’ve observed in meetings with Tom’s and other management teams, I’d recommend we aim for a 30-day transition.”
  3. The ability to synthesize and integrate what other people are saying. Show you are an active listener by adding a comment that weaves together themes or strands of what individuals may be saying. “Using Catherine’s research on past campaigns and Dylan’s ideas on marketing, we could create a new model that will accomplish our goal to save time while offering more support to the team.”

Adding a comment that shows you have thoughtfully listened and integrated what is being discussed is not too hard to do.  However, it takes focus.  It takes mindfulness. You must be present in the moment and really pay attention to what each member is contributing.

Try it: Imagine you’re in a meeting next Monday and a topic comes up that you are actively familiar with.  How can you increase the quality of your participation?

Be brave! Give it a try and watch the reaction of others when they see you as a person who speaks with confidence.

Spread the love

Author

Similar posts

“84% of employees expect this job perk—but most executives think it’s a ‘waste of time’”

Can you guess what it is? Answer: Eighty-four percent of employees expect their employer to provide the training and education they need to stay up-to-date with changing skills in their industry, according to a recent survey of more than 800 C-suite executives and 800 employees from online learning platform edX. But senior managers aren’t seeing that way according to an article in CNBC by Ece Yildirim. The article shares that employees value their career development

Spread the love

Artificial Intelligence is Fake

Now, before you jump to conclusions, allow me to be clear with a few definitions and thoughts. The growing nervousness and fear that AI will take over our educational systems and produce future generations of bot brains and wobbly children is ridiculous. That is just the start of the pervasive concerns that writers and artists fear about losing their jobs. Let’s not even start with the apprehension that educators face about their societal roles. One needs only to

Spread the love

Why Do They Say “Look”?

Have you noticed how many times a political candidate or commentator will say the word “look”? Why do they say that? Well, let us zoom the picture back a little and think about this. Linguists and psychologists have introduced us to what they refer to as “representational systems.” They tell us that people are prone to expressing their feelings, attitudes, opinions, and using one of three ‘representational systems.’ They have named these to be Visual,

Spread the love

QUESTIONS? NEED HELP?

Tell us what’s on your mind: