 |
Regardless of your industry and your company's value proposition, effective communication will provide you with great leverage.
September 2007
Volume V, Issue 5
YOUR GUIDE TO SECURING THE POWER OF PERSUASION
COACHING SERVICES TO IMPROVE PUBLIC SPEAKING, PRESENTATION & COMMUNICATION SKILLS
 Top of Page
Top of Page
Top of Page
Top of Page
|
|
|
The Real Value
of
Effective Communication
“The difference between a good word and the right word
is the same as the difference between a lightning
bug and lightning.”
- Mark Twain |
|
|
Effective communication will have a greater impact on your company’s success than
any other skill. That’s a big statement, for sure, but it is one we make with absolute
conviction.
Effective communication creates several realities:
- It creates shorter meetings, with better internal efficiencies
and a more productive use of time.
- It shrinks a product’s time to market.
- It ensures that your brand identity and promise are consistently
represented to the marketplace.
- It enables your sales team to understand the intricacies
of your organizational message and allows them to speak persuasively with clients
and customers.
- It fosters stronger, more successful organizational teams,
with clear roles and responsibilities.
Ultimately, effective, clear and direct communication provides the foundation for
success in the global economy, which has changed the American business culture quite significantly.
We are no longer the world’s manufacturing giant. That title now belongs to China
and other countries where labor costs, among other things, are lower. Of course we still
manufacture in the U.S., but our business culture has become increasingly based on services
and ideas. The real assets of an organization are more often intellectual property and
the relationships required to develop and sell one’s thinking.
While we still make things in America, what we make has become an increasingly
smaller part of our value to the world. The bigger piece of our value pie is intangible.
Our intellectual property – thoughts, ideas and insights – are worth more than
muscle or machines. We provide services. We use our capital to invest in ideas. We consult.
We create. We develop. We market. This major shift towards the service economy requires
organizations to think and act differently, as well as acquire a different set of skills.
When a company's greatest asset is tangible – something you make – certain
things are critical to success, such as raw materials, manufacturing capability and labor.
The skills needed to leverage those assets are about production.
But when the real asset is intangible, your ideas, your expertise and your relationships
become more important for success. And the skills needed to leverage these intangible assets
have nothing to do with production. The skills needed are about communication.
When your senior leadership team can effectively communicate your organizational
vision, managers are better equipped to provide clear direction. When managers provide
clear direction, project teams work more efficiently. Individual employees and work groups
are more productive, better decisions are made more quickly, time is not wasted and relationships
are more cohesive.
In other words, effective communication allows your organization to minimize wasted time
and maximize talent, potential and profit.
In our experience at The Latimer Group, the degree to which the American business
community recognizes the importance of effective communication varies. We continually find
that organizations and companies exist on one of three levels:
|
1. |
Some companies understand the importance of effective communication and make
it a critical competency. These organizations do all the correct things.
They make sure they have a coherent organizational message, and they acquire both
the tools and the skills of effective communication at all levels. They
focus on training initiatives that help provide a strong message and the skills to
deliver that message.
|
| |
2. |
Some companies claim to understand the importance of effective communication,
but they don’t walk the talk. These organizations invest in some aspects
of effective communication, but not all. Perhaps they acquire the tools of communication,
but not the skills. Perhaps they invest in top-level marketing or advertising strategies,
but they don’t take the important next step of making sure their people are
ready to execute and live the message on the street. They lack the commitment or
discipline to put their words into action. For more on this subject, please see
Beacon IV, 4 “If I had a Hammer,” July 2006.
|
| |
3. |
Some companies simply don’t understand the reality, and they ignore
the benefits of effective communication altogether. They don’t value
it and don’t do anything to develop the correct skills. They fail to see how
effective communication applies to their organization or how it can improve productivity
and results. |
As you look at this list, ask yourself: which type of company is yours? Does your organization
truly grasp the importance of effective communication skills? Is your leadership committed
to making it happen?
And as you ponder these questions, consider two real life examples that we have encountered
in the last year:
| 1. |
A financial services firm invested millions into a new brand image – new logo,
new message and new value proposition. The initiative came from the top. A well-respected
advertising firm was hired and significant resources were expended. But… the
initiative was not seen through to completion. Little attention was paid to ensuring
that the organization’s people on the street – the sales and customer
service teams – knew how to bring this new message to life. No one trained them
on how they could, or should, execute the new message in their day-to-day work and
relationships. The net result was a mess – actions not aligned with the new value
proposition; different versions of the message brought to the marketplace; a frustrated
work force that wanted more help, but did not receive it.
|
| 2. |
An engineering firm tasked with bringing a new product to market faced the challenge
as engineers do – by focusing on process. They set up internal structures
for project management and benchmark approvals. The thinking was that if they could
ensure consensus at critical junctions, the process would run smoothly. But they did
not train their engineers to speak concisely and clearly. Meetings intended to facilitate
consensus lacked clarity and took too much time. Productivity suffered, and deadlines
were missed. Internal presentations intended to share critical information and enable
good decisions failed to provide a clear call for action. Ultimately, the product
launch was delayed by six months because there was no internal consensus on how to
execute and differing opinions were never resolved in the many meetings that were
held. |
Situations such as these are all too common in the American business culture. When we
peel back the details, the underlying issue is the same: an inability to communicate
effectively. More specifically, poor communication will detract from the bottom line
in the form of significant additional time, resources or money. When we improve our ability
to articulate our message and express our ideas, we dramatically increase our odds for
success.
Here’s the take away: you can possess the best minds within your company or produce
the greatest products. But if your organization cannot communicate internally and externally,
time and resources will be wasted. In a world of streamlined cost structures and shrinking
margins, reducing waste is no small feat. The company that understands the real value of
effective communication and develops the right organizational skills has significant competitive
advantage.
Regardless of your industry or your company’s value proposition, effective communication – from
the individual to the organization as a whole – will provide you with great leverage.
In a world where organizations are driven by ideas, intellectual property and relationships,
what could be more important? In our opinion, nothing.
Dean M. Brenner
President |
Marni H. Lane
Media Specialist |
|
© 2007 The Latimer Group. All Rights Reserved.
Dean M. Brenner -
The Latimer Group: 203.265.4344.
Feedback or comments: dmbrenner@thelatimergroup.com.
Unsubscribe to e-newsletters and correspondence.
|
