How to Speak Like a Leader

Leaders

speak

differently than the average individual taxpayer. Let's look at four ways

leader

s

speak

differently. I'm Alex Lyon and I'm here to give you communication tips that will help you increase your impact and lead your teams with greater excellence. Today we talk about how

leader

s communicate. We're going to talk about four ways leaders speak differently than the average employee or member of an organization. The first is for leaders to be really concise. They figure out what they want to say and say it in about one or two sentences. The advantage of this is that, first of all, it sounds very safe.

When you're able to express yourself so clearly, it sounds like wow, they really know what they're thinking. The second advantage is that when they say something concrete, it's much more likely to land and people will be able to understand it and then react to it, hopefully in a positive way. But at least they are given something concrete that they can listen to and then respond to. So you want to make sure it is concise. The second thing is that leaders can speak outside their own area of ​​expertise. And they are able to articulate the value of other areas of specialization.

For example, let's say they come from an IT background, that's how they came about. They can look at operations, accounting, marketing, engineering, etc., and can tell exactly what those other areas contribute. And that's a really powerful thing. Many times we are classified as individual contributors and considered closed-minded because we start making fun of even other areas, labeling, making up strange nicknames. It's like a little internal competition or turf war that different departments developed against each other. But leaders don't tend to do that. Actually, first of all, they can notice and learn about the other areas, and then even talk about the good value that those other areas bring.

And they are valuable. If they weren't valuable, they wouldn't be part of the organization. The third thing leaders do differently when they speak is that they can speak at a higher level than departments. Then they talk about coordination between departments. They talk about strategy and how those different departments are moving in the same direction toward the same goals. I'll use a metaphor of a band, a rock band. A little personal revelation, I used to be in rock bands in high school and college. That's why I almost always want to get there with my analogies. Often when you're recording in the studio, you have a drummer.

And that drummer wants the drums to sound louder. And the guitarist wants the guitar to sound louder. And the bassist wants the bass to be the loudest. That's just natural because that's their area of ​​expertise. So what groups do is they hire a producer who is there to help create the overall song. Because the producer will hear that song the same way someone else might hear it. Not the way a guitarist or drummer would hear it, but how the average person who listens to music would pick it up. And that's what leaders do. They sit above those individual departments and speak to the overall coordination of those different efforts.

And the fourth way is that leaders can connect almost every project or task that is done to the business in general, to the company in general, to the objectives that that organization is trying to achieve. So no matter what it is, they see how it moves the ball forward in a more general sense and they can spell it. And they don't always do it; in fact, they almost never do it by connecting it to some cheesy, overworked vision statement. They're going to talk about that task in relation to real, concrete goals that hopefully everyone will understand.

They are going to say it in simple language. If you can now talk about the business and not just your area, you sound like a leader. And by the way, when I say the phrase business, "talking about the business," I'm not just talking about for-profit organizations. If you're in a nonprofit or healthcare organization, you're talking about the overall goals of the organization, the things that everyone generally strives for. How your organization is positioned in the market compared to others, etc. Here are four ways leaders speak differently to individual contributors. I hope they see that it is not just a way of speaking, but that there is a mindset behind that way of speaking that helps them speak that way.

So it's a way of thinking about a way of communicating. It's one of the reasons why I created Communication Coach. I call people like you, people who are watching, Rising Leaders. Perhaps your team leader, your first-line supervisor, your first-line manager, and you are trying to increase your communication skills so you can lead your teams with greater excellence. That's why the channel is here. So maybe you've thought about or heard over the years different ways that you've noticed leaders communicate and how they manifest themselves, and that's in its own way what sets them apart from the average person.

I encourage you, if that's the case, to put your own comments, questions and thoughts below, and also your own opinions on the four I listed here. If you are interested in ongoing content on this type of topic, I encourage you, if you haven't already, to subscribe to the channel, like the video, and start tuning in. Thank you, God bless you and I hope you use it. These tips are your next opportunity.