Helping Men and Women
Become More Effective Leaders

Recognized as one of the 30 Most Influential
Leadership Gurus Worldwide*

July/August 2008

““Mentor up. General Electric has a program in which younger managers can offer advice to more senior ones. This is a true win-win activity: younger managers get the opportunity to teach, and senior managers get the benefit of a fresh perspective.””
from 180 Ways to Walk the Motivation Talk

John is a now a Discussion Leader for Harvard Business Online.

John’s Podcast of the Month: Let Your Staff Know Their Work Matters
People like to know their work matters. Tell them so.
http://www.cio.com/podcasts/baldoni/6workmatters.mp3

To register for My Quick Coach, which features videos from more than 70 noted authors and consultants, visit www.myquickcoach.com. Enter “Baldoni” as your promotional code and receive a $60 discount on annual membership.

Looking for management advice that breaks the mold?
Check out the all-new John Baldoni Blog 

Communicate… or Else!

So often when things go wrong we blame a failure of communications. Communication missteps contribute to poor product launches, lousy customer service, and disgruntled shareholders. Even losing sports teams cite communication problems between players and coaches.

Most often we attribute the underlying fault of poor communications to the organization as a whole as well as to the structures and systems that support it. This may be true to a large degree, but employees – the individuals within the system – also share some of the blame. Let me cite a few types of behaviors that cause communication problems.

No time to talk. Managers are busy; they have many tasks to accomplish within a short period of time. Therefore communications, other than a quick to-do list issued once, suffices for conversation. There is no listening and very little learning. A single iteration of a message is not communications; it is an exercise in self‑deception.

It’s my party! Successful organizations strive for transparency and inclusion. Not all managers feel that way and so they do not share information with certain people on their team. Sometimes it is because they forget; other times they simply want to hold back on information as a means of control.

Power play. Information shared or not shared can be an instrument of power. Say you discover information that will help solve a critical bottleneck in the company. You may wish to share it, but your boss refuses to allow you to do so. Why? Because the information you hold will help a political rival of his and he is loathe to help an adversary. Conversely information about what is going wrong in a particular department can be used against that team and its manager. Information can be a potent weapon.

I’m not listening. Tune out the world and it will go away. That is an attitude that arises when senior management cascades so much information that people simply tune out. Sometimes they tune out because they do not want to change; other times they tune out because they cannot handle the overload.

Not my issue. Managers within the organization understand communication deficiencies but do not do take action to make it better. As a result, meetings continue to run longer than they should, emails continue to pile up, and people remain uninformed (despite an overload of information).

So what can you do about these problems?

• One, acknowledge that problems occur. Take responsibility for things you can change. Focus on becoming a better listener. Reduce the volume of unnecessary email you send, e.g. hold the cc button. Bottom line, be more proactive your communications.
  
  
• Two, change the communication mindset. Be available to your team and individuals to exchange ideas. Make it clear that everyone owns communication issues. Therefore everyone has a stake in keeping lines of communication open and flowing.
  
  
• Three, punch holes in silos. Initiate dialogue with individuals in different functions about issues that affect you and your team. Share information with them and ask for information in return. Keep talking.

Communication issues will be with us always but if individuals begin to exert more ownership of the problems, solutions can be found… one person and one team at a time.

[Adapted from a column first published by Harvard Business Publishing on April 21, 2008]

Keynote Speaker
People who attend John's keynotes and workshops come away saying that his presentations are "insightful," "helpful," and "motivational." John's topics include communications, motivation, personal leadership and getting results the right way. John is a frequent speaker on leadership topics to corporate, professional, military, and university audiences. Visit www.johnbaldoni.com to see John's videos, listen to his coaching podcasts, or read his newest articles.

Executive Coach
John specializes in helping his clients discover and achieve leadership presence, which he defines as "earned authority." Those with leadership presence demonstrate a strong capacity to project confidence, communicate with conviction, instill trust, and most importantly, lead by example. Leadership presence combines a leader's earned authority with a follower's reason to believe. While leaders project their leadership, followers authorize it with their approval. What matters to us most is authenticity. Leadership presence can be taught and put into practice through focused coaching. Watch John's videos on leadership presence and communications at www.johnbaldoni.com/askjohn.

John in the News

John has been invited to join the leadership development faculty of the world‑renowned Banff Centre (Alberta) where he teaches a course inspired by his book, How Great Leaders Get Great Results.


* John Baldoni was named one of the "30 Most Influential Leadership Gurus”"worldwide for 2007 by Leadership Gurus International www.LeadershipGurus.net.

John Online
John is a Discussion Leader for Harvard Business Publishing where he writes the Leadership at Work blog. John also writes the monthly Baldoni on Leadership column for CIO.com.

About John Baldoni
John Baldoni is a leadership consultant and speaker specializing in executive coaching, development and communications. John is the author of six books on leadership including the Great Leaders trilogy for McGraw‑Hill: How Great Leaders Get Great Results (2006), Great Motivation Secrets of Great Leaders (2005), and Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders (2003).