Respected leaders communicate with courage

Posted: June 25, 2013 | Categories: Leadership

With a leader, we know where we stand.  Good leaders are great communicators.  Have you ever worked for someone where you weren’t quite sure where you stood?  You know…the kind that is almost too nice?  We gain esteem as a leader when we have the courage and the emotional intelligence to give consistent feedback.  Our people want to know the truth.  It may not always be what they want to hear.  It is what they need to hear.

Today, one of my clients (we’ll call her Sally) shared an encounter she had earlier in the day.  She and her team were doing a job and someone from another department decided she wanted to chit-chat.  Sally and her team were working against a deadline, and she told the socializer that this was not a good time to talk.  She delivered the message politely and firmly.  The socializer walked away a little irritated.  Later, when the work was done, the socializer made a point of coming up to Sally to say that she understood.  She apologized for the interruption.

Here’s a question for you:  What would have happened if Sally had not wanted to confront, and just allowed the interruption to “be nice”?  Her work would have suffered and she would have probably harbored some resentment about the interruption.

Most of us are probably familiar with the DISC profile assessment.  To be fair, Sally is a “driver”, and drivers have no problem saying what needs to be said.  The majority of the rest of us do not enjoy confrontation.  Even so, there are times as a leader when we need to confront.

Think of the best teacher or coach you ever had.  Did you know where you stood with them?  Did they let you know about the areas you needed to work on?  When you messed up, did they confront you about it and challenge you?  I’ll bet the answer to these questions is a string of “yesses”.

We all want to be respected as a leader.  Let’s commit ourselves to the strong, clear, consistent communication needed to be a respected leader.