FountainBlue’s July 10 When She Speaks event was on the topic of ‘Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say’, hosted online by Samsung.
Our panelists represented a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives, companies and roles. But they whole-heartedly agreed that saying what you mean, and meaning what you say is the essence of leadership. Below is a summary of their best practices for ‘saying what you mean’:
- Build relationships of trust, based on a history of delivering what was promised.
- Be authentic and open, flexible, curious and good natured, as often as you can, even when you don’t feel like it.
- Always be respectful in how you communicate to others, how you treat others.
- If you see something (wrong), do something. But do it in a way which is respectful of others, which is more inquisitive than commanding, more polite than dictatorial.
- Each conversation has the potential to raise the bar for the participating individuals and for the team.
- Speak to the why, the what and the how, so that you can best build alignment.
- Focus on the data and the facts and try not to get emotional even when your buttons are pushed.
- Practice active listening so that the other parties feel heard.
- Remember that the relationship is more important than a project or mistake or program.
- Clearly communicate the goal and timeline in your meetings, and follow the agenda.
- Speak succinctly and clearly.
- Be persistent and patient in your communication, especially when change needs to happen.
- Know your audience and their motivation.
- Agree on and measure your progress.
- Be curious about the perspective of others, and aligned on a starting point.
- Have a clear call to action, in alignment with the common purpose.
Below are some best practices for meaning what you say.
- Be clear on your communication and consistent with your follow-through to build that reputation as a competent and trustworthy professional.
- Speak to consequences for individuals, team, company, product if something isn’t delivered.
- Be known for someone who follows through.
- Be proactive is you need to change what you said in the past, and transparent about communicating why there had to be a change.
- Don’t tolerate or participate in ‘blame games’, but do mean what you say and take positive measures to demonstrate that.
Leadership is often not easy but always worthwhile, even if the rewards aren’t either immediate or apparent.
Recommended resource: Mandel Communications | Course List and Reviews, https://directory.trainingindustry.com/training
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FountainBlue’s July 10 When She Speaks event on the topic of ‘Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say’. Please join me in thanking our hosts at Samsung, and our esteemed panelists:
- Facilitator Linda Holroyd, CEO, FountainBlue
- Panelist Cara Bilinski, Executive Director, IT PMO, Maxim
- Panelist Tracy Meersman, Director Sales Enablement, Skybox Security
- Panelist Suchitra Narayen, VP Commercial Legal, Informatica
- Panelist Priya Poolavari, Director of Engineering, Core Data Platform / Data Intelligence, Samsung
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