Six Communication Tips for Leadership Presence
The more you sharpen your verbal communication skills, the more you increase your leadership presence. Here are six tips for communicating like a leader.
Tip #1: Speak up
When you don’t speak up and engage as an active participant in a discussion, you don’t look like a leader. Instead, you appear to be intimidated, uninformed or uninterested.
At every meeting you attend, try making a comment or asking a question early on. This will help you get comfortable talking - and help other participants get used to hearing your voice. Remind yourself that you are at the meeting because you deserve to be and because your perspective is valuable.
Tip #2: Get to the point
Don’t overwhelm your audience with too much detail. Your message will have more impact if you make it brief. (The request I hear most often from CEOs about high-potential leaders they want me to coach, is “Please help them get to the point!)
Practice structuring your comments as if you were writing a newspaper article. Start with your main point - the headline - and add supporting information later.
Tip #3: Begin at the end
A strategy for increasing your impact in longer presentations (like a speech) is to think through what you want to accomplish. One helpful structure is the Head, Heart, and Hands model.
Head: What do you want people to know? (What are the facts they need to have?)
Heart: What do you want people to feel? (Do you want to leave them feeling motivated? Reassured? Energized?)
Hands: What do you want people to do? (Do you want team members to give you feedback on your leadership effectiveness? Do you want your boss to increase the budget for your project?) Whatever action you want people to take, make sure you end your presentation by asking for it.
Tip #4: Explain the benefits
People are listening to every word you say through their own WSIC filter: “Why Should I Care?” Don’t get so focused on explaining the facts and features of your proposal that you forget to highlight the benefits (for the organization, the individual, the customer, the community, etc.) that will mean the most to your audience.
Tip #5: Choose words that enhance your authority.
Sometimes the smallest word choice can have a big impact. To sound more self-assured, use words that carry a sense of ownership. Say “I won’t” rather than “I can’t” or “I choose to” rather than “I have to.”
It is also important to eliminate qualifiers. When you begin your comments with phrases like: “I’m no expert . . . I could be wrong . . . This may not be a good idea but…” you weaken the impact of whatever statement follows. And minimize your use of minimizers. If you want to sound credible, eliminate words like: “Maybe, “sort of,” “kind of,” “somewhat.”
Fillers including “um” and “uh” are another communication habit that can make you seem uncertain - even when that isn’t the case. Most fillers can be eliminated if you pause between thoughts. Pauses are also an effective way to give your audience time to internalize what you just said.
Tip #6: Communicate with charisma
Charisma is a flow of energy that attracts people like a magnet. While I wholeheartedly endorse preparing and rehearsing for a presentation, when you are actually standing on stage or at the front of the meeting room, you’ll be more charismatic if you stop thinking about your technique. Instead, remember these two things: 1) When you are genuinely invested in what you’re saying, your body language automatically aligns with your words, and 2) When you focus on the audience, rather than on yourself, you connect with them at a deeper, more personal, level. That’s charisma!
Try these six tips and see for yourself the positive impact they have on your leadership presence.
