To see real change and gain significant benefits from their strategies, leaders need to establish an environment of trust. Leaders who are trusted — even in times of great difficulty — are skilled communicators.

When leading in times of change and transition (and who isn’t?), remember communications fundamentals, including these:

• Communicate relentlessly. Communicate information, thoughts and ideas clearly — and frequently — in different media. Find many ways to share information; keep processes open and transparent.

• Listen. Good communicators are also good listeners. Allow people to air their gripes and complaints. Pay attention to what others are saying, thinking and feeling. What is said, and what is left unsaid.

• Explain. People are often skeptical of change. Share your thinking and the trade-offs you’ve weighed — not just the final decision or strategy.

• Articulate expectations. Clearly explaining why, how and when things need to happen will set expectations and create a healthy level of stress and pressure. It also establishes a mechanism for monitoring and addressing performance.

• Be visible. If you communicate well, you won’t be out of sight. Find ways to interact with all of your stakeholder groups.

• Confront problems and conflict. Don’t postpone dealing with challenging issues or conflict. By avoiding the difficult people or difficult issues, you can do great harm to yourself, your co-workers and your organization.

• Be honest and sincere. Communicate truthfully and honestly, follow through with what you say and avoid deception.

This article was adapted from the CCL publication Leading With Authenticity in Times of Transition.

1. When learning or memorizing anything, it helps to break the information down into small, basic units. Our short term memory retains a relatively small amount at a time, so a large amount of information or a lengthy list is best broken down. 

For instance, think about the way children learn the alphabet…the letters in the alphabet song are broken down into chunks of no more than one to four letters: (ab-cd) (ef-g) (hi-jk) (lmno-p) (qrs) (tuv) (w-x-y-z).

The same technique could be applied to something you want to memorize at work, such as the organization’s mission statement.

So, if this were your mission statement:
We are dedicated to providing insurance products that offer quality protection with value pricing. We wish to establish a successful partnership with clients, staff members, and insurance companies that respect the interests and goals of each party.

You may want to break it down into these small units:
• dedicated to providing insurance products
• offer quality protection with value pricing
• establish successful partnerships
• clients, staff members and insurance companies
• respect the interests and goals of each party

2. Create some kind of internal organization. It is much easier to remember something that is organized and has meaningful structure than something that is random or abstract. One way to organize is to look for a natural hierarchy in the material to be learned.  Another way to organize would be to make up a story or narrative chain to relate events to one another.

Sample:
If your license plate number is:  2DN1231
• You could assign the word “To” to the number 2
• You could see DN as an abbreviation of the name “Don” (especially if you have a friend or relative named Don)
• And, you could see “1231” as December 31st or New Year’s Eve.

Your narrative could then be:  I’ll Give a Ride To Don on New Year’s Eve

3. Find some kind of external organization. Some relationship must be found between the new information you are trying to retain and information which has already been learned so that one fits the others.

Example:
You are about to do a brief presentation that will encompass:
• An introduction
• A topic overview (e.g. “Lead Generation: Well Worth The Time It Takes ”)
• Three different topic points (for example):
   -  Generating Leads through Social Networking
   -  Generating Leads through Advertising
   -  Generating Leads through Cold Calling
• Closing statements

You could think of the different elements of your presentation as different locations within your house.
• the front door = your introduction or opening remarks
• the entry (from which point you can see a number of rooms) = your overview
• the living room (where crowds gather) = social networking
• the family room (where the TV is located) = advertising
• the office (where you often make business calls) = cold calling
• the back door = your closing statements

Recall is accomplished by visualizing the location and discovering the speech element associated with that location.      

Taken in part from the Leader’s Guide for the classic program “Memory” © 1980 CRM Learning, L.P.

Training Resource: Speaking Effectively… to 1 or 1000. Memory plays a big role when delivering a speech or presentation. This entertaining and effective program gives practical advice on how to deliver a compelling message to a group of any size.

Activity Directions

Hand out Worksheet: Who’s Listening?
(See worksheet design suggestions at the very bottom.)

Point out the two labels: Worst Listener on the left end of the line and Best Listener on the right. Read the directions on the Worksheet aloud.  Allow participants 5-10 minutes to complete the Worksheet.

ASK:
• What influence does your Best Listener co-worker have over the quantity or quality of your work?
• How do you feel having conversations with the person you are thinking of as Best Listener? Does it affect your job performance?
• How does this person’s ability to listen to you and others affect the work group and environment as a whole?
• How does the behavior of the Worst Listener affect both the quality and quantity of work that you do?

Participants can add brief notes on these points on their worksheet. Then facilitate a discussion where participants share with the group some of the behaviors noted on their worksheets. Remember: No names!

Debrief the activity with the following points:

• Sometimes it seems as if we don’t have choices, but usually we do. We can choose to focus our attention. We can choose to reduce distraction. We can choose to stop for a few minutes to sit down and listen.
• The benefit of one person’s ability to be an effective listener carries beyond individual conversations. Attention and good listening set a tone for the interactions that follow.
• As a listener, focus on the speaker—what are they really trying to say? What are they feeling? What is their need, and how can you as a listener help fill it?
• The listener demonstrates a deep level of focus and concentration by maintaining eye contact and comfortable body language. Attention goes a long way toward relieving tension and letting the speaker know they have your undivided attention.
• Let the speaker DO most of the speaking and avoid interrupting them.
• Prompt the speaker with encouragement and phrases such as,“Tell me more about that…” or “You must have felt…”
• Reflect back to the speaker what you understand the speaker is feeling with comments like “I think I hear you saying….,” or, “It sounds like you feel___about___.”

This level of listening holds potential for effective problem-solving, builds trust, and opens the way for meaningful, ongoing communication and results.

Worksheet should look something like this:

Worksheet: Who’s Listening?

1. Think about the worst listener you know (no real names please), and the best listener you know. Write some hint as to who they are on the line below.
2. Think about your conversations with these individuals. What do each of them do that make them the best or the worst at listening?
3. Below each “name”, list a few bullets or key words describing observable behaviors that make each of these people the best and worst listeners you know.
4. In the Where are You? section, write Me somewhere between the two ends of the scale—at the appropriate position for your own listening skills. List a few of your own listening habits below Me.

Material excerpted from the Leader’s Guide for the video training program, Nobody’s Listening.

Need help in this area? Nobody’s Listening depicts what happens when a hurried manager fails to listen to the concerns of a subordinate. As he gets a second chance to practice the art of active listening, a number of problems are averted.