Go for Gold: How to win the Communication Olympics

Author: Brendan Lynch

Watching the Olympics started me thinking about how athletes prepare for peak performance. This led me to thinking about peak performance in organisations, and what drives organisational performance.

You could argue that communication does.

More effective communication enables more effective relationships. More effective relationships enable greater connection, clarity and alignment across organisational functions and systems. Greater understanding across functions and systems enables greater organisational effectiveness¹.

So, communication matters. A lot. 

What would an athlete do? They would pay attention to their performance. 

How is your communication performance? 

• Is your communication succinct and clear?
• Is your communication timely and relevant?
• Is your communication pitched for your audience? 
• Do you understand how your personal values influence what you emphasise or what you gloss over when you communicate? 
• Do you understand how your personality influences how you communicate?

How leaders communicate matters. How Olympic is your communication?

An athlete is also likely to seek input on their performance. What input are you receiving?

• What assumptions might you be making that influence how you communicate? Are your assumptions valid or are they clouding your perspective?  Test your assumptions with others to reveal what impact they may be having. 
• How are people responding to the way you communicate? Seek feedback. What’s one thing you're doing really well? What is one thing you could tweak to improve how you communicate?
• How easy is it for people to understand your key message? Do they get it, or do others need to work hard to decipher what you are saying? 
• Are you under or over communicating?    

Clarity is key. Check that you are providing clarity. 

Athletes are also disciplined and deliberate about how they practice and prepare for a performance. The challenge in many organisations is that there isn’t a great amount of time for dedicated practice. Therefore leaders need to make each communication performance a practice opportunity.

Be conscious and deliberate in the moment about how well you are communicating.

• Pay attention to any assumptions or conclusions you may have leapt to. Are they influencing what you say and what you listen to.
• Pay attention to how curious you are. How often are you telling? How often are you inquiring?
• Pay attention to what enables you to be at your best when communicating and what may get in the way.

Seek incremental improvement. Apply your insights in your next interaction. 

I’m not suggesting you need to compete with others to be more effective communicators; we can support each other. In the communication Olympics we can all get on the podium.

The Winsborough team has world class personality tools that can support you to gain greater insight about who you are, and development focused 360 tools that can provide rich insights to empower you to continually develop your communication performance. 

Disclaimer: I’m not an Olympic athlete. My areas of expertise are in human behaviour and lifting leadership performance for individuals, teams and organisations.

 ¹ Stacey, Ralph D. (2011) Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics. The Challenge of  Complexity (Sixth Edition). Pearson.

Photo credits: Unsplash.com (Nicolas Hoizey)

Need more information? Contact the Winsborough Team:
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