Friday, November 18, 2011

Communications Strategies Every Leader Needs to Know

Dianna Booher captivated our audience at Comerica's recent Women's Business Initiative luncheon in Dallas as she energetically shared communications strategies we all need to know. It's clear that Dianna is a communication expert by examining just a few of her 45 book titles that collectively have sold almost 3 million copies in 16 languages in 23 countries.

The true measure of authoritative, persuasive and credible communications is in the results. What we say and intend is not always what a listener hears. Though most people would interpret a one in a million chance to mean "no way", it can be interpreted by the listener that there is still a chance.
In many communications, there is only a 50% chance that the conclusion intended was reached. Her tips for improving understanding include:

  1. Specificity
  2. Verification
We all need to be able to think on our feet and she offered a four-part process:
  1. One sentence summary
  2. Elaboration
  3. Example
  4. Restatement of the one sentence summary
Communications speed is a current measure of quality. In a Booher Consultants survey they discovered that 87% of respondents expect a response within 4 hours. The remaining 13% were even more impatient, expecting a response within 1 hour.

Dianna's presentation provided a vivid reminder that excellent communications skills can lead to extraordinary careers and relationships. 

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