The Secret to Being an Effective Communicator

If you’re not a LinkedIn influencer or TED talk speaker, don’t worry. Anyone can harness the power of communication as a valuable leadership tool. Here’s how to leverage effective communication to boost employee retention and team morale in a hybrid or remote work environment.

Everywhere you look, there is a LinkedIn influencer casually posting memes that garner 15K likes or a TED talk speaker telling you the “secrets of the elite” to advancing your career, achieving more, and being a better leader. It may seem that, unless you’re one of the anointed few to speak wisdom to large audiences, you are disqualified from communicating effectively and building lasting followership.

But that is simply not true.

What if there was more to communicating than meets the eye—or mouth? In fact, one study found that communication is 55% nonverbal, 38% vocal, and 7% words only.

Did you hear that? Only 7% of communication is about the words you speak. This means communication is actually largely about what is not being said.

So if you are a dedicated leader but not particularly fond of public speaking, or you’d rather chew on shards of glass than present a PowerPoint deck in a team meeting, don’t worry—communication is one of the most valuable leadership skills that can be optimized to achieve powerful results. And anyone—LinkedIn influencer or not—can do it.

The Communication Secret Every Leader Must Know

Effective leadership means leading different dynamic personalities, communication styles, and work patterns. In this post-pandemic hybrid work environment, honing in on those different communication styles in a virtual setting is that much more of a challenge. While experts assert that the secrets to effective communication hinge largely on skills like compassion, cohesion, and collaboration (all great qualities, by the way), the best-kept secret to being an effective communicator lies not in communicating verbally—but listening.

Listening is the tool that will take your team (and your career) to new heights. Here’s how you can leverage the transformational power of listening to boost morale, productivity, and innovation to really make a difference.

Leaders Must Listen Attentively and Emphatically

With employee burnout nearing an all-time high, and the World Health Organization even classifying it as an occupational phenomenon, unless you have your head in the sand, it’s abundantly clear that any leader not picking up on what their top performers AREN’T saying is in for a rude awakening.

Start paying attention to nonverbal cues. That employee who is normally passionate about improving processes within the department goes silent on you? There may be an issue. That top performer progressively getting quieter in each weekly team meeting? They may be burnt out and exploring other career opportunities. Employees spending time and effort thoroughly and honestly completing employee engagement surveys year after year and nothing changes? Two words: Duck and cover.

Did you know there are actually three types of listening? Let’s take a deeper dive into how active listening, the third and most important on the list, makes the biggest impact and how to practice this style of listening when it matters the most.

The 3 Types of Listening

1. Internal Listening

Have your parents ever told you, “It’s like what I’m saying is going in one ear and out the other”? Well, welcome to the basis of internal listening. Internal listening means you’re hearing noise—in many cases, people speaking—but you are not engaged or retaining what’s being said. Internal listeners are likely to:

• Not make eye contact

• Not understand or remember important details of the conversation

• Scroll their phone during the discussion

• Nod occasionally or use other body language to indicate that they are listening (though they aren’t)

• Seem uninterested, unengaged, and apathetic

2. Focused Listening

Focused listening is the medium-sized Chick-fil-A waffle fry without any dipping sauce. Is it tasty, and better than nothing? That’s debatable. Someone using focused listening may not be scrolling their iPhone while you speak, but they may only listen to form a response or just in general, not connect with the person speaking or the emotion or energy behind the discussion. Focused listeners are likely to:

• Hear what’s being said but take no active role in participating fully in the discussion

• Make the person speaking feel heard, but not truly connected with or understood

• Repeat or summarize what the person speaking is saying to fill awkward silences

• Build knowledge, but not a connection

3. Active Listening

An effective communicator is an active listener. The active listener is the high-caliber leader whose top-performing team is happy, healthy, and hardworking. They don’t work hard and play hard—they play hard and work harder because of their connection and collaboration within the team. They feel a sense of purpose and find meaning in their work because they know without a shadow of a doubt that their leader genuinely cares and takes a noticeable interest in their personal and professional success. An active listener is likely to:

• Listen attentively not only to what is said, but what is not said as well

• Pick up on body language and other nonverbal cues to gauge the speaker’s emotional state

• Demonstrate empathy, putting themselves in the shoes of the speaker, showing sincere compassion

• Pay attention to what the person is saying, not to respond, but to understand and connect with the speaker.

Active Listening: An Invaluable Weapon in the War for Talent

Leaders have a myriad of mounting challenges in the workforce today. As tiring as the buzzwords have become, “The Great Resignation” and the Talent War are still alive and well, plaguing even the best leaders and biggest companies. Teams are forced to do more with less, be it a dwindling department budget or team members having to pick up the slack of others leaving the company unexpectedly.

If there is one thing every leader could do to make a massive difference in the lives of their teams and the trajectory of their organizations, it is to simply say a little less, and instead, listen like their lives—or livelihoods—depend on it. That’s the secret to being a highly effective communicator and leader.

Accelerate Your Impact

RC3 Partners stands at the intersection of Executive Search and Leadership Development. Our mission is to elevate organizations by aligning them with leaders who don't just fill roles but redefine them. Contact us today to learn more.