Leadership Coaching Effective Communication
by Gary Gasaway (USA)
As a corporate coach, I had identified a key leadership component that was lacking and in need of improvement in our company. What was that component? Effective communication. So, I took initiative and designed, developed, and began to facilitate what I entitled as: The Modeled-Coaching Workshop. This two-and-half-day workshop was designed for the leadership levels including supervisors, managers, and executives (with slight adjustments for each level of leadership.) This workshop focused upon (19) different components focused on improving overall employee performance in such areas as: coaching techniques and strategies, orientation and training, coaching mistakes and successes, setting direction, motivating for top performance, identifying and removing employee barriers, improving the quality of work-life, monitoring to manage performance, giving and receiving performance feedback, rewarding performance, and teamwork. The most important component being the focus of effective communication throughout as I directed the flow of the workshop in transforming these company leaders into coaches.
Effective Communication: A Commonly Missed Opportunity
Over several years of observing throughout my company, there were opportunities of improvement missed by leaders because of seemingly unimportance. Communication is one of those common daily activities that we can all take for granted. We can all talk and hear, so what’s the big deal? The big deal is that effective communication is much more. The importance is that although as leaders they can speak and listen, it is the quality of understanding that is most often missed when communicating with employees. So, when I think of effective communication, it comes down to this: Understanding one another as leader to employee is an important component regarding communicating with the work environment.
It’s important to remember that the work-life journey is not meant for employees to do it alone. Leaders may create the work-life environment, but employees that are a vital part of that environment. These employees are those that leaders are in constant communication with. For the foundation of effective communication, it’s best to start with responses regarding understanding one another as leader in employee.
Effective Communication Leads to Understanding
Healthy, effective communication is so important regarding our work-life and one of the vital areas of effective communication is understanding one another. The lack of understanding one another is a significant factor and a main source of tension in our work-life relationships. These tensions lead to unnecessary stress and complications. On the other hand, effective communication is mostly void of these two negative overtones. If leaders are to respond effectively to work-life’s experiences in a positive light, then they must improve their approach of how they respond as they communicate for better understanding regarding speaking with employees. When focused upon understanding, it leads to improved responses in communication with employees.
Unfortunately, in communication settings, it’s not always that simple. For instance, in many cases of conflict with employees, it’s usually not caused by differences of opinion. Regrettably, many times the conflict is caused by an inability to agree, or it’s just misunderstanding one another. Further, this inability is mostly based upon will, or a stance the leader or employee takes. Misunderstanding is different. It could just mean that the responses to one another are confusing or stops short of the proper explanation. How we respond is the difference. If leaders take the time to ask the right questions and agree upon the most effective actions, they then move closer to understanding their employees during communication.
Source: iCN Issue 41 (Leadership Coaching); pages 21-23
About Gary Gasaway
Gary is a former professional life coach and business owner that provided individuals and couples with coaching needs concerning life’s difficulties in the areas of career decisions, dealing with stress, developing positive habits, and improving relationships. Gary now dedicates much of his time to his loves – family, friends, and of course – writing.
Gary has a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Management and a Master of Science in Leadership and Management from the University of La Verne and is a member of Alpha Chi, National College Honors Society.
Gary also has written and published six books: The Coach’s Chronicles Trilogy, The Reflection Connection – Reflecting and Connecting to Life’s Experiences, A Simple Life – Living Less Complicated, and Beyond Reflecting – Actions Lead to Personal Potential. For additional information regarding Gary and his books, send an email to: coachgaryg@gmail.com
