How the best leaders talk

 Yet another email. Sigh.

It's the mistake many new change leaders make--hiding behind words. It comes from a good place, often the fact that communication scores low on employee feedback survey.

So they do more.

Amidst the plethora of emails most employees receive, it's challenging to stand out and even harder to land a message that influences. More email is not the answer to the communication challenge.

Amplifying emotion in meetings is. When employees complain about communication, what they're saying is that there's no context and meaning behind most of it. That requires heart, and dialogue to ensure understanding.

It's about conversations WITH people, not communications AT them.

This Media Richness chart is based on information processing theory introduced in the late '80s. Even though communication channels have changed significantly since then, the logic still works. 

The more complex the information, the higher the richness of the channel needs to be. Think of richness as how many senses are involved (you can see, hear, touch, smell, and even taste in-person meetings if there's donuts 😉)

I'd layer on a couple of additional rules for change communications: The more sensitive and strategic the information, the higher the richness of the channel needs to be.

For example, you wouldn't deliver negative performance feedback in a sterile email (you could, but it's a bad idea). You'd want to have a face-to-face conversation to have a dialogue and see and hear how the feedback lands. 

These types of high-richness channels (in-person and virtual meetings, whether 1-1 or group, including using videos and PowerPoint in them) are what leaders need to master. They don't need to be great writers, and not necessarily great speakers.

The one thing effective change leaders do well in high-richness channels is communicate with heart.

They're not afraid to use emotions in meetings, which makes messages stickier. Emotions influence behavior, they make change more or less likely.

The techniques that amplify emotions in meetings:

• Stories, even simple personal examples
• Images, big, bold, people photos and graphics (less gray, more color on those slides)
• Asking questions to engage in two-way feedback. Listening!

Heart-centered communication stands out. It's memorable, which makes it much more likely that those feedback scores go up. And to pave the way for behavior change because people feel differently about the project (or you, the leader)

These principles apply to anyone looking to make an impression. The more senses involved, the more memorable It's why I love a great meal so much 😉