Leadership - executive training in business management - editorial

Business Horizons, Nov-Dec, 1990 by T. Ballard Morton

My main criterion is clarity. I must be able to understand what the writer means the first time I read it. And I want it in conversational, concrete language-not vague, flowery abstractions.

I have found the one-page memo an excellent learning tool. It sharpens our thinking and forces us to focus on the main issue. My students have found that writing has helped them focus their thinking and become clearer and more articulate in their expression. They also begin to discover their feelings and express them. When they can do this, they are on the way to real communication-dropping the mask and giving something of themselves to others.

Virtually all CEOs and top executives I've talked with about writing tell me that they would give just about anything if their people wrote clearly, concisely, and to the point. They hate getting memos and reports that they have to decipher and wade through. Ironically, a number of my students in lower middle management have told me that they could not write on the job the way I want them to. Their bosses want their reports more formal, passive, impersonal. In other words, stuffier and more pompous. No wonder there is so much verbal garbage in large organizations.

2. Making oral presentations. Students make five-minute oral presentations which we videotape. The first time, they choose the subject-anything they are interested in and know something about. The more personal, the better.

Watching a videotape of a presentation is the best way I know to improve performance. We don't need much advice. just seeing ourselves as others see and hear us does wonders. Most people do better than they think they do. So my job is to give a little guidance: to emphasize the strengths of the performance and to help determine what one change would bring about the biggest improvement.

The one thing that most people need to do--especially business executives-is be themselves. We must let the real "me" out. We all seem to want to hide behind a mask. But when we let the real "me" out, we inform, give insight, inspire-in short, give the audience something of ourselves. That's communicating, and that's what effective leaders do.

The next time you have to make a presentation to a group-whether inside or outside your organization-have it videotaped. Then look at your performance. You will quickly see whether it's "you" talking and whether you are giving yourself to the group. A corporate mask reading a speech or a prepared statement is boring. I've been in too many board meetings where we have been subjected to perfunctory presentations of the numbers by the numbers. It does not have to be this way. What's wrong with a smile and eye contact?

3. Listening. Most managers I've known will admit that they are not good listeners. They've been told so by their spouses, and it's been confirmed in their performance evaluations. How has this happened?

One reason is that we are never taught or trained to listen. Listening is the communication skill we use the most but are taught the least. We spend much more time in school learning to write, read, and speak.