We were delivering a Managerial Skills session last week for the Leadership Team of an organisation. And spoke to some participants prior to the session. Many of them told us that they were leaders. And therefore wanted the session to have a leadership skills training bent to it. What emerged, however, was a little different. And was in fact communication skills training!
Yes, as odd as that sounds, it is the truth! And I’m sure the team members would have realised that too, even though their minds would have loved to deny it!
Communication and Leadership
Communication Skills training is a must for one and all. And is at the heart of Leadership Skills training.
In the current scenario; where Google is god, knowledge is really not an issue. It is readily available on the internet. You therefore don’t need to attend a Leadership Skills training to learn just leadership concepts. What leaders commonly miss out is the communication aspect that they require. And that’s not something they can really learn on the internet!
As with many leaders, this team also needed help on the same. They were having issues on the process front, which was creating problems and hampering their and their team’s output. And with the new financial year just around the corner, they were worried how they would be able to fulfil the ‘bigger’ target that they had been given by their management.
Deep Realisations
What transpired after a very interesting discussion with them, was how pretty much all of them needed communication skills training! They needed to understand how to have difficult conversations with one another. Inter departmental communication was currently an issue and an area that needed immediate attention.
They also realised that they needed to have conversations with their management. There were certain policies that were creating bottlenecks in their processes. This was leading to difficulties in managing customer demands and giving rise to many unhappy customers. And could well be a reason for making their new target difficult to reach.
Communication with subordinates also needed improvement. The leaders were, after all, responsible for the culture of the organisation and had to set a good example to one and all.
Such realisations made the team understand the importance of communication skills training even for a leader. They also understood why we say that a leadership skills training is incomplete without it!