Great communicators employ many different skills as they pursue success. Many of us focus on continual improvement in the tactical skills that carry our role — particularly true early in one’s career. Later, leadership, analysis and relationship skills help us become trusted advisors and strategic contributors.
One of the most important skills we can employ is giving unsought counsel – having difficult conversations with executives and clients where you disagree or offer an alternate view from theirs. I recently found myself in such a situation. The client is a new client and we don’t know each other well. She and her team are very interested in intranet governance and social media.
It is my practice to review current business and communication goals and objectives to better understand what drives the organization. The communication goals and objectives in place in this client organization are not strategic, not focused on behavior, and not likely to successfully position communication as the trusted advisor it should be. They also aren’t contributing to a strategic view of communication that drives the business.
Improving intranet governance and using social technologies may result in some successes, but couched in a flawed communication strategy, these things won’t have near the impact they could if the communication strategy itself were sound. Can you say “time for a tough conversation”?
What this requires most is courage – courage to think along a different line, to be observant of issues for which we’re not responsible, to speak up without prompting or expectation. Courage is in short supply in communication circles.
The best thing you can do is to prepare. Ask yourself the right questions first, and you’ll be better able to deliver clear messages and ask appropriate questions of the client. Consider:
1. What’s my relationship with the person and how might the conversation affect that relationship?
2. What would be the outcome if I never have the conversation? Bad enough to warrant intervention?
3. What are the two messages on which I can focus to get at the heart of the matter?
4. What is the balance to those two messages that helps to persuade and also lighten the negativity?
5. What examples can I offer in support of my concern?
6. What questions can I ask to get the client thinking along my lines of thought?
7. What solutions will I offer?
8. How will I wrap up the discussion in a positive and productive way?
What other tips do you have for giving unsought counsel? Share those and examples of a time when you worked through such a situation successfully.
Stacy Wilson, ABC, is president of Eloquor Consulting, Inc., in Lakewood, Colorado
