Monday, January 23, 2012

BRIAN BILLICK: BE A COMMUNICATOR

This is a series of thoughts from "Competitive Leadership: 12 Principles for Success" by Brian Billick. Part VII deals with being a communicator:

“The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that is have been accomplished.”
-George Bernard Shaw

During the course of a season, for example, I sometimes use a movie clip from a popular film to emphasize a particular point.

Without question, the telephone is potentially one of the most effective communication tools a person can employ.

Remember that “how” you say something can be more important than “what” you say.

Anytime you can insert color and movement to animate your subject matter, it can increase your players’ ability to comprehend and retain the game plan almost ten fold.

Steps for an effective presentation:

Step #1: The first step is to identify the objectives of your presentation.

Step #2: Your nest step is to know your audience.

Step #3: Next, you need to define what you’re going to do.

Step #4: Your fourth step is to gather information on your subject.

Step #5: Once you have gathered the information for your presentation, you need to organize your material.

Step #6: Your next step is to develop your presentation — shape all your ideas.

Step #7: When you reach a point where you have basically defined the points you are going to make in your presentation and the order in which you plan to make them, you need to decide what kind of visuals you will use to enhance your talk.

Step #8: You final step is to rehearse your presentation.

Ideas are like eggs — they can be served in several ways.

...the single greatest attribute of an effective leader: the ability to listen.
 
The ability to listen is a learned skill that requires considerable personal commitment to develop.

Work at listening. Listening is hard work. Effective listening requires that you apply yourself.

...when you take the time to document what you are doing, you bring clarity and definition to the situation in a way that verbalizing along cannot accomplish.

--Rules for writing:

--Write the way you speak.

--Get to the point.

--Be clear and concise.

--Be positive.

--Create visuals.

It is my style to challenge an associate’s point of view, even if I strongly believe in it. This approach is designed to find out how strongly he or she believes in their opinions. In other words, I want to test the courage of their convictions.

As a leader, if your memory is poor or inadequate, you are at a distinct disadvantage when communicating — either as a sender or a reciever.

Steps to improve your memory:

--Repetition. Repeat what you want to remember.

--Visualization. Make strong and very specific images.

--Association. Associate information with something you already know.

--Exaggeration. Assign something embellished (can be comical).

--Linking. Picturing information with something you already know.

--Acronyms. Use of a memorable word or phase by using first letters.

--Rhyming. Use of rhyming words for association.

--Key words. Recall of information through use of key words.

Much of the communicating you do is wordless. In fact, over 90 percent of your communication is nonverbal.

How you say something sometimes convey more meaning than what you actually say.
 
The final major category of nonverbal communication involves the way you dress and how you groom yourself.

“Give it to them loud and dirty, that way they will remember it.”
-George S. Patton