Effective communication is not easy, but once you master it you’ll find you can transcend industries, work with different people and really solve many business problems.

Excellent and effective communication skills are universal. They transcend careers, jobs and industries. They are wholly lacking from most workplaces. They will set you apart from others. They really can be a super power in the world of work.

In this post and associated video, we’re going to look at the 11 that I’ve used in my life. They’re also the foundation of the award winning Superpower at work Workshop. And there’s a reason it wins awards – I apply all 11 to the workshop too!

Here’s a video :

How did I come up with the 11?

I studied communication at School, College and University. I still study it today.

Early in my career though I knew the theory, but I couldn’t realise it in practice. It was holding me back.

So I studied great communicators in the workplace and deconstructed what they did. I added this to my theory to understand how it all pieced together in real life.

I started speaking on the conference circuit and sucked. So I deconstructed amazing talks I found online. I got rid of the superficial advice most presentation coaches teach and stripped it back to the science underneath. After all, for every presenter who had high energy and used structured arm movements (classic advice), there was a speaker who did the opposite but had an amazing talk. So it was more than just the classic advice – it ran deeper than that.

I came up with the 11 after years of studying high performers.

These 11 became the foundation of the Communication Workshop and Zero To Keynote workshops. They also became the foundation of myself.

There were two other reasons why I applied these. And when I understood these two – my career really took off.

Relationships are how the world works
With good relationships you can have crunchy conversations, grow your network, influence people, inspire groups of people, play politics, get work done, discover opportunities others don’t get to see and be recommended for jobs, promotions and work. Relationships matter.

How do you build relationships? Through effective communication one person at a time – ideally face to face.

Many people focus almost entirely on business effectiveness (actually, plenty of people don’t focus here at all, nor on being liked but that’s for another post…..), often at the detriment to their relationships in work and life.

Getting business results is essential. But so too is being liked, admired, respected and trusted. And this is done through communication. Face to face. Person to person.

It’s about being consistent, clear, resonating with others and having the awareness to know when to be liked and when to be effective.

Sometimes we have to be effective and disliked. Sometimes we have to be liked at the expense of business results, for example if someone is not delivering because they are going through emotional challenges.

But most of the time we need to tread the line between the two. We must continuously balance being effective and liked.

Power is required for influence

There’s only one form of power (the ability to get stuff done) in an organisation that is sustainable and that is relationship power. (Idea hat tip to Manager-tools.)

Role power is given by title and position (and many people don’t deserve either of these) but when role power is abused it becomes destructive and tyrannical.

Expertise power is useful and helpful, but without relationship power it can become corrosive, and when you are no longer the expert – what else do you have?

The third power in an organisation, is open to all of us, no matter what position or level in an organisation. Relationship power.

This is why I focus almost entirely on building, maintaining and supporting positive relationships. It’s how the world of work (and life) works.

The 11 principles of effective communication

Here are the 11 principles that underpin my view of effective communication.

1. All communication has a Purpose, Audience, Context
2. Be Enthusiastic
3. Communication is something the audience does
4. Stories go where facts cannot
5. Don’t waste the audiences time – know your content
6. Practice is preparation
7. People remember how you make them feel
8. Non-verbal is a superpower
9. People resonate with those who are like them
10. You CAN hack your body
11. Listening is the greatest compliment

Effective Communication – 1 – All communication has a Purpose, Audience, Context

My awesome professor at University made this his foundation for all he taught, and it stuck with me. He used to fall off stage. Or walk out of the room mid-sentence. Or drop his notes.He was the craziest lecturer I had at University.

But he got our attention every time he did one of his acts. It snapped us back in the room.

I’ll never forget him.

His lectures were the ones that stuck with me the most. He was an expert communicator – but then, what do you expect from a world-renowned lecturer of communication?

He taught us that everything we do (even when we stand still and say nothing) is a form of communication.

And communication always has a purpose, an audience and it happens in a context.

The more we become aware of our purpose the more chance we have of getting our communication right. The more purposes we try to shoe-horn into our communication – the harder it is to get it right.

Let’s say you’re putting together a talk for your team and your purpose is to get them excited for a new way of working. Being efficient, you also try to educate them about the new accounting system at the same time. You also see yourself as a cultural ambassador, so you also try to get them onboard with a new HR scheme around giving back to the community. But this new way of working is a big impact to them, and all you’ve done with the other items is water down the message.

Great communicators are clear about what they want to achieve. And they do the hard work (even if this means multiple messages) to get that purpose done.

I see people mixing purposes of communication all the time and it rarely works. Pick a single purpose – what’s the main point and stick with it. Make the communication about that propose and little else. There are other opportunities to communicate the other points.

Everything we do also has an audience.

Who are you seeking to communicate with? Who are you trying to reach? Who do you want to influence? And how do they like to be communicated with? And what do they want?

If you know a lot about your audience then tailor the communication for THEM, not for you. If it means using a different style to resonate with them, so be it.

The more audiences you have, the harder it will be to get it right. Narrow it down.

I once saw an amazing talk at a tech conference by a woman from corporate HR in a large tech company. She was brilliant and the talk resonated with me given my work in HR.

The problem was, the majority of the audience wanted a technical talk – they were developers there to learn about code and tooling. They were mostly less than impressed.

The feedback devastated her, but she was simply at the wrong conference, in-front of the wrong audience. It wasn’t her audience. Should she have tailored her communication? Maybe. More likely the conference organisers should have lined up someone else. Wrong audience, wrong conference.

Be sure you have the right audience. Be sure that when you do have the right audience, you tailor the message to them.

All communication happens in a context.

Are you communicating through a tweet, from the stage, in times of trouble, from the stage, in a group setting?

What dynamics are happening in the room, environment, audience? Is it a noisy room? Do you have people from different cultures? Is the medium the right choice? Is the company going through hard times or enjoying rapid growth?

As with Purpose and Audience, the more contexts that are at play, the harder it is to get your communication right. You’ve heard the saying “it was taken out of context”. Very real.

Great communicators get clear about what they are trying to do, who they are trying to reach and in what context that communication will happen – and they narrow down and get it right.

This might mean that they have to repeat the message in different communication mediums. But communication is hard. Don’t try to be efficient with communication at the expense of being effective.

I worked with a leader once who had to reduce his team size by 40%. A huge number. People were going to be made redundant. He wanted to send an email to announce this. Really?

Think about this.

Purpose – to announce to a team of 100 people that they would all be under consultation for redundancy.

Audience – his team of 100 people of different genders, races, religions and all likely oblivious to the drama about to unfold in-front of them.

Context – they didn’t know this was coming, they would be upset, they would have questions, this was serious stuff.

An email doesn’t cut it. He wanted to send an email because:

1. He preferred to send and receive information via email
2. He didn’t like addressing crowds
3. He didn’t want to have to deal with tough questions
4. He wanted to send the message once to make it easier and more efficient

WRONG.

Think about the audience. What would they want?

So, I suggested:

• He calls a Town Hall meeting, present some of the facts, tell the story, look people in the eye and make the announcement.
• This was to be followed by a Q&A at the end of the session – for as long as it took.
• This was to be followed up with a neutral email including all the points mentioned and next steps.
• The following day he would run another Q&A session to answer any questions and concerns that people had after sleeping on it. He was to be joined by head of people and the HR business partner to field questions – both well prepped of course.
• He was then to spend time with each of his managers in a 1:2:1 session to explain next steps, arm them with the facts and single story. He was then to mandate that each manager have a 1:2:1 with each team member.
• This was then to be followed with a day blocked out for individuals to book a 1:2:1 with him to speak directly.
• This was then to be followed by another Town Hall to talk through the details, discuss next steps and field any more questions.

Your audience demands and deserves effective communication, and in this situation – empathy.

Think about what they want, and if you have to leap through rings of fire to make it effective – do it. It’s not about you. It’s about them.

Get clear about your purpose, audience and understand what context the communication will happen in. And spend time working on your message to get it right. It takes time, care and consideration, and few people put that sort of effort into what they do, say and send.

Effective Communication – 2 – Be Enthusiastic

When I ask people to be enthusiastic, do you know what they do? They start being animated and waving their arms around.

That’s not being enthusiastic, unless that’s your default behaviour. That’s being animated.

My suggestion is you spend some time on Ted Talks and watch 20 random talks.

Almost all of the presenters are enthusiastic about what they do, but they all have different ways of delivering it. Some are animated and have high energy, some are calm and confident, others seem shy and nervous, but you can tell they are passionate about what they are speaking about.

Most presentation training is nonsense. They’ll teach you to walk the stage, go big and go home with your hands and to add energy yada yada.

Not good advice for everyone. Watching talks online shows this.

Instead, be enthusiastic about what you’re communicating first, then address any flaws in your presentation style. Sure, some people need plenty of help to exude presence on the stage or in emails or in their blog, but we’ll cover many more principles in this post. But it all starts with being enthusiastic.

Enthusiasm is contagious.

Why do you need to be enthusiastic?

You’re highly unlikely to convince somebody of your argument or perspective without enthusiasm. If you’re not enthusiastic about it – why should they be?

And in most communication, we are indeed trying to influence someone to do something.

• “Buy this”
• “Support this new idea”
• “Give me some money”
• “Help me”

Enthusiasm is not drama, acting, bouncing across stage. It is energy, focus, knowledge and intention on a subject. People can see it, feel it and be moved by it. People want to be around enthusiastic people.

How to be enthusiastic

Easy.

Find something to be enthusiastic about.

This sounds stupid but many people simply aren’t enthusiastic about what they do. If that’s true – are you really doing the right things? It’s going to be tricky to be enthusiastic about something you are not enthusiastic about.

If you really aren’t enthusiastic about something, then act enthusiastically. Find something in what you’re doing to be enthusiastic about. Throw yourself in to your idea, work or thoughts. Find some way to drive out enthusiasm.

Or simply pretend – if that’s what you need to do. But be aware, people will see through fake enthusiasm quickly. And it will be draining to fake enthusiasm about something you have no care for. That’s not a life.

And if there really is nothing to be enthusiastic about in your work or message – then try to find something else to do.

It’s why the best salespeople in the world excel at selling things they believe in. After all, if you have a good product you believe in, you can sell it without any doubts. You’ll be enthusiastic about something you believe in.

Be aware though, sometime enthusiasm is not needed. For example, if you’re about to make 50 people redundant – try not to be too enthusiastic about it.

Again, what’s the purpose, audience and context? Understand these elements and apply enthusiasm at the right time and in the right doses.

Effective Communication – 3 – Communication is something the audience does

The listener does indeed share some responsibility for communication to happen, but when communication fails, it’s usually our own fault.

If we send an email, address a room, build a PowerPoint, drop a text message or have a face to face conversation and the listener does NOT understand/receive/interpret the message then we have failed to communicate.

It is our fault.

We must understand why our messages don’t land. A lot of this has to do with Purpose, Audience and Context, but we should also truly try to understand the other person(s) we are communicating with and move more to THEIR preference for communication.

This is where DISC becomes a really helpful tool – we start the communication workshop with DISC to discover our own preferences, strengths and weaknesses when it comes to communication. It’s a great tool for understanding others too.

But ultimately, we are looking for feedback from the receiver / audience of the message to show that they have received and processed the message. Without that, we’ll not know whether the message was received.

If the feedback is that they did not understand our message, what do we need to do differently?

Most people just shout louder, repeat the same message, force it, badger and they often get the same results.

It is our responsibility to ensure the message lands.

It is our responsibility to adapt the way we communicate. The listener shares some responsibility, but we should also work out how we can engage them better.

• Do we need to choose a different time? Different medium? Change the message?
• If you send an email and the person doesn’t do what you asked or respond – that’s your fault. Did they receive it? Did they understand it? Did they read it?
• If you stand on stage and deliver what you think is an inspiring and motivating talk, yet nobody moves into action. That’s your fault.

Communication is hard and sometimes people assume they have communicated just because they sent, said or broadcast something.

Communication happens in the head of the listener – it is what THEY do.

So, it’s your job to understand them, communicate in a way that resonates with them and then adjust as you go, always learning what works and what does not.

But you also need to work on yourself. Why do people listen to you? Why do they not?

The messenger is the medium in today’s world. It matters who is communicating.

Sad as it is, we sometimes believe people because of who they are, not what they are communicating. So, you must also work on yourself.

Become more effective by ensuring you’re projecting the right image, using the appropriate language and demonstrating presence – all can be learned. But you can only learn this stuff if you want to.

I meet too many people who think they are already brilliant at effective communication. And they believe the reason they are not heard is somebody else’s fault. It’s not – it’s on you.

Communication happens in the head of the listener.

Effective Communication – 4 – Stories go where facts cannot

Stories work. We are pre-wired to listen to stories. Hard facts are useful, but they rarely move people to action. Stories have characters we resonate with, obstacles we want them to overcome and personal growth that we can align around.

We want to know why we should put in effort at work to get behind new initiatives. Or why we need to change to support the goals of the business.

Stories are how we compel people into action. They are how we explain complicated ideas. Stories go where facts cannot. Stories are emotional. And emotion and motion come from the same place.

Metaphors, anecdotes, real-life stories, fiction, humour – they all play a part in telling compelling stories. Effective communicators tell stories. And stories resonate.

If you ever find yourself listing and presenting facts to people – turn them in to stories.

Not good at story telling? Practice. Practice. Practice.

Effective Communication – 5 – Don’t waste the audiences time

Good communicators don’t waste people’s time. Effective communication uses just the right amount of time.

Effective comnunications use just the right amount of time. Not too much or too little. They don’t use lots of words when a few will suffice. They don’t tell the whole story when only part of it is needed.

They don’t send essay emails when a one-liner will do. In fact, excellent communicators don’t often send emails 🙂

They know their purpose, audience and context and tailor the message for each, even if it means they have to communicate in different ways for different people.

Don’t try to be efficient in communication unless you are effective first though.

But don’t take up people’s time. In the spirit of this element, let’s move on.

Effective Communication – 6 – Practice is preparation

Effective communication takes practice. Practice is preparation.

• That tricky 1:2:1 with a low performing employee – practice what you will say and how you will say it.
• That talk at a conference – practice it. Walk through it, learn it, tie it your stage movement if you want.
• That sales pitch to the execs about a new way of working you want to embrace – practice it. Think about what questions will come back at you. And practice your response.
• Those listening skills that could be better – practice.

Practice is not perfection, it is preparation.

The real event will never go as you expect, but by being prepared you can deal with nerves, disturbances or other issues that pop up.

Practice writing by writing more. Practice presenting by presenting more. Practice listening by listening more. Practice non-verbal communication by studying others, studying yourself in the mirror or understanding someone’s eye colour during a conversation. Practice.

By being prepared, you’re already leaps and bounds ahead of others, but you’re also learning how to better yourself.

I always start the communication workshop with a giant caveat. I cannot teach you to be an effective communicator in one day. But I can give you the tools and techniques needed to move ahead, the rest is up to you – and that requires practice.

Effective Communication – 7 – People remember how you make them feel

We remember the highs and lows more than the in-betweens. Researchers believe we tie memory to emotion.

So, if you want people to remember you and what you say, try to make them feel something. Some people do this by making people feel bad. If that’s your brand, then go for it. I prefer to make people feel good.

We cannot make anybody feel anything – that is up to them. But we can deploy the various ideas in these 11 principles to try and move people to feel something.

I deploy a lot of positive language, good body language and positive interactions to ensure people feel good in my presence.

People remember how you make them feel.

Make them feel something, anything, and help them to remember your message. Tread carefully though, treat people like people and ensure everything you do is congruent with your values and ethics.

Think about the long term also. Feeling annoyed, frustrated and fed up with someone may aid memory, but people don’t like to feel like that on a long term, on-going basis. We seek to avoid painful situations, so tread carefully. Effective communication isn’t always about moving people into action but when you need or want someone to move into action, try deploying many of these principles to try and stir something inside them.

Effective Communication – 8 – Non-verbal is a superpower

Psychological safety, charisma, control, confidence, assertiveness, effective communication – they all require and utilise non-verbal cues and information. It’s why I focus so intently on non-verbal communication – it makes a huge difference to how effective you can be at work. And it can be learned. It can be studied. It can be improved. Effective communication is mostly made up of non-verbal communication. It’s why I call this particular behaviour a superpower.

Effective communicators can read others, control their own non-verbal (to an extent) and are aware of how their body language affects the messages and communication.

There’s lots to learn here, but let’s just sum it up. If you are not using your natural awareness of body language to be an effective communicator, there is a great deal to gain by understanding the basics.

And yes, I said natural ability. We all have it, all we do in the workshop is draw attention to it, tease it out and make you consciously study it.

So much so, that after the workshop people hate me for a few weeks, as they realise how many “tells” they give away. They start to study their own body-language and it can be clunky for a few weeks or months, but when you get it – it will seem natural.

Remember, non-verbal communication often communicates the emotional aspect of your message. Ensure it’s congruent with the words that come out of your mouth.

Effective Communication – 9 – People resonate with those who are like them

People resonate with those who look, sound and act like themselves.

Effective communication is about the exchange of information and it’s much easier to communicate with people like ourselves. Much easier. But we often don’t work with people who are like us.

We have a real diversity in the workplace (thankfully), so we must learn to adjust ourselves to move closer to the other person(s). DISC again is helpful, but so too is deeply understanding our purpose and audience.

We always have something in common with everyone.

It could be kids, a shared birthday, music we like, films we hate yada yada yada. Finding those connections and playing on them is a way to build rapport and trust and start a relationship. What might seem insignificant can lead to rapport. And the best way to build rapport is to sound like the people we are communicating with.

I’m not suggesting you start dressing in a totally different way and losing what it means to be you. Far from it. But if we’re serious about communication and using it effectively, we must learn to adapt to the audience.

If I am doing a talk at a company where jeans and t-shirts are the norm, I will dress a level above that and maybe stick a shirt on. If I’m consulting at company where suits and tie are the norm, I will dress in a suit and tie.

My goal is to resonate with the people I am talking to and appearance makes a big difference.

The language I use will resonate with the person I am talking to. I will use DISC to quickly try and work out who I am talking to and use language to resonate such as “I feel” or “I think” to sound like others.

I will use the same analogies as they do (war, sports, emotions etc) and I will try to move as close to their style of communication as possible, without losing what it means to be me.

It’s hard to do this, but when you see it in action – effective communication can take place. Effective communicators are like chameleons, able to shift and change to suit the audience. It’s great to see. But be careful not to lose yourself whilst trying to be like others. Remain true to you and your values. But learn to shift your delivery to resonate with different audiences.

Great communicators make this look seamless – the truth is, there’s years of studying and practice behind it.

Effective Communication – 10 – You CAN hack your body

Feeling down? Go and stand in front of a mirror and jump around whilst smiling stupidly – will you feel better? Chances are you will.

Head full of crap? Meditate for a few minutes or spend some time in nature. Will you feel better? I suspect you will.

There is plenty of research to suggest that how we talk to ourselves, who we hang around with and how to carry ourselves makes a big difference to how we feel. And how we feel makes a massive difference to how effective we are at communicating.

Learn how to hack your body and you will see your communication effectiveness change with it. Effective communication requires us to be in a positive and healthy state of mind.

Here are three techniques that I use:

1. I listen to music I listened to as a child. It transports me back to a carefree time where my biggest worry was whether or not my VHS player was set to record Red Dwarf.
2. I watch a funny video. My go to for instant feel-better vibes is Rhod Gilbert and his suitcase.
3. I find a mirror and smile at myself. Usually accompanied with music and stupid dancing.

Feel better? Yep. And you’ll be better at communicating also.

Effective Communication – 11 – Listening is the greatest compliment

Do you remember the person at a networking event who just talked at you all night? Unlikely, or maybe you do but for all of the wrong reasons. After all emotions tie to memory.

Or do you fondly remember the person who listened to you, asked you thoughtful questions and spoke very little? I always remember these people.

We want people to listen to us. We want to feel understood and considered.

And if you’re a manager or leader then listening becomes really important.

Listening really is the greatest compliment you could give someone.

Learning to listen is hard. It requires we give people our full attention, we look at them, we turn our whole body to them, we listen to every word, we don’t interrupt, we don’t assume we know what they are going to say next and that we wait for them to completely finish. We then digest, accommodate and assimilate what they’ve said – and then we thoughtfully respond.

Conclusion

Learning how to be a better communicator takes knowledge of ourselves, a deep study of other people and an ability to move closer to other people’s preferences for communication.

Most of all though, effective communication requires practice and an open mind to learning.

Nobody can teach you this in a day. It’s a long-term commitment to learning how to be better that will help you build relationships, be effective & liked in work and to yield the power that is open to every single person in every organisation – that being relationship power.

Take one of the 11 elements in this post and practice it, study it, learn it.

If you want to see how they all combine for different situations, learn in a group setting, improve your team’s communication or learn how to excel in your career, then give me a shout. The Communication Workshop is consistently ranked highly at conferences and events.

How I apply all 11 principles to my own Communication Workshop

All communication has a Purpose, Audience, Context

I spend time researching your company and culture. I also ask you to complete a DISC profile before the session. I work with the room to understand what THEY want from the session and then plug in modules to satisfy your needs.

Be Enthusiastic

I walk an average of 15k steps during a comms workshop and get through around 4 litres of water (I’m sure that’s not healthy). The energy in a room comes from the presenter. It’s why I need two days off after each workshop 🙂

Communication is something the audience does

We repeat stuff. We repeat stuff. We repeat stuff. I need to be sure you learn, and the best way is to challenge your thinking, clarify my ideas and then repeat until we’re sure we all know it.

Stories go where facts cannot

The whole day has stories from the last 20 years of my work weaved into it. I use examples to explain and I use stories to make the facts interesting.

Don’t waste the audiences time – know your content

We only cover what you need covering and I get to the point quickly. No fluff.

Practice is preparation

I have run over 100 editions of this workshop and I improve each time. I also know it like the back of my hand so you can be sure it’s well delivered and well-rehearsed.

People remember how you make them feel

Before we even start, I’m applying this so that when I make mistakes, or get tricky questions, or start flagging at any point you’ll still like me. I work very hard to make you feel good before, during and after the session.

Non-verbal is a superpower

I make an idiot of myself explaining the ideas around non-verbal. And I use them myself throughout. I make an interesting case study for you to learn from me as I teach.

People resonate with those who are like them

I can adapt to make this workshop work for you. Years of delivering this workshop to different audiences means I can weave in appropriate stories for your company. The study I do about your organisation also means I can pitch it right, straight from the start. But like an effective communicator, I learn as I go also – adapting throughout the day to you to ensure you learn and come away better prepared for your communication challenges.

You CAN hack your body

Watch me during the day. I stand tall, maintain good posture, do a power-pose before the session and keep smiling. Smiling is contagious.

Listening is the greatest compliment

Most of all though I will listen. Listen to you, listen to the room and listen out for ways to make the session better. Understanding your needs and wishes with the workshop will help us all.

If you’re interested in the workshop, here are more details about it.