An early career mentor of mine — a senior leader — regularly reminded me, “Art, you’ll go as far as you can communicate.”I took him seriously, and I worked hard to emulate his energetic, confident stage style, and thoughtful one-on-one demeanor.
And while “presence” is important, I learned over time that succeeding as a communicator was much more about substance than smile and style.Here are five lessons I learned — sometimes the hard way — during two decades of leading and guiding others. Use the ideas in great professional success!
1. Listening is a leader’s job one
There’s a difference between hearing and truly listening. It’s easy to think you’re listening to someone as they share an update or describe a problem while you are multi-tasking.
You hear their words, but you’re not listening. If you were, you would turn to the person and throw your whole mind and body into the process of striving to understand what they are trying to say.
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