Communication to lead and inspire
Something that become very clear to me quite early on in my career is that you don’t have to be in a “leadership position” to be a leader. The key to being a leader, be it in business, sport or life in general, is inspiring others and working with people to produce something that others are interested in.
If you can engage and nurture your key partners, if you treat them as equals it will help to unlock many possibilities for long term enduring change. This is leadership with impact and meaningful connections and communications are at the heart of this.
The imperative to collaborate as leaders and engage with others at all levels has never been clearer than it is right now. We used to be easy to reach and influence because humans by nature are pack animals. We tended to favour group think and the information outlets we had were very limited and often local. Now conventional media and broadcasting has changed and will continue to change at a fast pace.
Social media has redefined what we mean by “community” and “friend”. Now everyone of us as a voice and many of us are not afraid to speak up. Add to this the fact that we are all citizen journalists now – armed with a phone/camera and access to the internet in our pocket - the world is our oyster in terms of sharing news, views and random status updates. That means that every interaction you and your organisation has with someone has the potential to be broadcast to the masses. With all this comes confusion - who do we trust? Who provides a source of truth vs “alternative facts”.
Being a “good” corporate citizen or brand is essential these days as consumer purchase decisions become more values and purpose driven. But just being good is not always enough to cut through the clutter and noise.
We are spoilt for information and over-welled by content so brands and organisations must establish meaningful connections on a daily basis if they want to be true leaders. You need to look for ways to tell your story to consumers and communities in an authentic way.
We cannot exist in silos, with great business ideas, service or product innovations and expect others to notice us or share our enthusiasm. In today's environment, the most successful leaders are those who can span old boundaries and inspire others to create new and different connections.
Sharing what you know and using your commercial and consumer insights to help provide new and different solutions to the challenges and problems being faced in the community is a great way to ensure your connections are impactful and demonstrate true leadership.
So how do you build the right story? How do you engage and inspire others? How do you lead, communicate and connect with impact?
I have broken this into 4 easy steps. You need to :
True to my focus on ‘showing” not telling, here are a couple of examples that you might want to check out to see what this looks like in action:
Taking Notice - Z Energy’s “We Can Do Better” campaign last year actively engaged NZers, to contribute our own ideas on what Kiwis and Z Energy could do to make a difference to the local environment and planet with regards to climate change. They didn’t just talk to existing customers, suppliers or their own staff nor did they make assumptions based on their own intel. They used this as an opportunity to talk with the community because as their Chief Executive Mike Bennetts said, “We think we can come up with better solutions working together with New Zealand than working alone.“ This is collaborative leadership in action and the start of some meaningful connections.
Connection – Vodafone’s Parenting in a Digital Age online programme. As I have talked about before, this is one I am personally grateful for as a mother of two young kids. They have used their expert knowledge and consumer insights and partnered with other experts in Netsafe and The Parenting Place to help support partners and improve the community they operate in.
I think the old saying – treat others as you would like to be treated yourself provides a perfect summary of why this more open, transparent and collaborative approach to communication is so important for all brands and businesses these days. The opportunities are limitless if we take time to notice, act and connect with those around us but we must make it a rule – stakeholder engagement and collaborative leadership is not a one off, tick the box exercise as respect is earned not given.
If you want to talk about each of these in more detail or you are looking for support establishing meaningful connections and demonstrating your organisations genuine care and understanding – lets talk