Leadership: Communicate What?: Part 2

My last post simplified (maybe over simplified) great leadership as three basic principles: Vision, Communication, and Action Plans. Much has been written on each of these subjects but I thought I'd take some time to dive into them a bit...you know, because there is still so much that can be said.

I'll come back to vision next week or some time soon. This post is primarily about communication. No vision or action plan can be completed unless there is good communication on the front end, in the middle, and on the back end. Communication is an ongoing process, not a one time event when it comes to leadership.

I remember way back to my collage communications class often, I was terrible! I barely passed with a B. I had no idea what I was doing. I would basically read my "speeches" word for word. My excuse: I didn't have time to memorize. I didn't realize, as I do now after speaking in front of people for the last 16 years, communication happens best when the principles have been internalized and then are spoken from the heart.

Now I'm not saying I have it all figured out. There are people way better than me at speaking, preaching, presenting...I could go on. But I have come a long way and that is because of a couple of basic principles I have learned along the way, oh and I'm still learning how to best apply these!

1.  Begin with the end in mind. OK, I know that is straight up "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" but hear me out. When I don't have a clear picture of how my vision looks a few months or years down the road, it becomes even more difficult to communicate exactly what it is that I see. When we begin communication we have to have an end goal in mind. This is the path that we are attempting to take people on. When I gather people together to attempt a 14,000 ft mountain, I don't tell them about the months of planning, the pain of the heavy packs, or the possibility of altitude sickness. I tell them about the beauty of the mountains as your standing at 14,000 ft looking down across the range. That captures people. That is the end goal. But that is not the full picture of the journey to get there. People have to see where you are going, and your communication has to give them a picture of what this looks like in the end.

2.  Internalize, Internalize, Internalize. Change must first happen in you. Vision must first be captured and must first capture you. When your heart and passions are captured by something you can't help but to share. No one needs to write down the top five things about their fiance, it comes to them naturally from the heart, and you might have a hard time shutting them up at five. The mountains are something that captured my heart years ago. I have been on top of many 14ers (14,000 ft mountains). When describing the experience I can talk about what it has done for me, why I go back, and why others should too. This type of communication comes from within, from the heart, and people are captivated by it. They want to see it. They want to experience it. They desire it.

3.  Speak first to those close to you. Listen to those close to you. Recast to a larger group. This is a part of the process that is often most difficult. We want to go right from thought to actionable items. We want it to roll slickly off the tongue, but it can fall on deaf ears if it has not not been properly prepared. Often as leaders we don't know what others will hear us through. So test out your communication with others. Talk to your managers. Write it down for others to read. Listen to what they have to say. Create a feed back loop. I took a group up to the mountains last year, and did not follow a very direct path. Some on the trip loved it, some thought we should never do that mountain again. I had to take that in, listen and evaluate some of my process. Listen to the thoughts of those around you, stand by your convictions, and recast the vision when necessary.

4.  Tug at heart strings not just thought processes. It is tempting to give all the facts and figures of why our vision will/should work. But people are often first captivated by the story, the heart of the "why." When we communicate from our heart this should happen naturally. One of the reasons I got into hiking was because of the stories that some of my early guides told. I was captivated by them. I was engrossed in the possibilities of experiencing a similar camaraderie that I saw in them. I wanted to tell those stories. Let your communication tell a story. It could be your story or someone else'. It could be that you are telling the story of your company, the people in it, or the people you serve. Story is powerful because it tugs at our heart.

Each of these come from what I remember as "encoding" and "decoding." What we are attempting to encode via communication, is not necessarily what is decoded by the other people involved. We have to know them, know who they are, know their past, know their present...so that we have some idea of how our communication will be decoded. These 4 principles may help you in the encoding, and as you communicate this way, hopefully it will help those who are decoding as well.

Meditating On It Day and Night

What do you think of when I say "meditation"?  Do you think of some esoteric eastern mystical hum-drum? Or do you think of a Hebrew/Christian Discipline that has been practiced for thousands of years? 

Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline explained it this way, "Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind. The two ideas are quite different."  I don't know about you but I need my mind renewed (Romans 12:2) daily. I need my mind filled by the Spirit in order that it might push out all that is not of Him. But that's just me...

Meditation is one way that we can do this simple but important act of keeping the main things the main thing.  Though not the earliest record of meditation the book of Psalms is a great place to start while exploring this spiritual discipline.  Psalm 1:1-2 states,
"Oh, the joys of those who do not
    follow the advice of the wicked,
    or stand around with sinners,
    or join in with mockers. 
 But they delight in the law of the Lord,
    meditating on it day and night."

 The Psalmist knew of the importance of meditating on the Law of the Lord, as a way to make sure they were in line with how God wanted them to live.  But here the psalmist takes it a step further in saying that he "delights" in the law.  Wow- there is actually delight and freedom when one is following closely to the path that God has laid out for them.  Easy no. But is there joy and delight there? You bet!

Here are some quotes about Christian Meditation: 
"Meditation is really very simple and there is not much need of elaborate techniques to teach us how to go about it." Thomas Merton

"That is why meditation is so threatening to us. It boldly calls us to enter into the living presence of God for ourselves." Richard Foster

"To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever-present, all seeing, within you." Theophan the Recluse

When asked why he practiced meditation Dietrich Bonhoeffer replied, "Because I am a Christian." 

"...a familiar friendship with Jesus." Thomas a Kempis

"True contemplation is not a psychological trick but a theological grace." Thomas Merton

"No detachment is not enough, we must move on to attachment." Richard Foster

Scriptures: 
Psalm 1:2; 19:97,101,102, 148; 63:6, 17:12
Gen 24:63
Joshua 1:8
1 Samuel 3:1-18
1 Kings 19:9-18

Jesus often when out on his own to pray and spend time with God...How are you spending your time with the Lord? Is it renewing your mind? Ar you allowing Him to transform you? May your words and the meditation of your heart be pleasing to Him.


Psalm 19:14
May the words of my mouth
    and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing to you,
    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.