Communication Skills Of A Good Leader

Every employee has a story of working with someone who was just a poor communicator. I have my own story too. The person I worked under was, by all polite standards, a mystery. He wasn’t clear about his expectations, his feedback (whether positive or negative) was always vague and his instructions were very arbitrary to say the least. Simply put, he had terrible communication skills. This caused problems in many areas of his job – poor relationships with his subordinates, lack of camaraderie with his peers and animosity with his superiors. Surprisingly his job with the company somehow lasted longer than it should have. Truth eventually won the battle and he was terminated. But his departure left such a huge ‘crater’ of confusion that the entire company revamped its method, mode and policy for communication across the board. In the aftermath, the new communication policy was much clearer than before!

So what type of communication skills should a good leader have? What makes a good communicator? Leaders carry a great deal of responsibility on their shoulders with respect to their job responsibilities, manage production output and quality service, marshalling his or her personnel and resources and all the while keeping the whole process within the satisfactory limits of the company’s watchful gaze. 

Lets look at a few aspects of good communication that a leader should keep in mind: 

1. Leaders with good communication skills must make sure to be very clear about their goals, expectations and vision. 
2. They must give clear and consistent feedback through the whole process of execution so that the required demands of performance or quality are adhered to with minimum margin of error.
3. They communicate any progress or deficiency clearly to higher levels of authority so appropriate decisions can be made accordance with the needs.
4. Lastly, regardless of how the job plays out, they make sure to give ample motivation and inspiration to the team on a job done with excellence, inspiring a spirit of perfection for the next project.

Communication Skills Training is a vital component of enhancing correspondence within the organization regardless of their size or business. Such training programs equip the people that matter with the skills that matter even more. 

MMM Training Solutions conducts communication skills training, corporate training, soft skills training, cross cultural training and leadership training programs for corporates in India and abroad. 

The Team Building Traits of Outbound Training

Throughout history, great men and sages will tell you that it was at the their darkest and deepest moments in life that they learnt some of their greatest lessons. Sometimes a lifetime worth of lessons can only be learnt through the twists, turns, challenges, and obstacles of life. While certain skills like planning, organizing and scheduling can be taught in a formal or controlled environment, other intangible and more valuable qualities like leadership, character, perseverance and courage can only be learnt through the storms of life that one goes through over a period of time. It is precisely these qualities that outbound training seeks to train people in by simulating experiences in controlled environments albeit natural and slightly unpredictable ones. They can immensely help foster the following:

·         Situational leadership skills rise to the surface. The old adage, ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’ is proven true. outbound training environments create the necessity of having to step up and take charge to cohesively lead the rest.

·         Teamwork and partnering is crucial, as certain situations will bring about challenging situations for anyone to overcome by himself or herself. This helps develop social skills and teamwork.

·         Working cohesively as a unit in such an environment also helps with communication, efficient management of resources and trouble-shooting skills. This of course requires every member of the team to be on the ‘same page’ with a binding vision that unites instead of trying to accomplish things as an individual.

Outbound Training is a valuable program that companies use everyday to help cultivate such intangible traits in their employees that can never be learnt in the safe and cosy environment of a corporate office.

MMM Training Solutions are experts in the filed of outbound training, corporate training, leadership training, leadership skills training, soft skills training, cross cultural training and many more for corporates in India and abroad.

For more information visit us at http://www.mmmts.com/ 

Childlike Curiosity in Leadership

Recently I watched a video on YouTube of a TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson on ‘Do schools kill creativity?’ The most fascinating part of the talk was a small little story, which he told about a 6 year old restless kid in a drawing lesson. This little kid hardly ever paid attention, but in a drawing lesson she did. The teacher was pretty surprised and went up to her and asked her “What are you drawing?”

“I am drawing a picture of God”, replied the little girl.

A baffled teacher said, “But nobody knows, what God looks like.”

Pat came the reply, “They will, in a minute.”

The little girl had absolutely no fear of being proved wrong. She was trying to do something that not many have done in the past. However she had no qualms of venturing into unexplored paths. In our Leadership Training Program, we encourage our participants to create a path for themselves rather than follow the conventional safe route.

As a child, we are open to new and innovative ideas and risk is seen as an opportunity. As we grow up, we become increasingly risk averse. We start classifying situations as good or bad, possible or impossible prompted by multiple factors - past experiences, fear of failure or complacency. What a tragedy!

When a toddler starts learning to walk, he falls multiple times. Each time he falls down, he picks himself up and starts trying again. He is undeterred by failure or pain. He is driven by instinct to walk. What happens to mankind as we grow up? We lose the ability to see each situation for what it is. No two situations are similar; hence we should have varied approaches for each one. But we start to store our past experiences and use the same approaches to similar situations thus losing our ability to innovate.

“Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” ― Walt Disney Company

When we are able to see situation as unique, we are able to generate new passion and novel strategies. This does not mean that we will not experience failures. But mistakes can be our best friend, and failures can be our best teacher. So stay hungry and stay foolish!

I leave you with a quote from Plutarch that magnificently summarizes what I have written: “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”

The Courtesy of Customer Service

After living in India for nearly 15 years, moving to the West was an eye-opening experience, especially in the field of business and customer service. While India is known and celebrated for many glorious things, unfortunately customer services is not one of them and I’ve experienced more than a decade worth of bad experiences to come to that conclusion. The US was a breath of fresh air in comparison. Businesses would go out of their ways to make customers feel comfortable and cared for here in the West. Mistakes are owned up to and responsibility taken for any errors committed by the business.  Here the customer ultimately called the shots and is truly the ‘king’.

But what is the cause for this disparity? My illustration above might deceivingly give the impression that this is a cultural phenomenon. While culture may be a dynamic it is not the whole picture. It ultimately comes down to an ethical business understanding of customer values. And that has more to do with corporate culture than national culture. Customer experience is a highly valued tenet for businesses and translating that from mere external furnishings and interior decor to one on one relational dynamics is an entirely different enterprise. There are many aspects of customer service that makes a difference to the customer. But the most important of them – Courtesy.

Professional courtesy deals with anticipating the customers’ needs ahead of time, creating a conducive environment that caters to the customer’s shopping experience and servicing the numerous needs of the customer through multiple options. While customers are generally satisfied with the bare minimum that business services offer, the real deal-clincher is when businesses go above and beyond their ‘call of duty’ in order to please the customer or make his life easy. The old adage, “No one cares what you know unless they know that you care”, certainly rings true in the world of business!

Customer Service Training is a specific type of program that businesses these days expect their employees to participate in to train them in appropriate standards of business courtesy that suits the needs of the customer. 
MMM Training Solutions are experts in the field of customer service training, corporate training, leadership skills training, soft skills training, cross cultural training and many more, for corporates in India and abroad. 

The Role of Emotions in a Leader's Life

“Emotional Intelligence emerges as a much stronger predictor of who will be most successful, because it is how we handle ourselves in our relationships that determines how well we do once we are in a given job.” – Daniel Goleman

Recently I conducted training on Performance Dialogues for the executive team of a world-renowned pharmaceutical company. As emotions are a key part of our relationship with people, one of key areas that we focus on in this training is on Emotional Intelligence.

The theme for one of the role-plays was a manager giving feedback to a team member about his not-upto-the-mark performance. The team member played the role of a defiant team member. Within minutes they forgot that it was role-play and played out a real life situation. The manager resorted to the style of coercion that he was used to. The team member displayed anger and frustration about not being heard. The role-play was discontinued and feedback was given. The role-play was then rerun and the participants showed dramatic improvement.

At the end of the two-day workshop, one of the key people of the executive team made two significant remarks:  

• Why was there so much emphasis on emotions? 
• Why did we have to do role-plays? 

Emotions are not encouraged nor talked about enough in the work place today.  There is no cohesiveness in a team if there are no emotions. Emotions are not bad. They serve a purpose when used at the right time - for example; fear saves us from dangerous situations. Emotional Intelligence simply means to be intelligent about the use of your emotions.

I leave you with something to ponder about – “How effective do you think the participant is in managing his team?”

Emotional Intelligence Training plays a crucial role in shaping the emotional awareness and understanding in every individual and promotes a sense of confidence and strength within the team. 

MMM Training Solutions conducts emotional intelligence training, corporate training, soft skills training, leadership training, cross cultural training and more for corporates in India and abroad. 

3 Proven Steps to Stress Management

Stressed out? 

How many times have we asked someone this question? How many times have we been asked this question? There is a very good chance that you may be reading this because you’re a little stressed out. Stress is one of the most debilitating conditions in our society.  Stress can be experienced in virtually any and every aspect of our lives – Job pressure, money, health, relationships, sleep deprivation and poor nutrition. A recent US poll said that nearly 77% of people experience physical symptoms caused by stress. 

Some times it is easy to think of stress as something that just shows up ‘naturally’ once you hit a certain age. Stress is often associated with certain types of lifestyles. While these may sometimes be true, what is not true is that when stress ‘happens’ to you, you are powerless under its weight as a helpless victim. Stress Management is just as much about decisions and attitude as much as it is about circumstances beyond your control. In this article we will look at just three things that one can practice as efficient stress busters:

Identifying the Root

In a company setting, often employees have so many responsibilities and deadlines that an average day can become a blur of activities and stress. After that happens repeatedly, it is tempting to just ‘zone out’ once work is over and turn our mind to other things like rest or entertainment. But in situations like these, stress can build up like steam, creating immense pressure. Whenever one is experiencing stress, it is healthy to slow down or stop, step back and take a look at where this stress is coming from. What is the source? Processing and reflecting on this is a very crucial step to understanding the magnitude and solution for minimizing the stress. Identifying the root of the problem is half the battle.

Prioritizing responsibilities

Often stress can be caused by trying to do too much all at the once. It is better to be efficient at a few things than mediocre at everything. Moving things that require your attention to the top of the urgency list puts priorities into perspective and allows you to focus on that which needs your immediate attention. Everything else can wait.

Drawing boundaries

Sometimes employees don’t know when to say ‘no’ and to whom. Often within a high-pressure situation, the tendency is to bite off more than one can chew. When an employee’s plate begins to get full, the responsible thing to do is to approach their supervisor and discuss redistribution or delegation of responsibilities so that one can manage their tasks well. This will sometimes mean being very clear about what one can do and cannot.

Stress Management Training is an essential program within every company. It looks to serve and take care of its employees for their own sake simply because they are a company’s most valuable assets. Companies have diverse ways of handling stress within their employees:

Taking a Stance - A Leadership Essential

By withdrawing her participation from the National Squash Championship 2015, ace Indian squash player Dipika Pallikal has made a silent yet resounding and strong statement. Her stance came because of the vast discrepancy in the prize money offered to men and women who are competing for the same honor and glory of representing their country and winning laurels for their nation. In this tournament where the male winner stands to receive INR 1, 20,000 a female winner stands to win less than half of that amount, at INR 50,000.

With the wave of women’s liberation, this bold statement from Dipika is a refreshing and encouraging sign of good things to come. For decades, women in India have settled for pay cheques that are far lesser than what men draw for the same amount of work and effort. From the corporate world, to the world of celebrities, to the field of sports and in every other field, the highest award that women receive is still worth much lesser than what their male counterparts enjoy. Although a hue and cry has always been raised about it, Dipika has taken this one step further and put her money where her mouth is and put her opinion about this issue into action.  “I feel we deserve equal pay like most of the tournaments at the PSA professional circuit which are moving towards equal prize money”, she said.

This disparity does not exist only in the world of sports but also extends into the business world. The ratio of men and women who occupy senior positions in most organizations is shockingly variant. People like Dipika standing up against such disparity will hopefully set the precedence for more equality to emerge.

A very though-provoking quote by Helen Keller floats to mind like an illuminating glow of light at such times. “It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.” Times are changing and as a species we must change along with it. There is advancement happening in every field across the world and women are achieving tremendous heights, leaving nothing but awe and the celebration of success in their wake. Dipika’s recent statement is indicative of women refusing to take the easy way out anymore. All the advancement in the world only means that the world is now an equal, level playing field.

Whether you are a man or a woman, rich or poor, white or black, challenged or able, no matter who you are, the world is open to you in all its opportunities and possibilities. Being who you are does not make anything less accessible to you. Dipika’s move is a lesson on leadership and how leadership skills can make a positive difference. By taking a firm, assertive, unapologetic yet very respectful stand, she has made the world sit up and take notice. She has emulated Malala Yousafzai’s ringing words, “I raise up my voice – not so I can shout but so that those without a voice can be heard. We cannot succeed when half of us are held back.” Are you ready to let your voice be heard amidst the crowd?