One of the most important concepts I know of, for both leadership AND communication success, is flexibility. In the 21st century, it has become so important to be able to adjust your style to different people and different situations.
It is just no longer appropriate or acceptable to assume that the whole world and everyone around you will adjust their style to yours. Good leaders today have their own core principles and are aware of their own strengths and weaknesses. But they are willing and able to adjust to changing environments and situations.
This means that the good leader will think about the people around them, understand that different people and circumstances will require different approaches, and have the skills and willingness to change their style as necessary.
When I see a leader expecting everyone and everything around them to adjust to them, I see a recipe for underperformance.
Have a great day.
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The Latimer Group
I agree — flexibility is important in order to have a two-way conversation. And if a leader isn’t have two-way conversations with his tribe (as Seth Godin would say), he/she is not going to make much progress.
My favorite thought on flexibility I’ve heard recently was Jeff Bezos’ description of Amazon’s approach to everything – that they are “stubborn on vision, but flexible on tactics” – which is an interesting paraphrase of your GAP thinking on delivery. Stubborn on vision is all about Goals, flexibility on tactics is all about adapting the Persuasion plan to the Audience.
Thanks Bryan. I love that… stubborn on vision, flexible on tactics. That’s fantastic.
Great comment, Dale. Communication needs to be “two-way” otherwise, it’s not communication. It’s dictation.