Steps for Communicating Up & Down
Regardless of where you sit in your organization, you can use these steps to crush it in your everyday communications.
Here you go, go, go:
7 Steps For Communicating Up (adapted from The Moonshot Effect)
Be concise and lead with the summary: Start with 3 key points; provide extra detail only if asked.
Speak plainly: Avoid abstract jargon. It distracts and takes too much time to translate.
Be relevant: Know top concerns and focus of leaders and align your communications with these.
Be bold: Provide insights. Take a stand and make recommendations. Present problems with steps you’re taking to address them, like this—”Here’s the Context.” “Here are the Actions we’re proposing.” And “here are the Results we hope to to produce” (the CAR framework).
Be specific in requests: Decide what you want as a result of the conversation or meeting and ask for it specifically.
Reframe results as possibilities: “The impact on the business of doing X will be Y.”
Be consistent & close the loop: Ask how and when they want updates and follow through without fail.
The 7 seven steps for communicating up are not as steep as the 3 steps for communicating down. As a leader, you carry a heavier load in the communication dynamic because you need to create conditions in and around you so that people will bring you all the news—good, bad and ugly. Just your title alone can be a barrier. Like most leadership skills, these are simple AND they require being a little Zen (which takes a bit of practice):
3 Steps For Communicating Down
Communicate responsibly: The words leaders say carry extra weight. An off-the-cuff comment can send people into a frenzy to deliver what they think you want, pulling them off track and delaying progress. Think through and ask for the specific outcomes you want, and let your talented people figure out how to get it done.
If you’re a think-talker (you say things out loud to get clarity for yourself) know that you’ll baffle people around you. They’ll take action on stupid stuff or take no action at all because you may be sending mixed messages. If you MUST think-talk, tell people what you’re doing: “Bear with me. I’m just thinking out loud to get clarity. You don’t need to do anything yet.”
Practice the WAIT—“Why am I talking?” Are you truly adding value or is your ego saying it’s time to talk? Perhaps there’s a greater benefit to the team of letting someone else contribute (yep). Some leaders I work with commit to staying quiet until the end of the meeting or to saying nothing at all. The results are transformative. Give it a go.
Create conditions in and around you so that people want to engage with you: This means welcoming information with curiosity and openness, seeking to understand and problem-solving without blame. To do this, notice where and when you feel defensive, closed, or driven by a need to be right. Practice pausing and then asking powerful questions such as: What are YOU seeing? What’s your understanding of what happened? What am I missing? How would you approach this?
Powerful questions invite your people to tell you what’s going on. They also build engagement, collaboration and autonomy—three really important things you need for your teams to thrive.
If you want a little more support with step three, check out my 12 minute homey video on Disarming Techniques. It’s a great first step.