Are Your Conversation Skills Actually a Catastrophe?

If your hope is to become a more effective transformational leader, it’s imperative your conversation skills are rock solid and inspiring, not a catastrophe!

Great leaders don’t rule from a lofty throne; they build a community of committed team members around them. If you hope to have any chance of becoming a better leader, you had better let the following truths sink in:

– Your negative tendencies aren’t getting you anywhere. While you might think you’re motivating the team by focusing on the targets they haven’t met or the tasks that are left undone, the truth is, your negativity is killing any inkling of motivation your team might have.

– Your holier-than-thou attitude is a real turn-off in conversations. If you want any chance of building rapport among your team, you’re going to need to learn that dialogue requires two-way conversations. If speaking at people instead of to people is your thing, you’re probably better suited to preaching from a pulpit than trying to run an organization.

– Your feigning interest in conversations is getting old. Looking at your smartphone or glancing off into the distance during a conversation shows real disrespect to the other party. A genuine conversation requires mutual respect; get with the program or don’t bother engaging in the first place.

– Your habit of constantly interrupting during conversations is a real turn-off. A relevant interjection is one thing; stopping a conversation midstream to pass on your pontifications is supremely annoying. Don’t expect others to be impressed by your leadership skills until you’re ready to lose your habit of interrupting during a conversation.

Becoming a great leader involves more than reading self-help motivation books or hanging with people who fancy themselves as movers and shakers in the business world.

Improving your conversation skills is absolutely critical for reputation building.

It might be a bitter pill to swallow, but learning that your current habits are standing in the way of your leadership dreams might be the most motivating tidbit of tough love you’ve had to suffer through.

Are your communication skills sometimes bordering on the edge of catastrophic with your team? Are they hurting or helping you? What do you think you can do to improve? Let me know in the comments below.