eBusiness Weekly
Arthur Marara
Strategy Six
Transparent and timely communication is essential during disruptive times. Keep your team informed about changes, challenges and the rationale behind decisions.
Actively listen to their concerns and ideas and provide support and guidance. By maintaining open lines of communication, you foster trust and alignment, enabling everyone to contribute to proactive problem-solving.
The word “communication” comes from the Latin noun “communication”, which meant a “sharing or imparting”.
The goal of communication is “sharing”. In other words if you do not connect with the intended recipient and impart what you have you have actually not communicated.
Effective organisations understand that clarity is the most crucial element to ensure effective communication.
Without clarity of communication, there are chances that you might be misunderstood. Clear communication eliminates all possibilities of confusion and miscommunication.
Communication is there to educate, entertain, or inspire. Your communication has to be done with the audience in mind.
I have delivered countless talks in my life as a public speaker, my focus every time I deliver a talk is on the audience. Are they really getting the message across.
I do not want to lose people when I am speaking. I want to educate, at times entertain but most importantly inspire action.
What is clarity of communication?
Communication is an art that has to be learnt and to be mastered. Every business must endeavour to train its team on the priority of communication, and also the art of communication itself.
There are common mistakes that businesses make, and below are some of them.
1. Using industry terms or jargon your customers don’t know or understand (or don’t need to know). The legal field has been one of the prime suspects with the use of some Latin terms which many of the times are often not explained. The idea of communication is to ensure that you are heard clearly, and not necessarily demonstrate your vocal or verbal prowess.
2. Using complex language to explain or express yourself (passive voice, overly formal, or being verbose)
Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication. Keep it simple, communicate the message in a way that everyone.
In my High School days I developed a habit of reading Thesaurus dictionary, and looking for these big words which people were not familiar with. The result was a “C” in English at “O” Level. I missed the point. The goal is communication. You need to understand that where there is clarity, you inspire people to take action. Clear and concise messaging is convinces others to take action.
3. Making the content all about you when you should be talking to and about your audience so they take action
This is perhaps why people need to understand the importance of effective teamwork. The organisation is not about you, and should never be about you. It has to be something bigger than you. Look for opportunities you can best serve the team that you are working with, and also how you can best serve your customer in your communication.
4. Not telling people what action they need to take
Organisations spent millions of dollars every year in strategy, but they fail to communicate the strategy to their employees. What does each employee have to do?
Why is “clarity” important?
The question that ordinarily follows is “Why is “Clarity” is the most important component of communication”. I will isolate and discuss a few reasons why clarity is key in communication.
Clarity gives guidance:
The term “clarity” comes from the Latin word “clarus,” which means “clear.” Everyone in your team requires clear information in our present communication environments, where there is either an overload of information, incorrect information, or just plain meaningless information. There must be no distractions in your communication. You can actually see if your communication passes this clarity test.
Clarity makes life easy for the communicator: Have you ever heard someone speak and you have had to look for simplification of what has been said?
I have had this experience a number of times. Simplicity relieves the recipient of the burden of interpretation caused by ambiguity. Complexity in the content and message suffocates effective communication.
Complexity will frequently leave your audience perplexed, causing them to make assumptions about the aim and expected outcomes. This is the surest way of losing people, and missing out on communication. The results are even better when the instruction is simple and clear. How clear are you in your communication.
Clarity inspires action.
Business leaders are frequently irritated by a lack of comprehension when they “believe” they have provided explicit directions.
The grievance usually stems from a breakdown in communication, which is often due to a lack of clarity. Failed and broken communication can cost the business in astronomical terms.
Testing your message reduces misinterpretation and failure in communications: Here is a quick way to test your clarity. Share one sentence with no less than ten words and no more than 15 with a person or group.
After delivery, ask that they repeat it back to you verbatim. What were the results? Are you surprised by the fact some won’t recall “exactly” what you said? Now really test your clarity. Ask them to tell you what you wanted based on that sentence.
Clarity of communication avoids confusion. Clarity of communication creates and builds relationships.
Clarity of communication tells people where they stand and sets expectations. Clarity of communication drives action. All of these aspects are necessary to having a profitable business, and effective organisations.
Arthur Marara
Arthur Marara is a corporate law attorney, keynote speaker, corporate and personal branding speaker commanding the stage with his delightful humour, raw energy, and wealth of life experiences. He is a financial wellness expert and is passionate about addressing the issues of wellness, strategy and personal and professional development. Arthur is the author of “Toys for Adults” a thought provoking book on entrepreneurship, and “No one is Coming” a book that seeks to equip leaders to take charge. Send your feedback to [email protected] or Visit his website www.arthurmarara.com or contact him on WhatsApp: +263780055152 or call +263772467255.
