If Your Audience Does Not Understand the Message: You Failed!

Talking is not communicating.

Most bad decisions don’t come from bad intent. They come from bad communication.

I learned the basic theory of communication over 40 years ago in leadership school, what I still call old school. It hasn’t changed.

There is a transmitter, a medium, and a receiver.

The objective is simple: get a message to the receiver so it is understood and followed by timely, focused, precise action.

Somewhere along the way, leaders made communication more complicated and far less effective.

Every communication starts with something that matters: an observation, a request, a change in status, or a decision that needs to be made.

The message exists for one reason: so someone else can decide or act.

Most communication fails because messages are built around what the speaker wants to say, what the speaker knows, or what the speaker prepared, instead of what the receiver needs, what decision the receiver owns, and how quickly understanding is required.

What we intend to communicate is not what we transmit, and it is not what the receiver hears or reads.

Poor communication degrades understanding, and when understanding degrades, decisions slow down, weaken, or stop altogether.