Communicate with Mastery

Part 3Scaling Your Leadership: The Communication Coaching Process

I've been blessed to work with hundreds of coaches and workshop leaders during my time at Stanford. Some come for one or two days each year, others work seasonally, and a few are nearly full time. It's abundantly clear to me that you cannot improve your communication skills simply by reading a book, any more than you can learn to swim by sitting in the bleachers (or worse yet, in the library!). As we've mentioned several times, communication mastery is about getting better and better at speaking and writing each time you communicate. Without a coach, you may simply be reinforcing bad habits, creating even more to unlearn when you really need to step up as leader with a larger span of influence. Just as clinical psychologist Meg Jay tells Millennials in her 2013 TED talk that “the time to start working on your marriage is before you are in one,” I believe the best time to start working on your leadership communication skills is before you are leading a large enterprise. I cringe when I get a call from a former student saying something like, “I should have paid more attention in your class, and now I really need your help.” But I rejoice when a former student reaches out saying, “I'd love to have you or one of your coaches come work with my new team.”

The prior two sections of our book are full of frameworks, lessons, and tips to expand your mastery of communication. This section is designed to allow you to transform ...