The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan: How to Take Charge, Build Your Team, and Get Immediate Results, Second Edition

Appendix C. Communication

Much of what we have to say about communication you probably know already. But you may not know how to activate this knowledge into an effective overall communication plan and a concrete communication campaign in your first 100 Days and beyond. You also may not realize just how important some of the more oblique aspects of communication really are. As you go through our general principles, consider them, and test them, you will be on a path to becoming a great communicator as well as to having a successful first 100 Days.

Words Are Only a Small Part of the Game

It's not about the words. This may seem paradoxical or just wrong to you. Words are important. However, communication takes place on many nonverbal levels, and it's essential to develop skills in reading and using these nonverbal modes.

Context or Frame

Great communicators know how to choose or create the right context or frame for their messages. This can be choosing a large group versus a one-on-one situation, a casual circumstance versus a formal one. Or it can be the simple act of framing a message or a conversation: "I think this makes the most sense if you look at it in the context of optimizing resources." Or alternatively, it can be setting the mood for a talk, conversation, or event by using humor, empathy, or other connective tactics. Large and small, literal circumstance or verbal context, we communicate in a context that is either chosen or created by us, or simply given.

The more you develop ...