The Power of Intentional Communication
“Too many people lack the power of conversation, but not the power of speech.”
Following tweets yesterday, I ran across this quote from George Bernard Shaw by way of Mark Clement and Phil Cooke. It made me think about how much time leaders spend speaking without taking every opportunity to have their vision drip into the culture of their organization.
It seemed very timely to read this quote as I prepared to launch this blog. We often forget the power of intentional communication – across all platforms. In the white noise of day-to-day chatter, we often miss the opportunity to create a culture in which vision washes every leader, conversation, environment and communication.
Yes, everything speaks – your words, your team communications, if and how you develop leaders, your environments, your presence, your brand (yes you need to brand), and your clarity or lack thereof. Every day you have the opportunity to communicate vision. I’m not just talking about what you say, it’s every choice you make, what you do and what you choose not to do.
Why is it so easy to overlook these opportunities?
- Because we often don’t realize the impact of every nuance
- Because we become distracted from our focus, or..
- We never found or took the time to discover and define what our focus should be.
More often than not, the third reason is the root of the problem. It’s not that people lack the ability to communicate well, but they have just not spent time necessary to find their unique vision, leaving them like a rebel without a cause.
So, you may know you have a cause, but have you found how to communicate it with stunning clarity? What can you start doing today? At Auxano, we are driven by the understanding that clarity isn’t everything, but it changes everything.
- Begin by taking time to clarify your vision. (check out Will Mancini’s helpful post on clarity - he lists 6 tips for achieving clarity)
- Stay unwaveringly focused.
- Begin honing your skills to cast vision.
- Challenge yourself and your leadership team to look for every opportunity drip vision into every thing you do.
- Set milestones for integration of your vision
- Join Open Source Vision Casting #visiondrip This is a collaborative community of leaders sharing their best practices for integrating vision into your culture. (you can follow on twitter #visiondrip, or through twubs with the link provided)
Being intentional is worth the effort and very freeing. Remeber – everything speaks.