Being heard and being able to influence others’ attitudes and behaviors is sometimes an elusive leadership quality that people feel that they may be born with or not. In reality, it is a skill set that can be learned. When looking to effectively communicate, it is important to be clear on the outcomes you are looking to attain along with an awareness of how your message may be best received by the other person or group.
Start off by thinking about why your idea or proposal would be important to the other party. Make that the central focus of how you frame the message or the presentation. This may seem obvious, but so many managers and leaders will talk about what is important to them first, spending key time to make a case for what he or she values. For example, you have a new efficiency initiative you want to implement but your staff is working from overly full plates already and you feel would be resistant to “one more thing” to worry about. Lead your discussion by acknowledging the current state of stress and how this initiative will lighten the load.
When preparing to communicate in a situation where you are looking to attain buy-in, also consider what your audience will most respond to both emotionally and intellectually. Will they need to know how an idea will lessen their pain or how much it will enhance an already adequate process? Will enough of them tune into figures and statistics because they need and want details or are you better off presenting the big picture in broad, illustrative strokes, such as a graph that sums it all up? Resist building your message just on what you would want to know. If you are unsure, ask a few members of your future audience to give you simple feedback about what gets and keeps their attention. Not only are you likely to have greater impact, you will also feel more confidence going forward.