Great Leaders Must Be Great Communicators

I had a marketing meeting with my staff yesterday morning. To my chagrin, I gave a bit of a monologue, which isn't really my style. Nonetheless, I had a few things that I needed to share with the team, and that was the best way I knew how to do it.

 

I rolled out a series of norms that are just going to be the standard for our new missions mobilization team (which is really just another word for marketing in our industry). The most important one that I hammered on was communication. If marketers are, essentially, just storytellers these days (just ask Seth Godin), then one of our most important tools is the ability to tell stories well and frequently.

 

But we can't tell stories if we're not communicating.

 

And we can't communicate if we're not regularly responding to everything that comes across our desks. So, that's what I asked them to do -- to answer every email, phone call, text, and blog within 24 business hours of receiving it. It's pretty simple, but often overlooked. Have you ever sent an email and wondered if anyone ever read it? I have. Lots of times. It stinks.

 

If such a standard seems harsh to you, try comparing it to the customer service of an online service provider. Their average turnaround time is usually around three hours.

 

If you don't believe me, post a negative product review on Amazon, and see how quickly the business owner responds. Once, I didn't receive an $8 book within 30 days of ordering it, so I gave the seller 1 star; within 48 hours, they had emailed me twice and given me a full refund. The book arrived the next day (oops).

 

Why did they do it?

Because they hoped that I'd take down the negative review, tarnishing their impeccable 5-star service record. And I did.

 

If you want to be great (at anything really), I dare you to begin by being available. My colleague Josh emailed Seth Godin the other day, asking him for some advice. He didn't think he'd read it, much less respond. He did both, and quickly.

 

Bill Gates publishes his email address (it's billg@microsoft.com). I don't know if he's able to answer all of his email any more, but he used to read and respond to every one, personally. That says a lot about how much you care about people. If one of the richest men in the world has time to do that, I can certainly make time.

 

If you're a leader, or wanting more influence in your job, ministry, organization, whatever, try to out-communicate (not over-communicate) everyone else. Most people aren't shining examples of follow-through and responsiveness. Yet, most people like people they can depend on, because it's such a rare trait. If you can discipline yourself in such a practice (trust me, it's a discipline), you'll be the exception to the rule of the flaky majority.