How Do You Know Your Leader is Good?

How do you know? They have followers? That’s a given – hence the title. Well, from my perspective, looking back to good leaders I’ve observed, they grab you where you’re at and take you with them into the future.

Great, Jade Handy. How do they do this?

Now, remember getting onto a freeway. And, as you do what you need to do in order to get on the freeway and fly ahead of everyone, looking back, how did you do it?

Let’s take a side trip for a moment. I know everyone has had the experience of the person who can’t seque into a conversation effectively. They walk up, make a comment from left field based on one isolated snippet of your very one on one conversation with someone else. They can’t merge, so they guilt you into slowing down for them. Or, you have to speed right on by them and risk getting a ticket (pink slip from your boss, or whatever.)

Instead, they could have first assessed the situation, gathered some history, grabbed a bit of the last thing you said and willingly take you with them in a tangential direction, right?

This is what powerful communicators do. They meet you where you’re at - the present - they quickly acknowledge the history of the situation while building common ground, then take you into the future, elegantly.

A corporate communication example: It’s a new year, and aren’t we glad we aren’t in 2009, any longer. So now, let’s look forward to a new year. In the coming year we’ll take on new challenges and opportunities…

A sales example: Thanks for meeting with me, today. What was it I said when we talked on the phone that made you decide to see if we have a basis for doing business in the near future?

Now, I wrote about something similar in a previous post, if you haven’t already read it, do so soon. Also, there are other resources if you want to maximize your conversation merging skills.

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