Alec had been in his new role for a few months and was already a well-regarded leader who, in the eyes of many was an accomplished communicator, calm in a crisis and able to get along with people. Little did they know that he dreaded the weekly senior team web conference calls. For him they never seemed to ‘go right’. Some people just kept on talking and taking up too much air time, others hardly said a word until the end and then offered all their wisdom when there was no time to do anything with it. One person just kept on throwing in new ideas which seemed unconnected to the topic and left him with more options to reach consensus on than the carefully prepared papers circulated beforehand intended. Oh, and then there is always the one who had to find fault with anything proposed. As if this wasn’t enough to contend with, every now and again he caught sight of a disapproving glance from his PA who was in the room with him making notes. Even he knows I’m a fraud, he would wail internally in the moment of respite between this and the next meeting.
It needn’t be this way. James Humes who was speechwriter to 5 US Presidents… said ‘the art of communication is the language of leadership’. Exceptional leaders know themselves well; they know what can trigger them into high stakes and how to read a room to identify common behavioural patterns. For Alec it was a real turning point to understand how his senior colleagues had different behavioural preferences to his own and it was incredibly empowering to be able to transform their time together by making some subtle interventions. These were only made possible when he was able to change his sense that this meeting didn’t ‘go right’ into something more tangible that could be acted upon. By being able to identify, name and understand the behavioural patterns he could break the cycle by changing the dynamics himself. Understanding the source of these patterns – which underpin all communication –is equally important. Knowing why it is important to one person to set out new ideas and yet for another to notice what is missing, proved transformative for this team. Leaders like Alec, who learn how to help people to share their perspective effectively in the moment can all revolutionize their team environments. In fact 96% of leaders surveyed after being introduced to ‘Behavioural Dynamics’ said they could identify stuck patterns of behavior, like the ones experienced by Alec and could now transform them and 89% said they had less frustrating or ineffective interactions with colleagues as a result.