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UPDATED COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Updated communication skills? Are you kidding me? Why would we need those?
We’ve been communicating just fine up to now, and it’s gotten us where we are.
But is there something more we could do to let our talents and message shine? Today’s guest, communication expert Dianne Chase, has some ideas.
What You’ll Discover About Updated Communication Skills:
* Why we benefit from updated communication skills as our careers evolve
* The number one communication skill we need to update
* Why it takes more energy to communicate in a virtual world
* The most important thing we need to know about updated communication skills
* And much more
Guest: Dianne Chase
Dianne is an award-winning communications executive with decades of experience working successfully with business professionals who want to elevate their communication skills, and build their leadership acumen, to achieve greater success. She is an Accredited GENIUS Business Storytelling Partner© in the Gabrielle Dolan methodology; one of only two in the world.
Her driving purpose is to help business professionals become authentic and impactful communicators so that they may attain their personal and professional aspirations.
Dianne founded her boutique communications consulting, training, and media relations firm, Chase Media and Communication, in 2000 after a distinguished career in broadcast journalism as a news director, anchor, and reporter. In addition to strategic business storytelling, her expertise and services include crisis communication, media training, presentation skills training, business message development, strategic internal and external communication, executive communication consulting and coaching, and leadership brand identity.
She is a past global chair of the International Association of Business Communicators and currently serves as president of the IABC North Carolina chapter.
She is a founding member of the 20/20 Visionaries in Charlotte and has been recognized with several professional awards including 2000 Notable American Women, and the Mecklenburg Times 50 Most Influential Women. She serves on several philanthropic and professional boards in her mission to always find ways to add value, provide support, and give back.
Related Resources:
If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy our other Communication episodes.
Contact Dianne and connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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Why Updated Communication Skills are Essential to More Business Success
Updated communication skills? Are you kidding me? Why would we need those? We’ve been communicating just fine up to now, and it’s gotten us where we are. But is there something more that we could really do to let our talent shine? Today’s guest has some ideas.
This is Business Confidential Now with Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, helping you see business issues hiding in plain view that matter to your bottom line.
Welcome to Business Confidential Now, the podcast for smart executives, managers, and entrepreneurs looking to improve business performance and their bottom line. I’m your host, Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, and I’ve got another amazing guest for you today. She’s Dianne Chase.
Dianne helps business professionals become authentic and impactful communicators so they’re better able to achieve their personal and professional goals. She’s an award-winning communications executive with decades of experience working in broadcast journalism as a news director, anchor, and reporter. And she’s also the founder of Chase Media and Communication, a boutique communications, consulting, training, and media relations firm.
And as if all that wasn’t enough, Dianne is also an accredited genius business storytelling partner in the Gabrielle Dolan methodology, only one of two in the entire world. So, we’re in for a real treat today, and it’s my pleasure to have her join us.
Welcome to Business Confidential Now, Dianne.
Oh my gosh, thank you so much, Hanna. This is such a privilege and a pleasure to speak with you and be a guest on your very informative podcast. It brings a lot of value to your listeners, and I appreciate the opportunity.
That is so kind of you. But I have to be honest with you, Dianne. I feel like this whole need for updated communication skills sounds like we’ve been slacking off somehow, because how we communicate strikes at the heart of who we are. And what prompts the need for updated communication skills? Is it just trying to keep up with Gen Z vocabulary in the latest emoji?
[Laughter] Well, that could be part of it as well in terms of how we’re communicating to really resonate with the individual we’re trying to connect with, right? And it just is, if you think about it, the skills we learned in college, for instance, in whatever area of work we’re in, whatever profession we are involved in, those skills have had to evolve.
The world is such a dramatically, exponentially different place than it was even five years ago, much less 10 or 15 when we got into our careers, when we became more focused on our goals and that sort of thing. So we, as human beings, need to remember that improvement is mandatory. Our professional development must continue throughout our lives. What is it? We never stop learning if we really want to achieve our goals. And I’m talking about personal and professional success.
Communication skills are just the infrastructure for happiness, success, perseverance, resilience, just that, that quality of life that we really want to achieve both in our personal lives and our professional lives. So, we communicate at a different speed, in a different tone, in a different language, if you will, today, than we did several years ago.
And yes, you did bring up Gen Z and here comes Gen Alpha, right? So, how do we connect with them? We have to understand the way they process communication, the way they process language, the way they process or don’t process body language. That’s a whole arena that several years ago wasn’t even an issue because you had a conversation and you looked another person in the face, had eye contact, had close proximity physically, and now that’s out the window.
Many Gen Z’s have learned, or maybe failed to learn how to communicate through an inanimate object. They’re trying to get their message across in a completely different way than my generation, for sure. So, just being aware that communication skills continually have to evolve, it’s an iterative process.
We communicate in a way that, “Oh wow, that did not land. That did not connect in a meaningful way with the person I’m trying to communicate with.” It was not getting them to think something, feel something, or do something. So how do we improve? And just being – having that awareness that we just have to learn new skills a lot of times in order to be successful in our communication.
You have covered a lot here, Dianne. I’m just – where to begin to unpack it all. I appreciate what you’re saying about – especially with remote communications being able to connect because we’re not just across the hall or on another floor in a building somewhere where you could just pop your head in somebody’s door and say, “Hey, Dianne, you got a minute? I need to talk to you about something.”
Now people, they don’t even want to pick up the phone so much as, “Well, let me email you first, or not even email, text you first,” or whatever app they want to use because it’s just it’s totally changed. So, I guess my question for you is in figuring out how to evolve, what should be looking for first? Where should we increase our awareness first in order to be able to connect more?
Well, the number one communication skill, Hanna, is listening, right? And every day I read sort of a different report with a different number, if you will. But today, I was reading an article that said 30% of employees feel that their leaders do not speak in clear messages that they understand. That is a massive cost, literally and figuratively. It’s a cost in, certainly retention, recruitment, loyalty, productivity, engagement, and culture. So, listening is the number one thing I encourage people to do more actively.
And we go, “Oh, we’re – we listen. I’m a good listener.” Well, are you really or as we – as human beings, a lot of times our inclination is to just think about what we want to say next and wait for the other person to stop talking, so we can say what we want to say and what’s in our head. So, while we’re doing that, we’re not taking in what that other person is trying to tell us, to share with us.
And so I just encourage people to think about how they actually really listen to other people, whether it’s in the workplace or in personal relationships, family relationships, whatever it might be. Really listening, taking in the non-verbals.
So, a powerful, powerful tool is to listen to what is not being said. What I mean by that is taking in the body language, the tone of voice, the approach, the facial expressions, the gestures, whatever it might be. All of those non-verbals, in communication you have verbal, which is the words you use. Vocal, the tone of voice. And we know we all have had the experience where someone is saying something in a tone of voice that is so distracting or disengaging or really off putting, right?
So, tone is really important and then visual. Again, the body language, everything else that’s going to either detract from your message or support your message. The words coming out of your mouth must be aligned to your verbal and your visual. So, we just have to be aware that listening is the number one communication skill. And how we do that is not just letting things come into our ears. [Laughter] They have to come into our ears, and they have to go to our heart, and they have to go to our head. And then we can figure out how to communicate more successfully with that other human being.
Those are great points, Dianne. Thing is, with technology these days, as you pointed out earlier, we’re not always in the same room. And so we don’t have the benefit of the visual. And the tone is maybe how we type the words, all caps, maybe no punctuation. We don’t have the same depth or breadth of expression as we would when we’re in person.
What recommendations do you have for people to make it a little bit more connecting, so that we do have a better relationship with our employees and with our co-workers?
Well, understanding how, first of all, what channel is best for them. Like how do they prefer to communicate in terms of the mediums and absolutely we lose in text and email. We can really get off track by interpreting a particular tone, depending on what words were used in an email or a text. So that’s definitely a challenge. And it really comes down to trying to understand as much as possible about that other human being.
And I’ve had certainly experiences where I am over – perhaps over doing some bread and butter language as a colleague used to call it. “Hi, how are you doing?” And a message, a request or whatever. And I’ll get back like two words, right? I’m like, “Wow, that was weird.” But it’s not. It’s just how that particular person communicates. It doesn’t – trying not to read in anything else.
So, it comes down to really trying to know as much as possible about the other person and how they actually communicate and make sure to not read into things that read things – read things into something that wasn’t intended at all.
I will say, though, with the virtual world of work that we have, everyone’s on camera and things can really be exacerbated by how we engage with that darn computer screen, right? With that little camera. It takes more energy, in my experience, to really come through in a virtual setting.
If you’re trying to build a team, if you’re trying to build culture, it’s super challenging and you really have to be aware that you have to be even more highly engaged and more highly aware of your facial expressions and your – are you leaning in? Are you leaning back? Are you acting bored? And you’re not even realizing you’re acting bored? Where’s your eye contact? All of that is really amplified on a little screen many times.
So, just having that awareness of the technology, the tools, how best to use them, how that individual human being on the other side of your communication is taking in what you’re saying and whether or not it’s actually connecting with them.
Well, it sounds like getting updated communication skills is something that needs to be done throughout our careers, certainly at the entry level, trying to figure out how to fit in and communicate and absorb the messages that we’re receiving. But I’m wondering if you could give us a little guidance about the course of a career as somebody moves into a management position and then a more senior leadership position, how would they go about updating their skills?
What types of things should they be adding to their repertoire to have good, updated communication skills?
Well, I would strongly suggest investing in your personal development, personal, professional development. And that involves, actually, in some courses, actually doing some in-person education, training, workshops where you actually practice it, you get feedback, you get insights from another person, another professional people in the room.
Some of the best trainings and workshops that I’ve been involved in with clients involve that expertise in the room where everyone is supporting each other but giving really constructive feedback. So, you – this is something that you can’t really do in isolation. If you want to take your communication skills to the next level, you really have to invest the time and the energy to work with professionals or have a team training where you begin to really learn how best to work with other people in your organization.
“Oh, she really doesn’t ever respond when I send an email. I really have to give her a call,” or “Text messages never get replied to when I am trying to get something over to Joe. I need to send him an email.” Again, how best to connect with another individual. And it really does involve learning. Just like anything in life, the more we invest in learning and gaining knowledge and experience and practice.
And I always say Michael Jordan never stopped working with a coach just because he became an amazing basketball player. We never stop learning. If we really want to get better at what we want to achieve, if we are – if our aim is to move up in an organization, really setting yourself apart by having those skills that maybe your colleagues don’t have. Maybe you are the one who is stellar because you’re able to connect and make things happen through your advanced communication skills.
Those are great suggestions, Dianne. Thank you. I’m wondering, though there may be some people out there thinking, “Oh, my communication style is fine, and I’m just afraid that if somebody tries to turn me into some fancy speaker, then I’m not being authentic to me.” How do we stay true to ourselves in this process?
Oh my gosh. Absolutely imperative that we stay true to ourselves, that we are authentic. And it’s even more crucial now in our virtual world and our hybrid work world that we stay true to ourselves because our radar, if you will, for inauthentic people has been heightened over the past few years. And we can pick it up.
We can pick up if someone’s not walking their talk and learning how to put yourself out there and communicate who you are. And like the saying goes, “Be who you are, everyone else is taken.” That’s how we really shine. We identify ourselves, our values, our purpose, our mission in life, our goals and we mine our experiences. No one else has your life, your experiences, your teachable moments. We have similar, which is where we connect.
But bring your unique value proposition as the wonderful human being you are and the value that you bring to relationships and to work and to your profession and to your community, bring that but learn how to communicate what is unique about you. So, in my trainings, I talk about purpose and engagement. So, if you are communicating a message to a colleague, a boss, a family member if that turned out to matter. It’s what is it that you want that person to, again, understand, feel, do. And how engaging are you with that delivery.
So, you’re engaging by using your personal stories, your personal experiences and what that does, it taps into emotion. And as I say, the superhighway to the head is through the heart. If you tap into emotion and by emotion, I don’t mean some big sob story or how you rescued a baby from a burning building or anything like that. It’s the real, honest-to-goodness, stubbed my toe stories, if you will. Those teachable moments that only you have had in detail, but we can relate to because we’ve all stubbed our toes.
Well, in the time that we have left, Dianne, I’m curious what you think the most important thing is that we need to know about updated communication skills.
Just be aware of the changing environment in the world of work and the world of life these days, and realize that, like anything else, we have to continually evolve in order to maintain connections. We connect differently today than we did several years ago or even a few years ago, so we can’t use old tools to accomplish new goals these days.
So, shine up those new tools in your toolbox, get some new tools, i.e., professional development and shine them, use them, practice them. Make sure that you’re staying current. Make sure you understand the changing audiences that you’re trying to connect with. As we know, there’s five generations in the workforce these days. You certainly cannot communicate in the very same way with the boomer as you do with a Gen Z for the most part. So, just keeping up to date with your communication and training and skills will really serve you very well.
Excellent. Listen, keep learning. That’s what I’m taking away from this. And that’s excellent advice on being able to have updated communication skills because we all want to be able to get our message across.
So thank you so much, Dianne. This has been fantastic. I appreciate your time and the insights you shared about the value and importance about updated communication skills and how to get them. I think that feedback and listening to the feedback is [Laughter] probably the biggest key, even though it might be hard to hear for some folks.
And if you’re listening and you’d like to know more about Dianne Chase and her firm, Chase Media and Communications or her trainings, that information, as well as a transcript of this interview, will be found in the show notes at businessconfidentialradio.com.
Thank you so much for joining me today. Please be sure to tell your friends about the show and leave a positive review. We’ll be back next week with another information packed episode of Business Confidential Now. So, until then, have a great day and an even better tomorrow!
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