Transcript Leaders as Communicators Facilitator Notes

Facilitator Notes
Leaders as Communicators
Enhance your communication style to engage and inspire
Contents
Facilitator Preparation
Pre-event Activity
Session and Timings Summary
Introduction
Our Inspiration
Personal Impact and Influence
Communications Styles and Influence
Communicating a Purpose
Engage for Success
Applying your Learning
Close
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Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire
Facilitator
Preparation
These notes include information about how to deliver the training,
including key learning points, activities, session timings, questions
and discussion points. Please read all the information in this pack
and complete any preparation or research you personally require
to deliver the training successfully.
Audience: Focus on developing candidates who need to build
their ability to create an inspiring and engaging communication
style as a leader.
Aim: This training sets out the responsibility managers have in
being effective communicators as part of their leadership role. We
will explore how to set the right vision and purpose for their teams
and effectively engage them to deliver results.
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Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire
Pre-event activity
You will need to ensure that you have sent candidates the
Candidate Notes at least three weeks before the training and
follow up with a couple of reminder emails.
At least one week prior to the event:
Familiarise yourself with the aims of the training and be aware of
the pre-learning activity asked of candidates.
At least three days prior to the event:
Send out the final reminder email to candidates.
Review the facilitator notes in detail.
Familiarise yourself with handouts (bring enough copies for all
candidates), activities and videos.
Ensure you have a clear understanding of the links between the
training activities and the pre-learning activities.
Have a clear idea of how you will support any candidates who
have not completed the pre-event activity – without disrupting
those who came fully prepared.
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Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire
Pre-event activity
Equipment
You will need to provide your own laptop and have printed enough
copies of relevant handouts. You will also need a flipchart, pens,
post-it notes and printed copies of this year’s Civil Service people
survey results.
Please check the video clips work and the sound quality is good.
Participant numbers
Minimum number: 8
Maximum numbers: 16
Room Layout
Cabaret Style – maximum of 4 x tables of 4 candidates.
Or, where smaller groups are in attendance then horseshoe chair
arrangement
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Pre-event activity
Arriving in advance to facilitate:
• Ensure room layout is correct and allows for safe and easy
movement.
• Prepare handouts and other materials for ease of distribution
during the session.
• If you are not automatically briefed, ask about the fire
evacuation procedure, confirm whether a drill is due to be
carried out that day and familiarise yourself with the nearest
exits and location of the meeting point if evacuation is
necessary.
After the event:
The candidates will complete a feedback form, please return
them to Civil Service Learning.
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Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire
Session and
Timings Summary
Timing
Session Number and
Title
Slides and Resources
10 minutes
Our inspiration
Slide 2
Show video from CSLive link
https://www.gov.uk/government/
publications/civil-service-leadershipstatement/civil-service-leadershipstatement
40 minutes
Personal
impact and influence
10 minute
Comfort break
40 minutes
Communicating a
Slides 3-7
Slides 8-12
purpose
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Facilitator Notes:
30 minutes
Engage for Success
Slide 13-17
45 minutes
Applying your learning
Slide 18
5 minutes
Close
Slide 19
Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire
Introduction
Facilitator input
Introduce yourself and explain that you will be getting them to
introduce themselves in a while.
Welcome the candidates
Training outline
The aim of today’s training is to focus on the key challenges we all
have as leaders in communicating effectively with our people.
As part of the pre-course work you were asked to undertake some
reading and complete an Emotional Intelligence self-assessment,
which we will be asking you to discuss as part of the training today.
We also asked you to bring a communication or engagement
challenge that you will work through in small groups.
Check whether anyone had any problems with this
If so, reassure them that they will still be able to take part.
Ask if there are any questions.
Objective: By the end of this introduction, candidates will understand
why communication is essential for effective leadership.
Timing: 10 minutes
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Our Inspiration
Facilitator input
There is plenty of research that shows how investing your time in
communication ultimately saves you time and creates a more
productive, engaged, motivated and results driven team.
Let’s celebrate the work we started in 2015 on the Leadership
Statement.
In 2015 we embraced the Leadership Statement. It is something
to be proud of. It makes clear who we are and what we stand for
so that everyone feels part of one Civil Service.
Why does the Civil Service need a Leadership Statement?
What does it really mean to us?
Empirical evidence, independent reports and best practice from
the private sector show that strong leadership is critical to the
culture of high-performing organisations.
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Our Inspiration
Show the video from CS Live on peoples’ thoughts about what
makes a great leader
https://design102.wistia.com/medias/c9j905o9z2
What did you think?
Does anything you heard relate to your personal leadership style?
Answers could include:
• The majority of comments were about valuing good
communication from their leader.
• Communication is the most important skill required to engage
others. People really value their leader spending time keeping
them informed and translating priorities into practical actions.
• It’s important to explain decisions.
• They listen to what I have to say.
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Our Inspiration
Summarise that good communication requires us to:
• Invest time in the beginning, but delivers you more benefits in
the long term.
• Understand that developing teams through engaging,
confident communication doesn’t get in the way of your
everyday work. On the contrary it is critical to it and will help
you achieve your goals more efficiently and effectively.
• See communications as an essential part of our role to lead
by example to others that you may manage or work
alongside. By doing this you will influence their behaviour and
contribute to the culture of ‘how things are done around here’.
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Our Inspiration
Facilitator input
Show the first slide
We have used a number of models in our course that have been
researched and developed by thought leaders of today. They
have been our inspiration and we encourage you to read at least
one of the books shown here.
Kevin Murray the author of ‘The Language of Leaders’ and
‘Communicate to Inspire’ has worked with leaders from across a
wide range or organisations and identified the elements that help
to engage and inspire people.
In today’s training we will touch on a number of these and look at
some of the key challenges you face and how communications
can help.
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Our Inspiration
Today we will cover:
• Creating a first impression
• Understanding our communication preferences and how this
can affect how well our message is received
• Emotional intelligence – the importance of being self-aware
and interpreting others’ emotions
• Facilitating discussions then engaging others
• Creating a compelling vision and purpose for people
• Looking at your personal communication challenge and how
you can overcome it.
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Personal impact
and influence
Objective:
Candidates will:
• Have considered the importance of creating a good first
impression.
• Understand why effective communication is important and
how their own communication style impacts others.
• Understand how emotional intelligence is important to help
them communicate well.
• Understand why a team needs a shared purpose and how
they communicate and engage others in it.
• Understand how they deliver a verbal message when put on
the spot and how they could do it differently.
Timing: 40 minutes.
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Personal impact
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Facilitator input
Introduction to the session
So lets now explore how you can overcome some of the barriers
and difficulties you have shared, through your own impact and
influence.
By the end you will understand why effective communication is
important and how your own communication style impacts on
others.
Creating a good first impression
Lets start by looking at how we come across when we first meet
someone. You haven’t yet had a chance to find out much about
each other so we are going to get you to introduce yourself
without saying anything about your job or the work of your team.
Exercise – Candidates to pair up with someone they don’t know
(where possible).
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Show and ask candidates to read through slide 3 then hide the slide
(so they focus on engaging with the other person), and ask them each
to introduce themselves.
Strict 2 minutes each person.
Remind them at the two minute mark to swap round.
Now ask delegates to consider how the other person delivered
their introduction and the impact they made.
Tell candidates… you are now going to give some feedback to your
partner on how they came across. Allow a maximum of 2 minutes
each.
Ask candidates in their same pairs to feedback on…
• What was your first impression?
• What did you notice about what they said, their tone, their body
language?
• How did you feel about them when they had finished their
introduction?
Bring the group back together.
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Facilitator asks
What helped create a positive first impression?
Expect to get back:
•
How enthusiastic, positive and engaging they were
•
Clear and succinct messages
•
Their body language? (friendly, open, good eye contact)
Conclusion of the exercise…
You and your colleagues are more than your work. You are
valued as people and good leaders tell stories to bring
information to life.
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Facilitator input
We all know people who are in full control of their emotions – they
can be calm in crisis, and they can make decisions sensitively
however stressful the situation. We have all seen how someone
who expresses their emotions immediately without considering
the audience can have a detrimental effect on the relationship.
People like this have high emotional intelligence. They have
strong relationships, and they manage difficult situations calmly
and effectively. They are also resilient in the face of adversity.
As a leader you have a responsibility to deliver key messages to
individuals and teams using the most appropriate and effective
methods. However, just as important is understanding the role
that our emotions have in communication.
When people are upset about the message you are giving they
find it hard to listen, equally when you are nervous you may not
put across what you want to say as clearly as you could.
While we have a natural level of ability, we are all able to develop
our skills further.
Psychologist Daniel Goleman identified five elements that make
up emotional intelligence. Two dimensions in particular are
important for us as leaders.
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•
Understanding and managing your own emotions
•
Understanding others’ emotions
Explain
Self-awareness – The ability to recognise and understand our
own moods, emotions and drives, as well as their effect on
others.
Self-regulation – The ability to control or redirect disruptive
impulses and moods, and the propensity to suspend judgment
and to think before acting.
Motivation – Specifically internal motivation which is a passion to
work for internal reasons that go beyond money and status
(external rewards). This could include a clear vision of what is
important, a joy in doing something and a curiosity in learning.
You may have heard people talk about when they are in a ‘flow’
that comes with being immersed in an activity.
Empathy – The ability to understand the emotional makeup of
other people. A skill in understanding and adapting how we
behave to treat people differently according to their emotional
reactions. It is important to note that empathy does not
necessarily imply compassion.
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Social Skills – Proficiency in managing relationships and building
networks, and an ability to find common ground and build rapport.
Facilitator input
Lets explore your answers to the Emotional Intelligence
questionnaire you completed before you came here today.
Exercise
In pairs ask them to review their results and discuss.
• What were your strengths?
• What areas do you need to develop?
Now ask candidates to go back to their seats and individually
make commitments on how they are going to change these
patterns in their Candidate Notes, page 10.
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Facilitator input
Communicating is not just about the words you use but also about
your body language. This non-verbal language will affect how we act
and react to others and how they react to us. This includes
movements and gestures (hands, head, legs...) and also posture, eye
contact, even peoples’ breathing rate.
A growing body of research (Amy Cudd, Harvard Business School)
suggests the way to influence – and to lead – is to begin with warmth.
Warmth is the conduit of influence: It facilitates trust and the
communication and absorption of ideas. Even a few small nonverbal
signals – a nod, a smile, an open gesture – can show people that
you’re pleased to be in their company and attentive to their concerns.
Prioritising warmth helps you connect immediately with those around
you, demonstrating that you hear them, understand them, and can be
trusted by them.
Listening is also an important part of communication. Research shows
that we only remember 25-50% of what we hear so that’s something
we need to improve. If we only remember half a conversation, we’re
likely to miss out on some really important points. By listening better,
you’ll be able to improve productivity, and your ability to influence,
persuade and negotiate. The way to do this is to practice active
listening.
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Ask…
•
In your introductions, how did the other person show they
were listening to you?
You should get back that they noticed good eye contact or they
were nodding.
•
How do you feel when someone isn’t listening (carefully
enough) to you?
You will probably get comments such as annoyed, upset or
frustrated.
Facilitator input
Conclusion of the exercise…
Communication starts the minute you meet someone and before
you have even started to speak. We have started to see how
even when we think we have a one way communication such
as a presentation, it is really still a two way process.
Any questions?
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Communications
styles and
influence
We are now going to look at our communication style and how
that can help or hinder our ability to influence.
Part of your role as a manager is effective communication with
your team and colleagues and it is essential in developing
relations with people and working collaboratively.
Every interaction you have with them contributes to your success
with both.
We all have our personal communication styles and preferences,
and we need to understand how these are helping or hindering
us.
Facilitator input
In your Candidate Notes you will have seen a list of
communications approaches frequently used in the workplace.
What do you think are the most common forms of
communication?
[Write up on flip chart the most common communication
approaches]
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Communication
styles and
influence
•
Phone calls 1-2-1
•
Email
•
Social media
•
Face to face discussions with individuals
•
Team Meetings
•
Teleconference
Ask the group which of these they identified was the most used.
In most departments the email will be at the top.
Now write your name on a post it and place this on the flipchart
which shows your top preference (not necessarily the most
used).
Facilitator input
Summarise back the results (e.g. the majority style for this group is)
and compare to the most used.
Ask
•
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Facilitator Notes:
Why might these not match?
Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire
Communication
styles and
influence
Ask them to pair up (ideally) with someone with a different style and
discuss...
How they think their preferred approach helps them?
When they think this gets in the way?
Allow 3 minutes to discuss and then bring the group back together.
Refer to the Candidate Notes, page 11-13 on ‘Ways to communicate
with your team’ for examples.
Facilitator input
We are now going to look at when these could be useful.
Exercise – turn to slide 7
Split the group into 4.
Allocate each group to look at one of the two scenarios. Give them 5
minutes to discuss each scenario and ask that one of them presents
back to the group.
What communications approach would you take in these challenges
and why? (see challenges overpage)
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Communication
styles and
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Scenario 1 Inform your team of a change in roles and responsibilities
Scenario 2 Address a performance challenge with a member of staff
Facilitator Asks
Each group to give their recommendations and why. You should get back
this type of answer:
1
Given the gravity and potentially sensitive nature of the content of this
communication, then a face-to-face team meeting would be appropriate, with an
offer of individual one-to-ones as a follow-up to speak about individual
concerns/worries.
2
Private face to face meeting (wherever possible). If geography is an issue, and the
person agrees to it, then a telephone call (offering the person the opportunity in
advance to find a private place to have it).
Ask the group to reflect, then in their groups discuss:
• A time when they could have communicated something better.
• A time when a better channel of communication could have been
used.
Now ask them to share any examples of what they have just
discussed.
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Communication
styles and
influence
Facilitator to summarise
We have seen there are a wide range of different types of
communication available and they have a different impact
depending on the circumstances. We have also seen that we can
sometimes default to our preferred approach or what is easiest.
For example, people will often choose email as a fast way to
communicate and it enables them to evidence what they have
done. However it can be very impersonal, cold and hard to see
how our message is received.
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Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire
Communicating a
purpose
Three common types of purpose:
1. Task: feeling that work isn’t futile can have a significant
impact on our performance. Feeling that we’re making
progress can further multiply that effect.
2. Collective: strong bond with team and shared purpose and
commitment to work hard. Top performing organisations are
20 times more likely to have every manager’s goals aligned
to company strategy.
3. Social: Those who are more inclined to see their work as a
‘calling’ are significantly more likely to be satisfied with job,
work life balance and be more productive at work.
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Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire
Communicating a
purpose
Exercise
Ask them to get into pairs. Ideally working with people from a
different area of the business and not the same as the first
exercise.
• Tell them they are going to present a pitch to each other on
the vision they have for their team (can be a personal vision
for their role if they don’t have a team).
• Give three minutes for them to think and prepare the pitch.
• The vision should be engaging, inspirational, future focused,
appealing to the audience’s heart, making use of metaphors
and be memorable. Take into account what you feel will most
appeal to your team.
• Now ask each candidate to present their vision to each other
(3 minutes each) with NO discussion once they have finished.
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Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire
Communicating a
purpose
Facilitator input
Next ask each of them to give honest feedback.
(2 minutes each)
• My understanding of your team vision is…
• I noticed that your vision linked to the business objectives…
• One thing to improve your communication would be…
• You know your team is engaged because…
• Your tone of voice and body language was…
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Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire
Engage for
success
Objective: Candidates will have an awareness of four broad
drivers that are cited as being critical to employee engagement
across different organisations.
Timing: 40 minutes
Facilitator input
An introduction to Engage for Success
In your pre-work you looked at the research of MacLeod who
reveals how engaged organisations are more productive, their
employees are more creative, and they have lower levels of
absenteeism and turnover.
Ask
What they found particularly useful or interesting from this report?
(extract in the pre-work)
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Engage for
success
Most successful and engaged organisations have a powerful
employee voice and it is the people within them that make an
organisation a success. If people feel part of the major decisions
of the organisation and are contributing to its success then there
is more likelihood that they will work hard at making it work.
One approach that supports this is the ‘Engage for Success’
movement which is committed to the idea that there is a better
way to work, a better way to enable personal growth,
organisational growth and ultimately growth for Britain by
releasing more of the capability and potential of people at work.
They share evidence, case studies and points of view, about how
employee engagement drives performance and productivity, and
demonstrates how communication is not just about ‘sending stuff
out’ and telling people your vision or cascading news but very
much a two-way listening process.
The movement is widely supported across the UK, involving the
public, private and third sectors in the belief they can learn a lot
from each other. Organisations supporting the movement account
for more than 2 million people and increasing as employers
recognise the link between engagement and delivering results.
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Engage for
success
In building trust and developing good two way communication it is
important that people feel they are listened to.
The ability to listen attentively and without judgement or giving
advice is one of the most difficult and prized skills for leaders to
master.
Explain to the group that listening to employees is critical to forming
strong bonds and developing an open and friendly environment
conducive to creativity, productivity and high quality. However,
negative listening habits can hinder a leader’s ability to build these
high trust bonds. Six negative listening habits are often at the root
of the inability to listen.
Facilitator input
Spend time describing the six negative listening patterns:
1. The Faker: all the outward signs are there: nodding, make eye contact
and giving the occasional uh huh. However, the faker isn’t
concentrating on the speaker. His mind is elsewhere.
2. The Interrupter: they don’t allow the speaker to finish and don’t ask
clarifying questions or seek more information from the speaker. They
are too anxious to say what they want to say and are have little
interest in the speaker.
3. The Intellectual or Logical Listener: they always try to interpret what
the speaker is saying and why. They are judging the speaker’s words
and trying to fit them into their logic box. They rarely ask about the
underlying feeling or emotion attached to a message.
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Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire
Engage for
success
4.
The Dominant Speaker: the Dominant Speaker uses the
speaker’s words only as a way to get to his message. When the
speaker says something, the dominant speaker steals the focus
and then changes it to their own point of view or story. E.g.: Oh
that’s nothing, here’s what happened to me...’
5.
The Rebuttal Maker: this listener only listens long enough to
form a rebuttal. Their point is to use the speaker’s words against
them. At their worst, they are argumentative and want to prove
you wrong. At their least, the person always wants to make the
speaker see the other point of view.
6.
The Advice Giver: giving advice can be helpful, however, this
behaviour can sometimes interfere with good listening because it
doesn’t allow the speak to fully articulate their feelings or thoughts
and doesn’t help the speaker solve their own problems or vent
and could prevent them from sharing more with you.
A copy of this is in your Candidate Notes.
Ask candidates to spend one minute reflecting on whether they have
any of these negative habits, noting in their Candidate Notes what
they may do differently.
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Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire
Engage for
success
Any questions?
Current People Survey results show how people in the Civil Service are
not as engaged as we should be for an effective organisation to thrive.
Facilitator note
Either use the Civil Service People Survey results or your department
results as background for this briefing exercise.
Exercise
Split the group into teams of 5
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Facilitator Notes:
•
Facilitator to randomly select one person from each group to be the
‘team leader’ (perhaps those that haven’t spoken very much so far?),
and explain that they are now going to each give a ‘team briefing’ to the
other people.
•
Use Handout 1 to provide the team leader with instruction for the team
brief.
•
Give the team leader a summary sheet on ‘team briefings’ and explain
they are going to give the others in the group a briefing. They have to
imagine they are briefing their team at work and to think about how they
will deliver the briefing and engage the others in the discussion.
Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire
Engage for
success
Team Brief Exercise
Handout 1 – People Survey results
The People Survey results have just been released. You have a
copy of them to share with your team. The senior management
team has asked that you share the results with your team and
consider what actions should be taken.
This is the first team meeting since the results were published on
the website.
Your aim is to get the team’s views of these results and what
action could be taken.
You may like to explore what motivates people and what inspires
them to do their best.
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Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire
Engage for
success
Facilitator input
Bring the group back and ask for some feedback…
How did the leader think their briefing went?
The group members?
Were they sharing information or simply delivering information
in their approach?
How did he/she ensure the ‘team’ felt included and consulted?
Ensure that they reflect how well they felt listened to and what
helped them feel their contributions were valued.
Any other observations or comments?
Now ask candidates to go back to their seats and individually
make commitments on how they could enhance their approach
to team briefings, in their Candidate Notes, page14.
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Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire
Applying your
learning
Facilitator asks
Ask the group to split into threes and identify one action
they want to take as a result of today (5 minutes)
Explain that after 5 minutes, the kush ball will be thrown at
random to people in the group
When you catch the ball, describe your action before
throwing the ball to someone else
They can write their actions in the Candidate Notes, page 19.
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Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire
Close
Thank candidates for their participation
Ask candidates if they enjoyed the day.
Timing: 2 minutes
Facilitator Input
For those of you who want to further your knowledge in this area,
there are a few books listed in your Candidate Notes.
Facilitator asks:
Please can candidates fill in the evaluation form.
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Leaders as Communicators Workshop – Enhancing your communication style to engage and inspire