Communicate and Motivate (Part VI)

Our final segment on “Communicate and Motivate” will help you to provide support without removing responsibility.  Part I focuses on some handy interaction guidelines to help you in meetings.  Parts II through VI focus on the five Key Principles of good communication which include:

Have you ever been asked directly to obtain resources, make decisions or remove barriers for people?  Or perhaps you have recognized situations in which your support is needed for solutions, to pave the way for others to get their job done or just for coaching. 

As a leader, you must be available to others by offering your support.  You are a reliable resource and if you promise certain support, your follow-up is equally if not more important.  Even if you promise to act as an audience for others, be there.  People would rather know that you can’t do something than be disappointed because you don’t come through. 

When you offer to help, don’t take away the other person’s responsibility for delivering on the final product.  How often have you known it would just be easier to do it yourself?  Or that you surely can do it better than the other person?  This happens to me a lot but if people are going to learn to do new things, and learn to do them in their own way, you cannot remove their responsibility. 

You are there to help others do and think, to keep your commitments and resist the tempation to take over.  But you have to make yourself available and provide your best support in ideas without removing the other person’s responsibility of delivering. 

Happy managing!

Part I can be found here.

Part II can be found here.

Part III can be found here.

Part IV can be found here.

Part V can be found here.

Part VI can be found here.