How You Benefit from The Business Communication Cycle

The Communication Cycle © David Ferrers - click on image to enlarge

“This will save both us and our clients considerable cost, which will further enhance our reputation. We will achieve this reputation by working with the greatest efficiency possible, commensurate with good results.”

The great advertising man Leo Burnett, who built the biggest advertising agency in the world, outside of New York, finished his address to the annual Burnetters gathering with these words: “when you lose your respect for the lonely man – the man at his typewriter or his drawing board or behind his camera or just scribbling notes with one of our big black pencils – or working all night on a media plan. When you forget that the lonely man – and thank God for him – has made the agency we now have – possible. When you forget he’s the man who, because he is reaching harder, sometimes actually gets hold of – for a moment – one of those hot, unreachable stars.”

“THAT, boys and girls, is when I shall insist you take my name off the door.”

Charismatic Vision is the First Essential for Transformational Leadership

Both of these speeches express a charismatic vision that inspired people to bend their minds and their backs for the organisation. Such visions are at the heart of transformational leadership they need to be constantly and consistently expressed in every communication at every level of a business. By doing this you set a style of behaviour for your business that inspires people and makes them feel valued.

But, what is a charismatic vision?

It is a vision that shines and inspires you when you see it in your mind’s eye. Above that, it is a vision in which you BELIEVE! Belief is the beating heart of a charismatic vision.

The Communication Cycle is the Vehicle for Ensuring Consistent Inspiration

The Communication Cycle is a series of procedural steps that ensure that your charismatic vision is continually and consistently communicated in all the communications throughout the organisation.

The Business Communication Cycle has been designed as 6 easy-to-remember, simple-to-use steps. Below I describe the purpose of each step and tell you everything necessary to transform leaders at every level of an organisation into inspirational communicators.

Aim © David Ferrers - click to enlarge

Step 1. Aim – What response do you want to elicit from your audience? This is not a matter of telling people what to do but of making them feel that they want to do it.

Create a charismatic vision (see above). Make sure that it is a vision that shines and in which you have absolute belief.

Who is it that you want to respond and what do you want them to feel and do when they receive your message?

Put yourself in their shoes, what to they want, need or desire that will make them receive your message favourably?

Think about the best medium for your message. No necessarily the most convenient medium got you but the best medium to carry the message and the best from the recipient’s point of view.

Compose © David Ferrers - click to enlarge

Grab your audience’s attention right at the start by asking a question, or giving some shocking statistics, or sharing an anecdote. Keep their attention by telling a story or two.

Get more ideas from our Inspirational Sayings page.

Support your vision with evidence that this is a good direction for the team.

Think of the language that the recipient would normally use and try to use similar language. This will make them feel natural and aid their understanding. Don’t be coy about expressing emotions, they make you more real.

Include, either at the start or the end of your message an executive summary, a short, pithy, memorable sentence that describes what needs to be done.

Make sure that you include any necessary resources that the recipient might need in order to complete the task.

Finally, don’t forget to include a time frame for completion of the task.

Transmit © David Ferrers - click to enlarge

Before transmitting allow time to reconsider what you are saying and the effect that your words and actions may have on the recipient. Could you say anything in a way better calculated to cause the reaction you desire.

Sometimes it is a good idea to include other people in your briefing so that they can know what is happening. This is not so much to make your position bulletproof as to involve the whole team. This may eliminate later misunderstandings.

Transmit with ENTHUSIASM. Connect with your audience by the energy you put into the transmission of your message. Remember the words of Emory Ward: “enthusiasm, like measles, mumps and the common cold, is highly contagious.”

Feedback © David Ferrers - click to enlarge

Feedback has a powerful role to play in ensuring clarity and understanding, making people feel valued and involved, and in helping you to learn and understand what style of communication is most effective with the people you’re working with.

When you consider feedback at the time when you are composing your message it will help you to think more thoroughly about the responses and reactions that your message will elicit.

Analyse © David Ferrers - click to enlarge

Why did you get the response you received? What could do differently next time that might generate a better result?

Was there some ingrained behaviour or entrenched feeling within the recipient that you clashed with which prevented their cooperation?

What behaviours do you and the recipient need to improve to ensure a more productive working relationship?

What knowledge, feelings and behaviours do you both need to change in order to bring about the identified improvements?

Improve © David Ferrers - click to enlarge

The Communication Cycle offers you the opportunity for continuous and never-ending improvement in your communications, both internal and external to your organisation, so that you become a highly effective communicator.

How You Can Learn More About The Communications Cycle and Transformational Leadership

If you or any of your leaders feel or know that your communications and leadership are not always creating the desired results you could well benefit from Transformational Leadership Coaching. Please get in touch with me, David Ferrers, using the contact form or freephone 0800 195 1989.

All the best,

“Transformational Leadership is the ability to create and transmit a charismatic vision that runs through an organisation like an electric current, inspiring and energising the thoughts, ideas and actions of the people and thereby elevating their performance.”

© David Ferrers