1.   Be Personally Effective

• Be approachable
• Adapt your personal style to connect in the best way with your audience(s)
• Deliver messages in a clear, interesting and engaging way
• Watch and respond to non-verbal cues to improve comfort level and buy-in
• Be responsive
• Follow up
• Demonstrate expertise
• Meet commitments and do things on time

2.   Share Information Regularly and Appropriately

• Be committed to sharing information with employees
• Treat confidential information appropriately

3.   Create Line of Sight

• Explain the company’s vision, mission and goals in ways that are relevant to employees’ jobs
• Be a translator

4.   Communicate Change

• Inform employees about changes taking place in the organization
• Explain the reasons behind decisions
• Be okay to not have all the answers (and help find them)

5.   Create Dialogue

• Ask questions
• Ask open-ended questions to gather more information and create dialogue
• Seek diverse perspectives

6.   Give, Get and Use Feedback

• Be open to feedback from employees
• Take actions based on the feedback of employees

7.   Advocate for the Team and Organization

• Put the interests of the group/organization before your own

Thinking about the steps to becoming an effective leadercommunicator, which ones do you already apply on a regular basis? Which ones do you think may take some concentrated effort to incorporate into your everyday processes?

Consider making a list of simple actions you might take to address the ones that don’t come as naturally to you and work to apply at least one item from the list every day.

—David Grossman