How To Learn To Get Support From Top Managers

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Part 2, from the series "What skills does an effective leader need?"

We continue talking about effective leadership skills that help avoid major mistakes from the very beginning of your managerial career.

Let me remind you that the previous article lists the most common mistakes of novice leaders.

1. Ability to delegate authority.
2. Ability to receive support from top managers of the company.
3. Ability to give adequate feedback to subordinates.
4. Ability to accept feedback from the environment (colleagues, managers).
5. Demonstration of confidence to your environment and yourself.
6. Public speaking skills (meeting, conference, meeting within the department, presenting one's opinion, etc.)

Next, we looked at Mistake # 1 in detail - delegation of authority.

Moving on to the next one - ability to receive support from top managers of the company.

What is it and why is it so important to be able to negotiate with a team of top managers?

At the very beginning of your managerial career, it is important to realize that with a change in your status role, your internal status attitude should also change. You are now a “leader”, and many who were previously your leadership have now become partners or leaders of equal status. This means that you have to communicate a lot with them. An additional burden for you will be that you are now in a new role and a different model of behavior will be expected from you.

I draw your attention to the fact that the skill to negotiate, the ability to constructively negotiate, the win-win strategy become the most relevant at this moment. Now your "rear" will be not only the employees of your department, but the team of top managers can also become both your ally and your opponent. And what role the tops will choose depends only on you.

In practice, I often hear from novice leaders about circumstances, double ties, favoritism, etc. Is an erroneous opinion. Yes, there are such moments, but you can and should influence them both in the near future and in the future. Always lay the foundation - a win-win strategy.

Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, sometimes it is necessary to skillfully enter the conflict and also competently get out of it, while maintaining their positions and authority among top managers. This strategy is also used in real life, but this is not the topic of today's article.

So, what is important for us to solve the second problem - ability to receive support from top managers of the company.

First, learn or improve speech presentation skills … You will often present your opinion at meetings, work planning meetings, upstairs meetings, etc. What are we presenting? The work of our department, our work, innovations and initiatives, we act as a speaker at various events, justify a position on some issue, give arguments, etc.

Second, take into account that your fellow executives tend to have excellent speech presentation skills, and many years of practice in their application. So, your task is to learn how to negotiate with them in such a way, so that they hear you and understand your message exactly the way you put it in.

Thirdly, remember that one is not a warrior in the field, and at any moment the situation may develop in such a way that the support of the top team will be required. Hence, skill is required conflict-free communication, including the ability to firmly defend their point of view and present their reasoned basis in a conflict-free way.

As a result, it all comes down to speech technologies, the skills of effective communication with different audiences.

What happens in practice?

When communicating with each other, we try to convey our thoughts or requests to the interlocutor. But we often get this kind of feedback:

- the interlocutor did not hear the main idea;

- the interlocutor understood the message in a completely different way;

- the interlocutor understood little of what was said.

As a result, in a conversation we do not achieve the desired goals, and our interlocutor is offended, sabotages requests, or does something completely different from what he was asked to do.

What can be done?

1. Learn to speak clearly in the language of the target audience, in the language of a specific person, in the language of the topic under discussion. That is, to find simple formulations for everyone - colleagues at work, leaders of equal status, higher management. At the same time, speak in such a way that the meaning of what is said remains planned. The interlocutors should hear exactly what you want to say to them - without allegories and misunderstandings.
2. When the interlocutor addresses you: you do not need to answer him immediately. First, mentally ask yourself the question: "Why did he tell me this?" Do not skip this important step in the dialogue - the search for the main thought / thesis in the speech of the interlocutor. After mentally formulating your answer, ask yourself another question: “What is the purpose of my answer? Why am I answering that way? " Only then can you speak.
3. When you turn to the interlocutor, first ask yourself the question: “What do I want to say now? Why am I talking about this? " In this case, you should adhere to the rule "one message - one main thought." If you learn to speak in this manner, it will be aerobatics. It is important to remember that any communication is an exchange of not only information, but also emotional states. By sending a verbal message to another person, we "provoke" him to an emotional reaction. Any word can evoke emotions with a plus or minus sign.

In coaching, the technique described above is called Intelligent Dialogue. How does this technique work?

Using this technique, you concentrate not on yourself (your thoughts, feelings, emotions), but on the message of another person. Understanding the main thoughts of his statements will help to objectively assess the content of the interlocutor's speech, to understand the true topic of the conversation that worries him the most. In the course of mastering the "Reasonable Dialogue" technique, an exchange of pure emotional reactions is being established, and over time, any communication begins to take place positively.

Please note: the more successfully you master this technique, the more thesis your speech will become. Phrases describing feelings and experiences will gradually disappear from statements. So that the emotional component does not suffer, it is important to pay attention to what kind of communication this style of speech will be appropriate, and with whom it is better to remain in a resonant dialogue "heart to heart".

For example, in communicating with loved ones, it is precisely "intimate" conversations that are needed, with a predominance of feelings and minimal inclusions of this technique. But I recommend forming communication in the business sphere with the daily use of the "Reasonable Dialogue" technique.

What are the results of using this technique (according to feedback from my clients)?

• During the negotiations, the planned goals are being achieved.
• Constructive communication is formed with people who "strain".
• Ill-wishers begin to express clear approval and sympathy.
• The criticism expressed is perceived without offense, and the response to it returns in the form of gratitude for the wise one for the hint.
• It becomes easy to negotiate with any person on issues of any complexity.
• In controversial situations, neutral or good relations with the interlocutor are maintained.
• A personal point of view is formed correctly, becomes heard and accepted.

Algorithm for the implementation of speech technology "Reasonable dialogue"

First week. In a conversation, before answering, mentally ask yourself the question: “Why am I being told this now? For what purpose?" Each evening, write down in a special notebook how many times during the day you forgot to ask yourself these questions. Statistics at the beginning and at the end of the week can be very different

An example from practice: “Of course, in the early days, I constantly forgot about the question“why”. Then I pasted a colored sticker over the table with a big question mark. This reminder picture helped me keep my focus on the fact that I was working on my speech. By the end of the week, the question "why" became an integral part of my speech."

Second week. Add new questions to your thought dialogue this week: Why am I saying this now? For what purpose do I answer this way? " And in the notebook, a column is also added for notes: how many times they answered immediately, forgetting to ask themselves the second question

Case study: “In the second week, the process went much faster. There was a feeling of pleasure in what was happening, and I tried to communicate more often in order to give myself more opportunities to train the skill of meaningful communication. In response, I began to receive compliments from my interlocutors that my statements in the dialogue are very deep, thoughtful, consistent."

Third week. The next step in mastering the technique is to search for the main idea in the interlocutor's speech. As it turned out, people in a conversation tend to "jump" from one topic to another. Observe your interlocutors, very often many can start with one topic, and then grab a couple more "for the heap." Such leaps in speech interfere with the achievement of the intended goal, therefore, it is necessary with an effort of will to “keep oneself in hand” and focus on only one topic

Mark your speech victories in your notebook. If you managed to discuss only one topic with your interlocutor, then for each victory you can reward yourself with a small present.

Fourth week. This week, you need to use all the techniques you have learned at the same time! If you really practice the above three steps, then your speech will change a lot: you will begin to express yourself more thesis, sentences will become short (5-7 words). And most importantly, they will begin to understand you, as they say, at a glance. Long introductions, verbal "garbage" (so to speak, well, in fact, etc.) - everything that used to seem to be a manifestation of individuality and a bright decoration of speech will disappear from the speech. Also note that speech will become more motivating: verbs of active action will replace adjectives describing a storm of feelings. It is important for a leader to have an incentive speech

An example from practice: “At work, it became easier for me to negotiate with colleagues, speeches at meetings became more thorough, in dialogues I began to put forward weighty arguments. Gradually, I received the informal status of "an expert and an interesting smart interlocutor", which greatly increased my self-esteem and authority among colleagues at work."

The described sequence of actions for mastering the proposed technique does not have to be accurately performed. You can act on your own by making your own plan for introducing this habit, for example, taking three steps at once to work. Remember that the main goal of mastering the Reasonable Dialogue technique is to speak so that your speech becomes more thesis, understandable and the meaning of your message is not distorted.

This is the first step towards building the communications you need in the top management team and getting support from them in work situations.

Further, it will already be possible to master other useful techniques - how to reasonably object, how to get the reaction you need from the interlocutor, how to induce action or inaction, etc. All this great work is aimed at the main goal - to build constructive cooperation in your workspace.