Communication: What?
This post is the third in a series around the C’s of leadership, featuring a different Leadership C with each new post. Whether you lead a corporation, a church, a department, a classroom, or a family, HOW you lead has enormous impact on those you lead.
As someone in ministry, I spend a LOT of time thinking about Communication. Any leader today can tell you, it doesn’t matter how many times you announce something or how many different communication channels you choose (email, text, social media post, etc.), lots of people you want to reach will complain they never got the information. It’s maddening! And, good luck finding a solution to the problem.
But I think the most important communication channel a leader can use is face to face and one on one… Although, obviously, you’ll never reach thousands of people that way… But maybe you don’t need to. People listen so much better when they have a personal connection to someone. And people listen best when they know they have been listened to.
I’m a spiritual director and have also been trained in coaching and both of those trainings remind me that listening is far more important than speaking. Spiritual Director, professor, and author, Diane Millis, writes of the need to “listen [another’s] soul into discovery and disclosure.” We “listen” others into understanding. The most powerful teaching, coaching and spiritual companioning begins with questions; thoughtful questions that prod people to go deeper.
Communication that begins with listening always requires us to give our undivided attention. Nowadays, we all try to multi-task… which is, by the way, a neurological impossibility. “Multi-tasking” is really just rapid task switching and, in truth, the more frequently we “task switch,” the less effective we become. (By the way, I’m preaching to the choir here!)
One of the things I’m curious about in years to come is “what will happen to church sermons?” Personally, I think sermons will go the way of dinosaurs. Talking “at” people isn’t real communication. If we want to really connect, we’ll need to communicate well… and communication is always dialogical and it always begins with listening.
My bottom-line is this: If you really want what you are communicating to get through, begin with authentic listening that leads to understanding. Begin with questions that encourage deeper thinking, invite questions, maintain dialogue not monologue.
If you’d like to try out “church” in a format designed to be more dialogical, that “holds space” for others to enter the conversation, I want to invite you to a new online gathering I’m launching on Oct. 11. See the details below:
A PLACE FOR YOU – An online Gathering, Beginning the week of October 8
Is the way church gathers together not the right fit for you? Would you like to join an experiment in something different?
WHAT: a six-week online gathering to forge community, incorporating:
· dialogue and in-depth study of bible stories
· varied prayer practices
· gratitude and celebration
WHY: because maybe:
· a “message” doesn’t have to be a sermon
· prayer is more than words
· gratitude and celebration aren’t limited to an offering plate
WHO: Those interested in exploring different approaches to Christian community
WHEN: Wednesday evenings at 6:30 p.m., beginning October 11 and concluding Nov. 15. We’ll dialogue together about where/how to proceed from there.
If you are interested, email tracey.leslie@inumc.org
traceyleslie 