6 Tactics in the Language of Leadership

Winston Churchill delivered one of the most defining speeches of World War II: “We Shall Fight on the Beaches.”

When the stakes are high, the key to effective leadership is to deliver the right message, the right way.

And Churchill achieved that by crafting a speech with well-chosen words in well-chiseled lines.

Look at its most powerful passage below, and you’ll discover 6 timeless tactics you can use to improve your speeches:

Tactic #1 – Use Unifying Language

When you want to inspire your team to achieve a bold goal, tap in the power of unifying language:

"We shall not flag or fail.
We shall go on to the end.
We shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,
we shall defend our island,
whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender."

We hear “we” 11 times!

We also hear one oh so powerful “our” in “defend our island.”

Skillfully used, pronouns such as “we” and “our” create a strong sense of unity.

And unity can move mountains.

Tactic #2 – Paint Vivid Scenes

The language of leadership paints vivid scenes:

"We shall not flag or fail.
We shall go on to the end.
We shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,
we shall defend our island,
whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender."

Such simple words, yet such vivid scenes.

When you paint vivid scenes, you evoke emotion.

And emotion leads to action.

Tactic #3 – Inspire Action with Action Words

The language of leadership inspires action:

"We shall not flag or fail.
We shall go on to the end.
We shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,
we shall defend our island,
whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender."

How does Churchill inspire action?

Verbs.

Strategic verbs.

Notice how he gradually increases the power of his verbs, from the weak “flag” and “fail” to the more active “go on” to the dynamic “fight.”

Tactic #4 – Reject the Negative

The language of leadership highlights the positive direction by rejecting the negative:

"We shall not flag or fail.
We shall go on to the end.
We shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,
we shall defend our island,
whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender."

Churchill tells us not only what we shall do but also what we shall not do.

When you use this tactic, remember to spend less time on the negative and more time on the action you want to inspire.

How many times does Churchill say “fight”?

Seven!

No wonder that word echoes in the ears and through the years.

Tactic #5 – Persuade with the Power of Sound

The language of leadership persuades with the power of sound:

"We shall not flag or fail.
We shall go on to the end.
We shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,
we shall defend our island,
whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender."

The repetition of F in “flag or fail” makes the phrase sound convincing.

The repetition of ND in “defend” and “island” strengthens the connection between these key ideas.

The soft rhyme in “never surrender” makes the phrase unforgettable.

Carefully composed, the music of your words can move your audience.

Tactic #6 – Create Patterns and Twists

The language of leadership highlights key lines with patterns and twists:

"We shall not flag or fail.
We shall go on to the end.
We shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,
we shall defend our island,
whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender."

Churchill creates a pattern by repeating “we shall fight.”

Then what does he do?

He gives that pattern a twist.

Instead of saying “we shall fight,” he says “we shall defend.”

And that twist highlights the key line “we shall defend our island.”

Soon Churchill resumes the “we shall fight” pattern.

Then what does he do?

He gives it another twist and says “we shall never surrender.”

And that twist highlights this powerful line.

Your Turn

Now it’s your turn to apply these 6 timeless tactics. And feel free to forward this email to your friends to help them in their leadership journey.

Use your body language

Have you ever listened to someone and thought, “something here isn’t right?” Why do some people come across as more genuine than others? It’s all about body language.

Whether or not we realize it, we are routinely looking for someone’s words and body language to work in tandem.  If there is a disconnect between what someone is saying and how they are saying it, we are more likely to believe their body language than their words.  If you start a meeting by saying, “I’m glad to be here today,” with a look on your face that says, “I’d rather be getting a root canal than meeting with you this morning,” you will come across as insincere.

It’s often suggested that folding your arms across your chest is “negative body language,” because it suggests that you are icy, angry, distant, standoffish, or authoritarian.  But folding your arms is not intrinsically negative.  What if you’re just comfortable in that stance?  Or maybe you’re just cold. Folding your arms across your chest is problematic because it invites people to misperceive your message.

Our body language can be dramatically misinterpreted. Your goal is to minimize the audience’s ability to misperceive your intent.

How do you bring the most genuine version of yourself to any discussion and avoid being misinterpreted?  Adopt an open neutral stance or posture that’s hard for your audience to misinterpret.  Then, use your body language – your hands, your face, and your voice – to communicate naturally and comfortably.

We all have a certain amount of nervous energy when speaking to a group of people.  The difference between looking sincere and looking nervous is determined by how we channel our nervous energy.  Putting that energy into a productive, demonstrative gesture helps us look confident.  Reigning in the energy by folding our arms or clasping our hands forces nervous energy to “leak out” through distracting movements like shifting on our feet or nodding our head awkwardly.

Ironically, the best way to appear natural is to do something that will feel completely unnatural to most of us.

When standing, place your feet about hip-width apart with your weight evenly distributed on both feet.  That part is easy.  Here’s the tough part.  Let your arms hang by your sides.  Don’t fold them in front of you.  Don’t clasp them in prayer in front of your chest or by your waist.  Don’t stick them in your pockets.  In short, don’t do any of the things that most of us prefer to do when we are nervous.

Because all of the poses mentioned above are comfortable, most of us get stuck there.  Those poses aren’t only comfortable, they’re comforting.  We feel safe in those poses.  Because you feel safe with your hands clasped in front of you, you won’t gesture.  If you don’t gesture, you don’t look at ease.  If you look uncomfortable, you challenge your audience to suspect that you don’t trust yourself, or you don’t trust your content.  Either of those assumptions is fatal to your credibility.

When you stand with your arms by your sides, in a completely neutral pose, it’s hard for your audience to misperceive your intent.  More importantly, because standing with our arms by our sides feels awkward and uncomfortable to most of us, we are much more likely to use hand gestures as soon as we start speaking.  This helps you come across naturally.

When you use hand gestures, your voice will naturally punctuate the important words and your face will reflect the energy and enthusiasm of your gestures.

How can you make gesturing a natural part of your delivery skills?  Use effective eye contact.

You will come across as more genuine when speaking to a group of people if you treat each group as a collection of individuals as opposed to a large cohesive body.  Almost everyone is more comfortable speaking to one person rather than to a large group.  Therefore, when you are in front of a large group, speak to only one person at a time for a full sentence.  Don’t scan the room.  Instead, look out at your audience.  Select one pair of eyes.  Deliver a full sentence to that person.  When speaking to her, she is the only person in the room.  Finish the thought to that person; turn in silence to the next person.  He gets the entire next sentence.  If you speak to only one person at a time, you will naturally relax, which allows you to appear more genuine.  Because you will feel as if you are speaking to only one person, you will inevitably gesture more naturally.

Gesturing isn’t about acting.  It’s about acting natural.  It’s how you bring your genuine self to any conversation.

Three Strategies For Introverts To Speak Up In Meetings

"You need to speak up."

"You have to be more visible."

If you're an introvert, you might have heard these two bits of feedback before. And if you're a high performer, they can be especially irksome. Speaking up just isn't something you do. But be that as it may, failing to make your voice heard at pivotal moments might be hurting your career.

Most introverts tend to have good reasons—whether or not they consciously understand what they are—for holding their tongues during major presentations, meetings, and other situations where weighing in would be helpful. In those cases, it first helps to figure out which of your assumptions are preventing you from contributing to the discussion. Here are three of the most common, and how to overcome them.

"I Want To Be Respectful."

The good intention: If you're invited for only the first or second time to a senior-level meeting, chances are you're one of the more junior employees in the room. Your natural tendency might be to defer to those more senior to you and soak in the conversation. Especially if you're naturally introverted, it may not feel like it's your place to talk. This deferential inclination can be especially strong in organizations with strong hierarchies.

The unintended impact: Your deference causes you to become invisible in the meeting. When no one knows you, they don't know what you can do. That means you aren't as likely to be considered when it comes time for a promotion. After you reach a certain level, the number of senior executives who know you and have a good impression of you will directly correlate with your career success.

The practical fix: Prepare to say something at the meeting. One senior executive shared with me that for every meeting he goes to, he'll ask the person who invited him the following questions: Who's going to be there, why has he been invited, and what will we be discussing? He then takes time to prepare how he'll contribute to the conversation.

Understand that you can share your point of view and still be respectful. As long as you can contribute something substantive without overstepping your bounds or reaching beyond your knowledge base, you'll be fine. For every meeting, try to say at least one thing—you can ask a question, play back what you've heard, or comment on what's being said.

"I Have Nothing Else To Add."

The good intention: Everything that needs to be said has already been shared. You hate it when others waste time saying nothing in meetings, so you refrain from talking just for the sake of talking. If you're a good listener and usually let others speak first, or if you're on a team with a few dominant personalities, you'll most likely fall into this category.

The unintended impact: Imagine seeing yourself from a newcomer's perspective. Even if you have the best ideas, someone who doesn't know you will reasonably assume you don't have any ideas as long as you don't share them. Worse, you might be seen as someone who doesn't care. Neither one of these misperceptions will help you in your career, and it's up to you to set them straight.

The practical fix: Speak up earlier. If you wait until the end of the meeting, chances are someone else will already have shared your idea. Make it your goal to be one of the first two people to say something. For guidance, you might want to observe those who speak up first, and note what they say and how they say it.

"I Don't Want To Say The Wrong Thing."

The good intention: You don't want to appear incompetent in front of people who will judge you and have a say in your career. If you're with a client, you might not want to say something to jeopardize the deal or damage the relationship. Why not let your more senior and experienced colleagues handle it? Isn't that why they're there in the first place?

The unintended impact: Your client sees you as the scribe or assistant, and you never build the working relationship you need to get to the next level. For internal meetings, your boss thinks you don't have a mind of your own and sees you more of an order-taker than an influencer.

The practical fix: Before the meeting, ask your more senior colleagues what they want you to cover and how they want you to participate. That can help you decide when you to jump in during the meeting. You might also ask your coworkers to help pull you into the conversation for certain topics.

During the meeting, for every question that's asked, come up with an answer in your head and compare it to what your more senior colleagues are saying. As your answers begin to align with what you hear, you'll gain the confidence to speak up knowing your responses will be on the right track.

Being invited to a senior-level meeting or a high-stakes pitch are rare windows of opportunity to showcase your talents. Don't waste it. Do your homework in advance, and be clear on the value you can add to the conversation. When you do share your views, make sure it's concise, articulate, and focused on the topic at hand. There's nothing more annoying than to hear someone trying to impress others or prove how smart or how hardworking they are.

But it's a delicate balance. If you don't talk, no one will know who you are; if you talk too much, people begin to wonder, "Who do you think you are?"

Finally, get feedback after a meeting wraps up. If your manager or mentor will be there, mention beforehand that you're working on speaking up more and ask for some specific suggestions from them. They'll let you know if you need to speak up even more, or if you're going overboard.

Speaking up in key business situations sometimes poses a risk few introverts are all that inclined to make. But for the sake of your career, it's almost alway worth the wager.

Mistakes to avoid in English while forming sentences

Even today, I don't understand the dictionary definition of "past participle", "past continuous tense", "adverb" etc., because I haven't studied grammar properly during school days. However, I manage to speak good English. There is a famous quote "Small things make perfection, but perfection isn't a small thing". A few simple grammar corrections to your sentences will make you appear like a good speaker. 1. After "did" there should not be a past tense verb Wrong usage: Where did he went for lunch? Right usage: Where did he go for lunch? 2. Use of "Can able to"  Wrong usage: I can able to complete by Friday Right usage: "I can complete by Friday" or "I'll be able to complete by Friday" 3. "I and my friend"  Wrong usage: I and my friend went to a restaurant for dinner on Friday Right usage: My friend and I went to a restaurant for dinner on Friday 4. Use of "One of my" Wrong usage: One of my friend work for Cisco Systems Right usage: One of my friends work for Cisco Systems 5. Use of  "People vs. Peoples" "Children vs. Childrens" Wrong usage: I met a number of peoples in Coimbatore Right usage: I met a number of people in Coimbatore Wrong usage: I enjoy playing with Childrens Right usage: I enjoy playing with Children 6. Use of "struck" vs. "stuck"  Wrong usage: I got struck at work Right usage: I got stuck at work 7. Literal translation of "native language" to English Wrong usage: You going-ah for the wedding? Right usage: Are you going to attend the wedding? 8. Use of "simple present" tense Wrong usage: Anitha work really hard in this project Right usage: Anitha works really hard in this project Wrong usage: Anitha and Sam really works hard in this project Right usage: Anitha and Sam really work hard in this project Wrong usage: I works really hard in this project Right usage: I work really hard in this project If you want to increase your proficiency in sentence formation in English, I would strongly recommend you to read good English novels. Though you may be reading a lot of self-help books or technical books, your English fluency may not improve. Because, they don't teach you how to form sentences like "Hey! Shall we quickly go to cafeteria and grab some lunch?" However, in novels there will be stories; in stories there will be characters and characters speak through dialogues. If you don't know which novel to pick, you can start with Chetan Bhagat's novels. They are simple enough for all of us to read and understand. If you are reading novels with an "intent to learn" as opposed to reading with an "intent to kill time", you'll be able to develop your proficiency in sentence formation.

How to Become a Good Listener

Effective communication is one of the keys to building resilience and maintaining balance in your life.  Communication is the foundation upon which we build our lives.  It is the way in which we understand others and the way in which we attempt to get other people to understand and know us.  If we do not communicate clearly and directly with others, we will not understand and we will not be understood.

Many of the situations that we deal with on a daily basis are complicated.  Very few are black and white.  The other person usually has their side of things, their story, and their way of looking at things.  If we don't take time to really understand what they are saying or how they see things, we usually are not going to be very effective in dealing with them.  There are very few pat solutions that one can simply apply to a problem.  We need to understand what we are confronting, and the only way that we are going to do that is by effectively communicating with those around us.

Many of us use the skills that are effective in communicating in our work on a daily basis.  Some of us may refer to these skills as basic interviewing skills.  Unfortunately, many of us put these skills away when we leave work and do not apply them to the world outside of work.  In particular, we may not listen well.  We may be tired of listening.  We have been listening to people all day.  When we are tired or angry and upset, it is difficult to listen to someone with whom we are angry.  But if we are going to find a solution to the problems that we are dealing with, either at work or at home, we have to talk and we have to listen in order to find out what is happening and what we need to do about it.

Listening is an active process.  It does not mean simply sitting silent and staring at someone.  To be effective in understanding another's perspective and helping them through a difficult time, such as a diagnosis of cancer, you need to do things which show interest and genuine concern.  Here are four examples of things you can do to encourage other people to talk, especially in a crisis when people are upset and angry.

1. Use neutral expressions, such as "I see," "Go on," "I understand," "Yes."

2. Nod your head or smile. 

This lets people know that you are responsive to what they are saying.  It doesn't have to mean that you agree with what they are saying.

3. Try "echoing" or simply rephrasing what the person has said. 

For example:  You are talking with your best friend about his wife, and he says, "I feel, since the diagnosis, she's changed a lot."  You might say, "Changed?"  Avoid being the cross-examiner or fault-finder.  Don't focus on trivialities.  Keep the conversation focused.

4. Ask good questions of people. 

Unfortunately, people often don't know how to ask good questions.  When we are talking with someone, we need to ask open-ended questions that encourage them to talk.  For example, "What happened?" or "What are you going to do now?"  But very often we ask questions that have yes or no answers that don't encourage discussion or we ask people "why" questions. Unfortunately, when we ask "why" questions, we are often encouraging people to become defensive and to try to come up with some reason to justify their behavior.  The reality may be that they simply don't know why.  We could spend the rest of the evening talking about "why" when "why" really isn't that important and is not going to lead us to a solution to the problem.

Simplicity is the ultimate Sophistication

You call him as charismatic; you call him as argumentative; you call him as a visionary and you call him as brutal. You will be right. When I finished reading the last page of the book "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson, I get the feeling of having watched Baahubali 2. Jobs' tale is both instructive and cautionary. It is a tale of highs, lows, surprises, successes, failures, rivalries, emotions, love, hatred... and everything else that you would see in a movie like Baahubali. Rob Siltanen's quote "The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do" won't fit anyone else better than Steve Jobs. Jobs aspired to live at the intersection of humanities and technology, and he just did that throughout his life. He always thought that he is special and he compared himself with the likes of Einstein and Gandhi. I am not sure if he is as good as Gandhi, but he definitely made an impact, as big as what Einstein made with the theory of relativity. Jobs' feeling of getting rejected at an early age... created the feeling to prove. He did prove to the world, that he is different. Steve Jobs not only built great products, but also built great companies. All of the products that he built followed Leonarda Da Vinci's mantra "Simplicity is the ultimate Sophistication". Both the book and the man, impacted me ... and made me to think. Here are some highlights from the book: Unlike other product developers, Jobs did not believe that customers are always right. He felt customers do not know what they want, until you show them. He didn't just motivate his teams to make mere product advances, but whole new devices and services that consumers did not know they needed.  He loved doing things right. He even cared about the look of parts that you couldn't see. During his childhood days, he learned from his dad about the importance of making even the back of the cabinets and fences properly, even though they were hidden.  He practiced strict vegetarianism (vegan diet) for the major part of his life.  Apple's marketing philosophy - empathy (intimate connection with the feelings of the customer), focus (eliminate whatever opportunities are unimportant), impute (presenting products in a creative, professional manner) Jobs ends up to be brutally honest, telling the truths that most of us sugarcoat or suppress. He usually didn't care an iota of what people actually think of him. According to him, people were either enlightened or assholes. Products were either amazing or shit.  Jobs thought "If you need slides, it shows, you don't know what you are talking about" Jobs was driven by his perfectionism and gets impatience with those who made compromises in order to get a product on time and on budget. People look at him as someone who has reality distortion, especially when he gets too passionate about a product.   Lessons Jobs learned from the Buddhism - material possessions often cluttered life rather than enriched it. So, he embraced "minimalism". He reflected that through the things that he accumulated at home and through the things that he wears everyday. He also applies this philosophy in designing / building products. Jobs wanted to have end to end control over the entire ecosystem, when building products. He believed that for a computer to be truly great, its hardware and software has to be tightly linked. He followed that right from the MAC to the iPhone to the iTunes. He was a believer of creating end to end solutions.  Jobs thought "You have to be ruthless if you want to build a team of A players. Its too easy as a team grows, to put up with a few B players, and then attract a few more B players, and soon you'll even have some C players. A players like to work only with A players. Part of my responsibility, is to be a yardstick for quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected" Jobs is good at focusing on a few things and say no to many things.  He feels that "deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do. That's true for companies and that's true for products" The mark of an innovative company is not only that it comes up with new ideas first, but also that it knows how to leapfrog when it finds itself behind. He believed in making hit products and promote them with terrific marketing

Strength Through Vulnerability - Communicate Authentically

Authenticity is a word that continues to gain increasing attention in the business world. As a result, people argue about what is appropriate to share, how much information is too much information. Business leaders are encouraged to be authentic so their teams can see the “real” person behind the impressive title and expensive suit. At the same time, we worry that showing our more vulnerable side shows weakness and feels scary. So, many avoid it, despite the amazing benefits that come from being and sharing who you really are.

Brené Brown, PhD, master researcher, author, and storyteller, explores the power of vulnerability and its capacity to help people empathize, connect, belong, and love. In one interview, she talked about 13,000 pieces of data collected over 12 years and in not one single case was there an incident of courage that was not underpinned by vulnerability.

Our imperfections are our vulnerable spots – they are the areas we are afraid to share because of uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. Yet, the greatest measure of courage is to face that imperfection, embrace it, and let it shine. You’ll be amazed to see what greatness can come from opening yourself to others in this way.

In 2013, Phil Hansen, a passionate artist who developed a terrible tremor in his hand, delivered an incredibly powerful TED Talk called Embrace the Shake. His tremors made it impossible to draw the tiny dots he needed to create his pointillism-style artistic masterpieces. Encouraged by his doctor to “embrace the shake” by not forcing himself to draw tiny dots, he instead opened his mind and talent to alternate forms of art. As a beautiful result, he began exploring ideas, opportunities, innovation and beauty in ways he never even dreamed of before.

I encourage you to find your perfect imperfection, embrace the shake, and share the inspirational stories that help others appreciate the beauty in the struggle. Bravely share your story, starting today, just as I did with this article, which through its honesty, conversational delivery, and possible grammatical errors, is Perfectly Imperfect on so many levels.

What is your perfect imperfection? How do you allow yourself to share this story with the world? What ways do you explain the struggle bravely, letting others know how you succeeded and how they can, too? 

How to Talk to Strangers

As human beings, it seems our self-consciousness builds up as we get older. We close off to new people because we think they may reject us. A situation makes us uncomfortable so we turn our backs and run the other way. Our pure intentions to strike up a friendly conversation get overshadowed by our fear that others are judging us. This can muddy our wonder and creates a barrier for us to confidently introduce ourselves and be OK in our own skin.

But think differently the next time you have the opportunity to meet someone new—take your lead from the kids on this one. Watch a child’s enchantment with another child. It is genuine and straightforward.

Fight the urge to wait for others to come introduce themselves to you. Be brave with your initial “hello.” There are ways to get that conversation off the ground.

When in doubt, go with the FLOW:

(F) Family—This is an easy topic for most to discuss. People typically love to talk about themselves, so draw it out of them with simple questions such as: Where do you and your family live? Where did you grow up? If you know they have children, ask about recent family vacations or plans for the summer.

(L) Leisure—Don’t be scared to lead with something about you. Often, this encourages people to feel more comfortable and talk a bit about themselves. “We went to the Bronx Zoo this weekend. I haven’t been in years. It was so amazing. Have you been there recently? (Other person answers.) No, well I highly recommend it. What did you do over the weekend?”

(O) Organization—Talk about groups you are involved in and ask the other person what he or she does outside of work—whether in the community, church, synagogue, alumni associations, professional networking groups, PTA. We spend so much time talking about our jobs that changing up the normal work banter and asking about outside organizations is usually a welcomed change of pace.

(W) What’s in the news?—Obviously, some things are off limits. Religion, politics, things that have a clear divide, no distinct right or wrong, things that aren’t black and white. Stick to interesting articles you read, like the top 20 new restaurants in your particular city or big pop culture topics, and the major headlines.

Take the pressure off of an initial introduction. Go in with the hope of meeting someone new and interesting. Reach out your hand, say, “Hello,” and ask the other person his or her name. Then go with the FLOW.

Effective resolutions

When you find yourself in conflict with someone else, take the lead to diffuse the situation. Resist the natural tendency to ignore it hoping it will go away. Almost always, the situation gets worse.

Conflict resolution starts with a conversation. Unless you’re planning to leave your firm or have the power to fire the other person, your goal is to rebuild your working relationship. Follow these steps to navigate clashes at work.

Step 1 - Get their side of the story

When you’re in conflict with someone, the other person is usually tense and on guard around you. Everything you say and do will seem self-serving except for pure listening.

If you invest time to show that all you want to do is understand where the other person is coming from and why he acted the way he did, you will help to calm the other person down. You will make them more open to your views. You may even learn something that might cause you to reassess the situation.

This step is difficult because much of what you’ll hear will seem unreasonable or like an excuse. You feel this way because your focus is still on you. Keep shifting your focus over to the other side until you can honestly acknowledge why the other person may be justified for her behavior.

Step 2 - Share your perspective

Once you understand the other person’s side of the story, you want to share your perspective to ensure you are both working from a common pool of information. If you don’t share your view, you may end up resenting any solutions that come out of this process.

Move past this step only after you and the other person feel all of the relevant information has been shared.

Step 3 - Determine the real need

When you both feel heard and share a common understanding, identify each individual’s real need if it wasn’t clear after the first two steps. It’s important to separate the need with the method to fulfill the need.

If you’re not sure what your real needs are, question your behavior by asking yourself why multiple times.

For example:
     Why am I recruiting this person from my colleague to join my team?
          - Because I need someone to start right away
     Why do I need someone to start right away?
          - Because my project is late and I need the right expertise and
            manpower to get it back on track

In this example, your need is to get the project on track. Poaching your colleague’s staff is just one possible solution.

Step 4 - Brainstorm ideas together

Once you understand your true need and realize that there might be different ways to fulfill that need, it’s time to collaborate and come up with ideas together on how you can both achieve your needs. Make a list and don’t worry about feasibility until the next step.

Step 5 - Choose the way forward

Once you have a list of solutions, choose the best ones that can realistically fulfill your needs. Once you agree on what you and the other person will do differently, keep each other accountable. Clearly note who will do what by when.

If you are still unable to come to an agreement, the solution may be to involve a third party to either decide or advise the situation.

5 Ways to Ensure Critical Knowledge Transfer

Companies routinely watch deep smarts walk out the door when experts retire or leave. But there are tactics learning leaders can use to transfer this critical knowledge.

Knowledge transfer is a constant in any organization because passing along experience-based knowledge is essential.

With baby boomers reaching retirement age, highly experienced employees are leaving en masse. Organizations that are unable or unwilling to address the loss of these employees’ deep smarts will lose business-critical, experience-based knowledge. 

In a 2013 survey of 73 chief learning officers, chief information officers and top human resources executives, 78 percent said knowledge loss was a greater problem than five years ago. They also estimated the intangible costs of losing key employees because of delayed projects, loss of valuable relationships, mistakes occasioned by inexperience and extra training. These cost their companies an average of $430,000 for every departure on top of the usual recruitment replacement costs.

Some 42 percent reported hiring experts back as consultants to perform the same work, often at inflated prices — a costly, ultimately unsuccessful strategy for dealing with knowledge loss. Despite the need to address this expensive issue, only 14 percent of the executives surveyed said their organizations were doing a lot about such losses. 

Essential, competitive, critical knowledge is walking out the door daily, but addressing the issue isn’t a priority. The responsibility for preserving top talent expertise falls in the cracks between functions. Whose job is it — human resources, chief information officers or chief learning officers? Increasingly, CLOs are stepping up, possibly because they are best equipped
to address it given their specialized knowledge of learning and development.

Learning leaders can perform five activities to minimize the risk and expense associated with knowledge loss.

1. Ensure the team knows where deep smarts reside in the organization and which are at risk of loss or overutilization because they are rare. Managers close to operations and peers know the “go-to” people others count on for the information they need to do their jobs; upper management often does not. If there are too few employees with particular skills, these experts can be overwhelmed by demands on their time. And if key talent leaves the organization, current and future operations are at risk.

Some organizations have evolved highly systematic ways to identify their knowledge vulnerabilities. At one division of oilfield services company Baker Hughes, managers were asked to develop specific, measurable criteria to judge what knowledge was essential. For example, could a vacancy affect profitability, customer satisfaction or the ability to bring out the next new product? If so, just how difficult would it be to replace the current incumbent possessing that essential knowledge? The next steps are to determine exactly what those key employees know that less experienced individuals don’t — and to take steps to preserve those essential skills.

2. Train experts as knowledge mentors for the next generation. Experienced employees and mentors who are motivated to pass along their skills may need to be trained in the fundamentals of how people learn or how to teach.

Ask most expert employees how they developed their deep smarts, and they’ll say experience. But they may have difficulty passing that on to others. Good decisions, they note, arise from the experience of having made bad ones. Further, they often fall back on efficient, rather than effective, teaching methods: PowerPoint slide presentations, written reports and design rules, all of which are static skeletons of experience-based knowledge. These don’t teach critical thinking or judgment.

What is better? Researcher Robert Bjork, who studies what makes learning stick in memory, has called for “desirable difficulty” in learning. There are two erroneous, but common, assumptions. One, the easier we make the learning, the more easily the lessons will be retrieved. Almost the converse is true: active wrestling with thorny situations or problems leads to longer memory of solutions. Two, performance during learning translates directly to job performance. In fact, when learners think they have easily grasped the lessons, both they and their trainers overestimate how well they will do when they need to solve similar problems later.

Therefore, mentors who teach skills, behaviors and critical thinking patterns need to engage their learners in problem-solving and discovery rather than present them with pre-digested solutions. One way to do this is to pose a predicament or problem and have learners tackle it before suggesting a solution.

For example, the U.S. Army constantly needs to pass along experience-based knowledge. Its worker population is fluid and not necessarily well educated to begin with. Further, cognitive as well as physical skills can literally mean the difference between life and death. Young officers fighting battles today have to be able to make rapid, wise decisions.

One method to teach judgment is through the leader challenge. Experienced military leaders — via video or in person — pose a specific dilemma they have personally experienced in the field. Then group members discuss alternatives, potential consequences and second-order effects, before they find out what happened. The objective of having the learners actively grapple with a complex issue is not to find a solution for this exact situation but to practice critical thinking.

This kind of teaching usually requires a different concept of mentoring. Henry McGee, former president of HBO Home Entertainment, said he has radically changed his mentoring process since being exposed to a university culture where students are required to learn through experience — either vicariously through case studies or personally through field work. “My mentoring style used to be very directive,” he said. “But I have come to appreciate the power of a more consultative approach. The learning is much deeper.”

3. Help less experienced employees learn how to pull knowledge from those with deep smarts. A successor’s goal should be active, purposeful and efficient learning. But too often, the responsibility for passing on knowledge resides exclusively with the experienced incumbent. Just as there are better ways to teach, there are better ways to learn. Most educational institutions have not equipped graduates to take responsibility for their own learning. After all, from first grade on, teachers package and present knowledge.

Further, internalizing deep smarts — largely tacit, highly nuanced and complex — requires discipline. Joe DeConno, senior manager of human resources operations and projects at GE, has been leading a knowledge transfer initiative in GE’s Transportation business, and he said that “holding potential successors responsible for actively pulling knowledge from experts gives them a much stronger investment in the learning process.”

Part of this “pulling” process is to keep a learning log, which is reviewed with the mentor or expert as part of a knowledge-sharing contract. More than journals of lessons learned, these records force reviews of the learning process and can lead to changes in learning activities. However, the contents also can be integrated into searchable repositories of experts’ critical thinking processes, diagnostics and problem solutions.

4. If the need for knowledge transfer is acute and immediate, seek tools and techniques beyond exit interviews. Ideally, leaders will have time to set up knowledge mentoring. But when a deeply smart individual leaves abruptly, there may be only hours or a few days to capture as much essential expertise as possible. A successor, facilitator or coach trained to drill down into specifics will get much deeper into the smarts than is usually possible in a generic exit interview.

Facilitated group sessions can cover more territory than a one-on-one interview — especially if the session topics are carefully selected to focus on corporate history where the departing individual played a crucial role — so-called “critical incidents.”

Tim Perlick, senior director of professional development at CME Group, uses the critical incident process as a key knowledge transfer protocol for senior leadership transitions in his organization. “The stories emerging from questions that a group of colleagues pose, remove the folklore and provide detailed insights into thinking processes, problem-solving approaches and relationships one doesn’t get from exit interviews,” he said.

5. Build knowledge transfer into the organization’s DNA. Some managers have integrated knowledge transfer into the fabric of the organization through processes that explicitly require attention to sharing expertise. At Schlumberger, engineers on the six-level technical ladder have to prove they have contributed to community knowledge before they can climb to the next rung. At Nucor Corp., bonuses depend upon team output, an incentive system that encourages old timers to bring new members up to speed swiftly.

But managers also need to remove obstacles. At GE’s global research centers, HR leaders require that any rehired pensioners transfer knowledge — not just do the same jobs they had before retirement.


Knowledge transfer should be built into succession planning, onboarding and even routine evaluations if an organization is to become a true learning environment. A CLO has a major role to play in establishing this kind of culture.