Leadership Lesson From an Army General: Use a Brief
Being an effective leader means having good communication skills, and this advice from a retired three-star general will make your communication flawless.
We’ve provided all sorts of helpful tips you might have learned from the military before, but you can still learn a lot from the leaders in their ranks. To be a strong leader, retired Lieutenant General Frank Kearney suggests that your communication always has three parts, or so-called “short” communication. You give orders, they reflect those orders back to you, and you clarify anything that might be misunderstood. Kearney explains:
We live in a world where communication is mostly one-sided. Email is a classic example. We assume that people understand our intentions, but just because you sent an email does not mean that people have read it, much less understood it. Thanks to three-way communication, you clarify the situation easier and faster.
The slightest misunderstanding can confuse everything, so it is best to always be as clear as possible, no matter the task. You may not be in charge of people’s lives, but that does not mean that you cannot use the same tried and true methods that warlords use. As Kearney says, “Leadership is deliberate: it’s no coincidence that you have successful teams.”
3-Star General Shares His Lessons from Senior Leadership | Business Insider