Communication Intelligence capacity is a required leadership and management competence that influences employee interaction, engagement, and relatedness. And, it falls short.

There is evidence that supports this belief:

A clear indication of misalignment of communication style and behavior comes from a Forrester study revealing that 88% of sales professionals calling on business buyers are knowledgeable about their products and services, but only 24% understand the client’s business issues (Santucci, Holmes & Feldman, 2012). Only 12% of business leaders claim that sales professionals contribute any insight into their conversations.

Poor communication is cited as the main cause of failure of IT projects by 28% of respondents in a CTIA  survey (Rosencrance, 2007).

Harvard Business Review claims that nearly 90% of middle managers believe that top leaders communicate strategy frequently enough, yet less than half these managers can name more than one of the top five strategic priorities (Sull, Homkes & Sull, 2015). HBR also reports from an online study that 69% of managers claim that they often feel uncomfortable communication with employees (Solomon, 2016).

However, it is most often service operations people that have to have the most crucial and difficult customer conversations. The way people communicate is probably as important as what they communicate in day to day operations. In a South African study about call-center ease of communication in customer service delivery, Oodith and Paramasur (2015:492) claim that communication between agents and customers has the potential to contribute to greater customer satisfaction and retention in the long run.

The question remains: how can so much communication yield so little understanding? Especially when there is so much at stake in this perpetually changing world we compete in?

Communication Intelligence plays an integral role in communication style and behavior development.  An increase in communication intelligence capacity in leadership and management filters into the organization and fosters a culture of trust, so that staff feels empowered, certain, and related. They then contribute wholeheartedly to performance at a higher return-on-effort.

If you believe that communication is a vital influencing factor in the performance of your organization, what are you doing about it?

A Communication Intelligence profile establishes your communication style and behavior preferences. This is a great departure point for improved resonance within your team and more connectedness with your clients.

Please make contact with Paul Diepenbroek so that he can share with you the approach many organizations have taken to improve their Communication Intelligence:

Sources:

Oodith, D. & Paramasur, S.B. 2015. Call centre ease of communication in customer service delivery: an asset to managing customers’ needs? Problems and Perspectives in Management. 13(2):482–494.

Rosencrance, L. 2007. Survey: Poor communication causes most IT project failures. [Online], Available: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2543770/itmanagement/ survey–poor-communication-causes-most-it-projectfailures. html [2017, April 20].

Santucci, S., Holmes, B. & Feldman, D. 2012. Executive Buyer Insight Study: Are Salespeople Prepared For Executive Conversations? [Online], Available: https://www.forrester.com/report/Executive+Buyer+Insight+Study+Ar e+Salespeople+Prepared+For+Executive+Conversations/-/ERES56792 [2016, December 19].

Sull, D., Homkes, R. & Sull, S. 2015. Why Strategy Execution Unravels—and What to Do About It. [Online], Available: https://hbr.org/2015/03/why-strategy-execution-unravelsand-whatto- do-about-it [2017, April 20].