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Communication
Writing, speaking, and listening as instruments of leadership: the briefing, the difficult conversation, and the case made in public.
Chapter contents
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Difficult Conversations 6 entries The four sentences that do the work, feedback that changes behaviour, saying no, and delivering a decision people will dislike.
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Foundations of Communication 5 entries What communication is for, why clarity and simplicity differ, and why a message must be delivered far more often than feels necessary.
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Institutional Voice 5 entries Speaking for an organization rather than yourself: message consistency, the public statement, open records, and when to say nothing.
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Listening and Inquiry 5 entries Listening as an information system: questions that get real answers, what silence means, and hearing bad news well.
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Persuasion 5 entries Making a case: evidence and its presentation, pre-wiring, building a coalition, and recognising when persuasion has failed.
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Spoken Communication 7 entries The briefing, presenting to a board, speaking without notes, hostile questions, and talking to a reporter.
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Written Communication 7 entries Conclusion first, the one-page discipline, documents that survive the room, and email as a governance instrument.
Entries filed directly to this chapter
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01
The Conversation You Are Avoiding
Delay does not hold the situation still. The cost accrues to other people while the leader waits for a version of the conversation that will be easier, and no such version arrives.
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02
Reading a Public Meeting
Public meetings are the most instructive communication training available in Idaho, and attending one costs nothing. Six things to watch for, and what each one teaches.
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03
Talking to a Reporter
A reporter is neither an adversary nor an ally. They have a job, the terms of the conversation must be agreed before it starts, and everything you say is on the record until stated…
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04
The All-Hands
Most all-hands meetings transmit nothing and cost a great deal. The format is justified only when everyone needs to hear the same thing at the same time from the same person.
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05
Hostile Questions
Answer the legitimate question inside the hostile one and decline the frame it arrived in. Arguing with the premise is the trap, and the room is watching your composure rather than scoring the exchange.
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06
Speaking Without Notes
Memorise the structure and the numbers; improvise everything else. A script produces recitation, and an audience can tell within about fifteen seconds.
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07
Presenting to a Board
A board is not an audience. It is a body with legal obligations, and it is assessing your judgment at least as closely as your proposal.
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08
The Briefing
The dominant professional speech form and almost nobody is taught it. A briefing is not a presentation; it exists to put a decision-maker in a position to decide.
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09
The One-Page Memo
A six-part template with an annotated example. Roughly four hundred words, and it holds everything a reader needs in order to decide.
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10
Board Packets and Reports
A packet that reports only what went well produces a board that cannot govern and, when something surfaces, cannot defend the management that concealed it.