By Helene Cavalli
Lee Hecht Harrison
NFL Player Engagement has a relationship with Lee Hecht Harrison, a talent solutions company focused on delivering Career Transition, Leadership Development, Career Development, and Change Management solutions. Through this relationship, current and former NFL players can receive one-on-one coaching sessions with Lee Hecht Harrison to help them put together resumes, practice interview techniques, learn the most effective methods for searching for jobs, and various other career development and transition skills.
In this article, Lee Hecht Harrison discusses the importance of leaders understanding their own and their team’s communication styles.
We often hear about the importance of communication skills in leading effective teams. Unfortunately, many leaders don’t possess the self-awareness to recognize deficiencies in their own communication style. Some leaders who consider themselves great communicators are shocked to find out that their team considers them lacking in this area. As Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw put it, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
In her article, “Recruiters put premium on communication skills,” Jennifer Lewington discusses the emphasis placed on communication skills by recruiters in hiring new or emerging leaders. It’s ranked above teamwork, technical knowledge and leadership in one survey and noted as a key area in need of improvement in another.
One theory as to why managers are deficient in workplace communication is that they are relying on a “transactional” approach that focuses only on transferring information, without any focus on developing rapport, collaboration or establishing a connection. As Sharon Irwin-Foulon of the University of Western Ontario explains – we need to approach communication as a relationship rather than a transaction.
Fortunately, communication skills can be learned. Effective leadership courses provide opportunities for participants to practice listening skills, develop strategies for providing in-person feedback, and connecting personally with team members. Importantly, participants will be made aware of not only how to read nonverbal cues, but also recognize the messages their own nonverbal signals are sending.
As the emphasis on building leadership pipelines increases, organizations must seek out young talent to step up to new challenges. Strong communication training can eliminate some of the less-effective shorthand habits fostered by today’s electronic mediums and introduce young potentials to a new perspective on the relationship-building effects of operational communication.
If you are a current or former NFL player who would like to take advantage of Lee Hecht Harrison’s services, contact your Director of Player Engagement or call the NFL Player Engagement department at 855-4PE-2472.
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