Leadership Miscommunication

The Four Fatal Assumptions of Executive Communication

There are four fatal assumptions that hinder our executive communication, according to Ross Crossland, Chairman, Blueprint Leadership Development, and a Managing Director for the Tom Peters Group.

After a communication, or at the end of a meeting, managers tend to believe:

• Constituents understand what is being communicated
• Constituents agree with what has been communicated
• Constituents care about what has been communicated
• Constituents know how to act against what has been communicated

However, often that is not true. “These assumptions are at the root of most miscommunication, most continuing disagreement, and most inaction or alternative action, some of which may cause considerable rework” he says.

To improve your communication, you must use three channels of communication: factual, emotional and symbolic. In his book, The Leader’s Voice, he urges the reader to think of communication as a movie. If you don’t supply the facts, tune into emotions or your audience, and use appropriate symbols to get your message across, readers will fill in the blanks from their own internal sources – and you will fall prey to the four fatal assumptions of communications.