Next in our celebratory series to share her most important lesson from the last decade is Natalie Forking, the Marketing Director at UK Biocentre.
Over my time as a marketer, one of my biggest learnings is the power of effective communication. From a marketing perspective, it goes without saying that to be able to convince someone to part with money for the service, product, solution that you are offering, you need to be able to communicate effectively. What can often be over-looked however, especially in our busy working day, is how we connect positively with the people we work with through the way we communicate.
To build this connection, one of the key lessons I have learnt is to take some time to think about my audience, be they one person or many, in advance of the task in hand. I’ve often been guilty of just jumping in - ‘oh goodness I’ve got to pull together a presentation/prepare for another meeting/go and talk to somebody and I’m already really busy’ – whereas what I should be doing is taking a step back to firstly clarify what success looks like, and then thinking about the best way to achieve this given the people in the room.
Something that works for me is to put myself in the shoes of the other person and ask myself some questions. What’s on their mind? What do they need to know? How are they going to feel? What questions are they likely to ask? Where might they find a gap in my argument? I then need to consider the answer to these questions as I shape my approach.
Another trick is reminding myself that communication is not just an information transfer. It’s about taking responsibility for the outcome of my communication - what do I want people to do/think/feel and what’s the best way of delivering my key message to achieve this?
As our world becomes more virtual - already over 70% of communication between team members is digital - the potential for misunderstanding is high. Improving how I effectively communicate – and connect – will definitely be a lesson I keep on learning.