Embarrassing Leadership Difficulties: Articulating Ideas a Lacking Skill

In many situations, embarrassing moments take place especially when something unexpected comes into play. 

Let’s look at the experiences of a recently promoted manager.  We call him Michael.  He was recently promoted to his new role from his engineering role for the last seven years. He gained expertise in his function, demonstrated essential knowledge competencies and delivered magnificent accomplishments in performing his job. He was promoted to lead seven people with ranges of experiences from 6 months to 5 years.

In the early months in his role, it was very exciting; he was having a blast, enjoying all the perks that came with it. He started planning for his vacation when he completed his first year. However, as time goes by there were things that kept bothering him.

Credits: Microsoft.com, IdeasN

Michael was reflecting about the following situations:

1. He met his team in his first day, he was very confident in getting to know them, clarifying their roles and responsibilities. However, he was very nervous and felt short in explaining all the things in his agenda. He cannot find the right words to articulate what he was thinking. He decided to postpone the sharing of other information. But, as soon as he got into his office, he sent an email to his team enumerating what he wanted to share with them. He did this because of his inability to articulate his ideas when speaking.

2. During the meeting with his co-managers, he was unable to discuss and tell the entire story about his team members because the words that he wanted to use cannot be articulated. He struggled to demonstrate how to present his thoughts with his co-managers. He was frustrated and was very embarrassed. Others told him “don’t worry, we understand what you meant! English is not your first language.”  He believed that his inability to speak will create some issues eventually.

3. A member of his team brought to his attention an escalating issue with a customer. When speaking with customers over the telephone, he was continually getting frustrated for his inability to verbally express the best options that the customers can take. Instead, he was taking polite excuses to email customers with detailed information.  Michael was finding more and more challenging to communicate effectively.

4. Michael was meeting with four other management colleagues after work hours. He was excited about joining them as he can do bonding with them. He enjoyed their company, learning more about their thoughts and practices. But when it comes to sharing about his interests and passion such as travels, outdoor activities, and other social functions. He was limited with words. He felt embarrassed with management peers but he claims more confidence when talking things with his personal friends. 

What are the issues of Michael?

1. He lacks adequate business vocabulary and phrases to support his  ideas in front of his team

2. He lacks verbal and speaking competencies or  proficiency that will articulate his business and personal ideas

3. He lacks speaking communication skills that will make him more credible towards customers and management peers

4. He lacks conversational skills that will support his thoughts, ideas and opinions during small talks with business colleagues, peers and new acquaintances.

5. His organization did not prepare him for advance management role, nor trained him to become a team manager

What can Michael do?
Because Michael is leading a team of people. He will need to acquire knowledge and skills through a program called "Advanced Business English for Effective Communication". This will give him the opportunity to develop adequate proficiency in both business leadership and communication skills. Many of the issues he faced are covered in this program; such as increasing functional vocabulary, learning techniques in conducting situational scenarios, communicative skills development, increase verbal customer relations skills, ability to talk with new acquaintances in small talks topics and ability to conduct himself as a more professional as a real manager during business meetings within or outside his organization.

Speaking with a experienced leadership trainer and coach at Ideas N Conversations will identify the real causes of his problems. The free assessment which Ideas N Conversations use in determining those difficulties will allow them to create a suitable and customized program that will eliminate his difficulties. He can use these new learning immediately after each session. 

Perspectives:
When experiencing similar situations like the experiences of Michael don't get embarassed in taking actions that will diminish those challenges. Lead yourself to acquire necessary skills that demonstrate credibility and effectiveness.

For any additional information or guidance, please contact info@jntconsulting.com