Three Things I Learned At Duke University from the "Communication For Leaders" Program

Are you looking for ways to improve your communications, better manage any business crisis, and understand how social media can help you? Here are three tips I learned at Duke University during my executive program studies that can support your improvement.

1. Tip one on your communications is stand tall and smile. Whenever you are tasked to speak in front of audience it's proven your message will be better received when you stand to communicate. Also, research shows when you stand to deliver a message you're viewed as more credible then someone who delivers the same message sitting. In addition, smile! Smiling makes you more like-able and your message is better received when audience has affinity for you. By standing and smiling you kill two birds with one stone for an easy way to improve communications. In terms of content and delivery when you are using slides, the key is keeping each slide to one main point. And show a visual that helps communicate this point in the most effective way. Do not fill a slide with stats, figures, and tons of words like many people do and lose the audience. To see how to best use slides, watch a video of Steve Jobs from Apple presenting. He keeps the main thing, the main thing.

2. The advice on managing crisis is understanding three responses to crisis and executing on option three asap if that is the bottom line. For example, your response to a crisis can be 1). I didn't do it 2) I did it, but I was justified 3) I did it and I'm sorry. The key is to go straight to response three if that is the truth and deal with it head-on asap. Goal is to make any press a one day story event versus weeks of stories. You want to pull oxygen out from flaming media fires. By admitting a mistake and apologizing upfront quickly you can nip most press flares at the bud.

3. Lastly, the tip on social media is around the branding of you. You need to get out in front and take control of your presence online. People, employers, and future employers will Google your name and the best way to have results show what you want seen is to have a strong social media presence you control. Own your own URL like your name.com to present who you are. Then be active in your social media to build content around you. All of your social media sites feed your search results bringing forth content that you manage versus sites popping up with info controlled from outside sources.

​All the above tips around communicating effectively, handling crisis, and managing social media are easy things to do and in your control. These small tweaks can effect big results. Taking the communication for leaders class at Duke University gave hundreds of valuable tips, but these three are worth thinking about and taking action on. Enjoy!

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