Understanding and Investing in Your Communication Talent

On this Theme Thursday Season 4 webcast, Jim Collison, Gallup's Director of Talent Sourcing, and Maika Leibbrandt, Senior Workplace Consultant, talk about Communication.

Communication is the ability to put ideas into words. It is about clarity, and the promotion of understanding. Communication gets the point across. Individuals high in Communication can move from concept to story. They can take pieces and bits of ideas and put them into form. Communication is an external theme. It is the desire to bring things to light. It is not so much what happens in your head, but what effect it has on other people. Communication takes something internal, and puts it into a space that can be absorbed that is external.

At its best it can attract and hold others' attention. Individuals high in Communication have the ability to cut through noise. They have the ability to illustrate life through stories and words. They can bridge any gaps in understanding. They have a desire to be understood. There is a drive to make something stick in the minds of other people.

Raise your hand for opportunities to grow your Communication in the way that meets your theme dynamics. Look for opportunities to play to the diversity of this theme.

Communication talent in and of itself has so many depths and dimensions. Look for opportunities to connect with both large and small audiences. Look for variant industries. Look for opportunities to be the speaker. Raise your hand and be the person that summarizes with words. The essence of Communication is taking an idea, and making it into something others can understand. How do you meet the challenge of being understood?

Ask for lots of ideas and inputs. Ask for permission and a timeline to think out loud. You can ask for permission by requesting to talk through your options. Give yourself that opportunity to talk through your ideas, without having to worry they will effect an outcome. Worry less about keeping to yourself. Even if you are talking to a wall, you are always better keeping it in the external, rather than keeping it bottled up. You are going to be better if you can get your ideas out.

When working with someone high in Communication, expect an element of drama. Expect some invitation into their thought process. If this is too much for you feel free to give that person some guidelines.

Look for opportunities to celebrate the effect their Communication has on others. Think about opportunities to see when they have said something that everyone else was thinking, but couldn't find the words. They have a great talent in creating a story to allow those ideas make sense.

If you are going to be a great partner for Communication, allow some time for expression. Give that person that opportunity to offload all of their words being carried around. A great partner exercise is just to play back what you are hearing and understanding. Give them a chance to clarify. Close a connection time by asking if they have anything else to add.

Help them find an outlet for their creativity in an area where they can own the narrative. Give them the opportunity to have a platform for that narrative. Give them a safe place to go to try some of their experiments out. Expand the revisiting process to see what is working and what is not. Individuals high in Communication thrive when they get a safe environment to see how they put their narrative together.

If Communication is one of your Dominant Themes, invest in it this week through the following challenge items:

• Learn a story-based joke, and practice it out loud.
• Think about a current challenge you are having, and talk through it out loud with three different partners.
• Learn a new word, and use it every day for a week.

If Communication is not one of your Dominant Themes, invest in it this week through the following challenge items:

• Learn a new word, and use it every day for a week.
• What factors for you create the ideal presentation space?
• Practice your own introduction.