My son’s high school basketball coach would sometimes encourage the young men on his team to overcommunicate with their parents. Since it was communicated in the group message to the parents, that may have been the coach's way of overcommunicating. But it would be a great asset and beneficial for those young men to embrace the concept and develop the habit of overcommunicating.
Just as much as it would be a great asset and beneficial for those young men, it is very important for leaders to overcommunicate. It’s something about the word overcommunicate that might make it sound like it is not a good quality, kind of like you are doing too much. But as leaders, we almost can never communicate enough. So as leaders, we must have the mindset of overcommunicating to communicate the message loud and clear.
Patrick Lencioni, in his book The Advantage (2012), talks about the concept of overcommunicating. He says, “One of the best tests of seriousness is whether they continue to repeat themselves over a prolonged period of time.” In other words, leaders have to repeat themselves continuously if they want to be taken seriously. Lencioni also writes, “…many leaders fail to overcommunicate because they get bored saying the same things over and over again. This is understandable. Intelligent people want to be challenged with new messages and new problems to solve, and they get tired of revisiting the same topics. But that doesn’t matter. The point of leadership is not to keep the leader entertained, but to mobilize people around what is most important. When that calls for repetition and reinforcement, which it almost always does, a good leader relishes that responsibility.”
I have observed some great leaders who practice the art of overcommunicating. Have you? And, when they do it, it comes across as natural and unforced—almost like it is second nature. Some leaders are so good at overcommunicating that the message sounds fresh and delivered with the same passion and conviction each time it is presented. So, let’s commit to overcommunicating, and like those young men on the basketball team who can benefit from doing it, our leadership can too.
Application:
- Introduce It: To have the opportunity to overcommunicate, we must initially communicate the information to those we lead. If the idea, concept, expectation, and so forth are not communicated, it is unrealistic to expect those under our leadership to know what is going on and what needs to happen.
- Repeat It: Once the information is communicated, we have to communicate it over and over again. We cannot expect our people to know and remember all the details just because we said it once. Unfortunately, some people will not begin implementing what we have said until they realize we are serious because we keep repeating ourselves. We must take advantage of every opportunity we have in front of our people to overcommunicate our message.
- Reinforce It: Acknowledging and praising the behaviors that align with the communicated message reinforces the communication. This communicates our seriousness and commitment to the message that we have been communicating. The goal, as Lencioni stated, is “to mobilize people around what is most important,” and what better way to do this than by us reinforcing the behaviors when we see them.
Conclusion:
I have heard some leaders say, “Just when you start to get tired of repeating yourself, that is when the people are just starting to listen.” If you are like me and have not mastered the art of overcommunicating, I hope you have been encouraged, like I was, to understand that repeating ourselves over and over does not belittle the intelligence of those we lead, but it gives our people a clear picture of what we, as leaders, are serious about. The best part about leadership is that there is always room to grow. So if you are a leader who has become an expert at the art of overcommunication, there is still room to grow. So, keep repeating yourself. Everyone benefits from it, including your teammates who lead alongside you.
