Chad Silverstein shows leaders how to catch what team members aren't saying out loud. Watch for squirming, lost eye contact, or winced reactions, then ask them to play back what they heard. Repetition and this simple check close gaps before miscommunication spreads.
Chapters
So I call illustrators micro-messages. People give them off all day long, and all you have to do is pay attention to them and just watch. I used to do this during interviews. I would sit back and I would watch an individual squirm in their seat. I'd watch people, you know, lose eye contact and look away when they were asked tough questions. And there is something very powerful about a leader who can pick up on those little nuances. And when they're communicating with their team, watch the micro-messages that your team is sending. And one of the most powerful ones is that when you're you're speaking to your team and you see people's eyes wince and they're like, you know, you could tell they were bothered by what you said, to be able to follow up. And one of the best tools that you can do is ask people to play back what they heard so that you can close any gaps for anything that was maybe misunderstood. There's nothing worse than saying something and having intention for everybody to hear one thing, and half the room hears one thing and half the room hears another, and then you walk away and you didn't clear it up, and then you got people, you know, going crazy and they're talking about it. And meanwhile, it's just because they didn't hear you the way you intended. And it's a fact. Leaders are misunderstood. You're not going to get everyone to be able to hear exactly what you want. And this is why we say you got to repeat yourself over and over and over and make sure you have people play back what they heard so that you can close the gap and, you know, clear up any miscommunication and not let people walk away assuming something that's not true.
