Last Updated on May 31, 2024

Communication Methods

A visionary leader needs to constantly communicate and engage, at multiple levels, to win and maintain confidence. Here are four levels you should consider:

• “Up” – communicating with your seniors so they have confidence in what you do. Such that you win the budgets, fly through gateway reviews and get the promotions.
• “Across” – communicating and engaging with your peers in other units and adjacent organisations so you are visibly in control. A visionary. Leading the integration and inclusion of issues in your organisation.
• “Down” – communicating to your team of tens, hundreds or thousands so they understand what your vision and story is. As well as their role, their position and the direction you are leading them.
• “Out” – communicating with your community, audience, customers and external stakeholders to keep them engaged and informed about your projects, products or vision.

To be an effective leader you need all four levels to have full confidence in you. How are some of Australia’s leaders that we support doing this now?

Critical Steps

There are three critical steps that visionary leaders constantly utilise: constant engagement, shared understanding and demystifying technicalities.

• Constant engagement entails having clear communication throughout all four levels. The visionary leaders we work with regularly roll out succinct engagement tools to inform their teams and stakeholders. They commission us to transform complexity into intuitive and engaging products. We help senior leaders communicate their visions and stakeholders to connect.
• Facilitating shared understanding entails that all four levels are always on the same page and that everyone comprehends the big picture. Miscommunications and misconceptions jeopardise projects in numerous ways. Improving shared understanding reduces mistakes, repeats, anxiety and risk. Making more time for leaders to drive the vision and growth.
• Demystifying technicalities entails reducing complexity and unifying disjointed information. Often information is presented in an unnecessarily technical manner, disparate from other streams. A busy leader needs clear and cohesive information to understand all possible options. We create clarity, giving control back to the leaders. We increase efficiency of decision making and allow decision-makers to easily understand all the information.

Leaders that employ these three critical steps, throughout all four levels, create trust and confidence in their visions.

From behind the scenes, Urban CGI supports leaders to become visionaries. Through creating bespoke visual solutions to achieve these three critical steps, the leaders we support are able to enact change.