Bryony hung up from the virtual meeting with her boss with a heavy heart and a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had just gotten the news she dreaded.
Bryony was a Senior Manager who’d requested a promotion to Director. Her boss said, “Well, I can’t promise anything, but I’ll recommend you because you’re doing good work” and had unenthusiastically taken Bryony’s request to her boss. The answer was not only “Not now,” the top boss dismissed Bryony’s future possibilities as well.
Her boss thought she was being helpful when she said,” You don’t really have a chance of getting promoted because you don’t have leadership communication skills.”
Bryony had no idea what she was talking about. She asked what skills were they? The boss had trouble defining them, just that Bryony wasn’t coming across as “a real leader”.
Bryony sat for five minutes trying to figure it out, wondering if she needed to be bossier. It was not her style and if that’s what was required, it was hopeless. She also didn’t see how being bossy was a good thing.
Bryony came into Causative Communication in a state of confusion, wanting to know, “What’s wrong with me?” Her Coach assured her there was absolutely nothing wrong with her and said, “Let’s get to work learning the Communication Formula that’s going to get you out of this mess.”
The first thing Bryony learned was presence. She’d never thought about it and didn’t have any. She found presence to be very calming and extremely comfortable. Bryony immediately noticed that her new “presence” had a powerful positive effect on others. They stopped what they were doing and paid attention. And also almost magically, gave her a respect they’d never shown her before. Presence elevated Bryony in their eyes in an almost mystical way. She loved how natural it felt.
Bryony gained a tremendous number of other communication skills in this program. I’m not going to go through all of them. One of the highlights for her was intention. Bryony learned the difference between being bossy and having intention. She mastered the ability to be compelling but using a very light touch. Now people were not only listening, they were moved to action by her words.
Bryony rapidly gained a reputation in the organization as having extraordinary communication abilities. Not just as a leader, but as one who reaches, inspires and moves people, winning their minds AND their hearts. They wanted to know what she thought. They looked to Bryony for guidance. Her good ideas were making their way through the organization and manifesting in successful projects and successful people.
Bryony also worked on her presentation skills and gained a reputation as an extraordinary speaker. Her bosses booked more and more speaking opportunities for her. She became their star player with customers and at conferences.
Bryony was promoted to Director, and very rapidly after that to Senior Director, and soon to Vice President.
A person with a great deal of ability will naturally rise to the right position for them in a group.
It happens organically. People who aren’t seeing this happening for themselves are simply missing what drives it.
The critical ability driving a person’s ability to influence, whether it’s their immediate family or a whole organization, is the ability to communicate. All other abilities are powerless without it. It doesn’t matter how many other abilities a person has. The key that turns the lock to their success is the success of their communication. Period.
That’s why communication is the most important ability for every person to develop. Without it, you can stay stuck getting pointless, useless, depressing feedback, and getting introverted into either wondering what’s wrong with you or hating the organization that won’t hear or recognize you.
Bryony rose from hopeless to VP in record time. She “opened” a door that she was told had been closed. The ability to communicate effectively gives you this power to make barriers disappear.
It takes work and practice to get there. Which is why we offer extra coaching at no charge to our students and graduates when they need it. Bryony certainly took advantage of this offer.
The question to ask yourself is: how much of a difference do you want to make?
Bryony’s organization is much better off with her in a VP position. She is now able to influence thousands with her positive energy and good ideas.
More and more people wanting to listen to you and move with you is precisely what happens organically when you gain an extraordinary ability to communicate. It amplifies all of your other abilities and enables you to rise higher and turn the passionate purposes that drive you into a vision that becomes contagious.
With skillful communication, there is no limit to how high you can rise and how much good you can do, or how much you can influence others. No limit at all. None whatsoever.
Bryony did it. You can do it too.
Be the cause!