The UnleashPeople Podcast Episode 9

The Art of Communication with Ieva Polakovska (en)

In the nineth episode of The UnleashPeople Podcast, hosts Ina and Christian hosts Ina and Christian are joined by Ieva, a Compensation and Benefits professional, to discuss the art of communicating tricky and complex topics to stakeholders. While Comp & Ben topics naturally command attention because they directly impact budgets and salaries, the underlying technical details are rarely straightforward. Ieva shares her practical approaches for stakeholder management, emphasizing the vital need to simplify intricate information, essentially explaining it as if speaking to a five-year-old.

The discussion dives into how to actively read the room, especially in remote environments where signs of multitasking or attendees turning their cameras off can indicate a complete loss of engagement. Ieva reveals her tactics for regaining lost attention, such as breaking the flow with a joke, introducing a relatable example, or asking direct questions. Furthermore, the trio explores how to handle frustrating situations where senior management forgets or backtracks on prior agreements. They stress the importance of dropping your ego and moving forward constructively, rather than defensively insisting "I told you so".

Finally, the episode touches upon evolving meeting cultures, such as replacing traditional PowerPoint presentations with dedicated reading time at the start of a meeting, and how AI can be actively leveraged to adjust the tone, structure, and reading level of your communications.

5 Key Takeaways‍

• Simplify the Complex
  Even the most senior leaders have limited mental bandwidth due to competing priorities. Strip away the technical jargon and make your explanations as simple as possible to ensure your core message is understood before trying to have a productive discussion.
• Contextualize Your "No"
  When pushing back on stakeholder requests, always provide the broader picture. Explaining the long-term consequences or ripple effects of a decision helps leaders understand why an exception cannot be made.
• Monitor Audience Engagement
  Watch for subtle cues like blind nodding or multitasking, which are especially prevalent in virtual meetings. If you sense you are losing the room, pause and pivot by asking a question or injecting a bit of humor to win back their attention.
• Focus on Progress Over Being Right
  It can happen that busy stakeholders forget past decisions and agreements. Instead of getting frustrated or pointing to previous meeting transcripts to prove you were right, let go of the prestige, re-align on the current reality, and focus on moving forward to fix the issue.
• Leverage AI for Stakeholder Communication
  Use AI tools as a sounding board to rewrite complex, "nerdy" texts to a simpler reading level or to tailor your messaging for specific executive personas. This practice can save valuable time and significantly reduce communication loops.

In case you want to just listen to the episode, here are the links:

The UnleashPeople Podcast - Season 2: Episode 9

The UnleashPeople Podcast - Season 2: Episode 9