Erik Palmer encourages school leaders to hone their communication skills in the principalship. PHOTO COURTESY OF ERIK PALMER

Let me give you a challenge: Within 30 seconds, come up with five examples of an education leader’s communication failure. I bet you can do it. Perhaps you recall faculty walking out of a meeting saying, “Well that was a big waste of time;” possibly a professional development session with a trainer that was ineffective; maybe a team leader who rubbed the team the wrong way because of the way he spoke or an administrator who said something that really upset the parents or the staff.

I have never given that challenge to a superintendent, a principal, a coach, or a consultant who failed to come up with examples instantly. Given more time, you could come up with many examples. In my teaching career, I saw many good initiatives that were dead on arrival because of the way they were presented. I saw good-hearted, well-meaning people come into new leadership roles who somehow alienated the staff, also good-hearted, well-meaning people. Why does this happen?

I’ll give you another challenge: Estimate the percentage of your time that involves speaking. One-to-one, small group, large group, formal, informal, casual, in-person, on the phone, via Zoom—add them all up. Is it more than half of your day? Three-quarters? More? If you listed all the audiences, you’d be stunned by how varied they are. You probably don’t think much about it, but you need to be effective talking to 12-year-olds, 18-year-olds, introverted staff members, extroverted staff members, school board members, people learning English, helicopter parents, disconnected parents, people with potentially explosive hot-button issues they want addressed, other educational leaders, outside consultants, and so many more. In short, the oral communication demands of your job are enormous. When did you get the training that prepared you for those talks?

If you are like most educational leaders, you didn’t receive any formal training. No doctoral program for educators offered specific instruction in communication skills, no conferences had sessions devoted to developing speaking skills for varied situations, and few, if any, articles address the topic. This is a potentially costly oversight: costly in terms of money wasted on initiatives that failed because of weak presentation; costly in terms of relationships hurt by miscommunication; and costly in terms of time spent cleaning up messes caused by misunderstanding. You have witnessed the problems. Indeed, maybe you are not convinced that you have mastered effective oral communication either.

Creating and Delivering a Talk

One article cannot solve the problem, but it can begin a process and point you in the right direction. Begin by understanding that all speaking involves two very distinct parts: creating a talk and delivering it. Creating refers to everything you do before you open your mouth. Before you say a word, you think of the content, organize the content, dress for the occasion, perhaps make visual aids, figure out the logistics for how you want to present, and more. Delivering refers to everything you do as you speak. As you speak, you make eye contact, adjust speed for effect, gesture with your hands, body, and face, add emotion as appropriate (excitement, disappointment, concern), and control odd tics. Creating and delivering are separate skill sets, and someone who has mastered one part may be quite poor at the other.

Think back to the five communication fails that came to mind at the beginning of this article. How many were due to bad design? Was the message poorly written? (I’m not sure what he was trying to say? He rambled, I don’t know what the point was or what I’m supposed to do.) Were the slides boring and overloaded? (It was like a whole book was up there and I was supposed to read along or something.) Was it the wrong message for the audience? Conversely, how many failed due to poor delivery? Was the speaker dull and hard to listen to? (I started to nod off after about three minutes.) Was there some annoying tic? (I was counting the number of times she adjusted her hair.) Was the pacing off? (I felt like he was trying to get an hour’s worth of content into his 15-minute talk.)

The journey to more engaging, more effective speaking starts by analyzing the creation process and the delivery process. On the negative side, where did the message go wrong, during the design or during the delivery? Conversely, how can I improve this talk, by building it better or by performing it better? Many educational leaders should be asking these questions of themselves and of those they lead.

I am surprised at how often speakers underestimate the importance of analyzing the audience, the first step in preparing all talks. Indeed, some speakers never even think about it, yet all talks are doomed if the audience analysis isn’t done. Most speakers start with “I have something to say,” and they are concerned with covering some content. The staff must be told about the new testing schedule, a teacher must be given the results of the evaluation, the parents need to know about the school’s commitment to social and emotional learning and what supports are in place for students, and so on. Planning for the talk means creating documentation or making PowerPoint slides, writing notes to ensure that all required information is covered, and setting a time and location for the talk. Unfortunately, this neglects the most important people: the audience. After the talk, you may wonder some things: Did the listeners get it? Was the message well-received? Was there an impact? (Sadly, some speakers don’t even ask themselves these questions. “I covered it, so I’m done” is not uncommon.)

Understanding Your Audience

All talks are for an audience. That audience may be one person, a few, or many, but the audience must be understood before any other preparation takes place. What do they know? What do they need to know? What do they want to know? What mood are they in? What are their interests? What will they be able to get out of the talk? What is the best way to say this to the individuals who will be listening? Only by getting those answers will you be able to design a talk that conveys your content effectively. There is no one-size-fits-all talk.

At the back of your mind, you realize that audiences are different. A post-evaluation conference with Royce will be different than one with Jessica; describing the strategies for remote learning plays differently at Meadows Middle School where 87% of the students qualify for free and reduced-price meals and have little access to home computers than it does at Bell Middle School where students have tablets and laptops in their bedrooms. Effective speakers move that thinking to the front of the mind and adjust even when the differences are not so dramatic.

There are two very significant ways that audience analysis should impact your talks. First, once you know something about the audience, you make general adjustments. Consider the following:

  • Adjust your language. What level of vocabulary is appropriate? Will edu-speak work or be off-putting?
  • Adjust your style. Should you be formal or friendly?
  • Adjust your appearance. What will the listeners be expecting? What fits the occasion?
  • Adjust the amount of content. Is it all necessary? What will the listeners be able to grasp right now?
  • Adjust the type of content. Are listeners tired of PowerPoint? Videos? 
  • Adjust content to include responses for anticipated reactions. Will this topic upset some? All? 
  • Adjust your expectations. What parts of the talk will appeal to which subsets of the audience? Which subsets will need more information? Less?
  • Adjust delivery methods. Can this be presented digitally, asynchronously? Is an in-person 45-minute faculty meeting every Tuesday necessary?

While most of those points seem to apply to group talks, the same thinking applies in casual chats in the hallway. You should adjust to be effective with everyone you see during the day. I’m not suggesting you should become someone you aren’t. Rather, develop versions of yourself: one for students, one for the superintendent, one for Royce, one for Jessica, and one for the parent teacher association president, for example.

Second, once you understand the audience, you add connectors—explicit comments that connect your topic to the listeners’ lives and that connect you to the listeners. Don’t think of the audience as one entity, but rather as individuals. Use what you know about the individuals to bring yourself closer to them. Bridge the “us” versus “them” gap.

“I see some Dodgers logos here. You have to be excited about that trade, right?”

“How did your daughter’s soccer season end up?”

“Did the construction on Peoria Street mess up your drive? I am so happy you took the effort to get here tonight.”

“I’m not thrilled about this topic either, but if 20 minutes now will keep us out of big trouble later, it’s worth our time.”

“I taught eighth grade, so I need your input about high school because you have more expertise than I do.”

Sometimes you need to be the authority figure. Sometimes you need to be a colleague or a friend. But either way, adding connectors will help with message acceptance.

Ultimately, for maximum impact what you want to say must be in the context of what the audience will get. You aren’t talking for your benefit but for theirs. Understand their needs and then begin building your message for them.

Erik Palmer is a former teacher, consultant, and speaker. He is the author of several books, including Before You Say a Word: A School Leader’s Guide to Clear and Compelling Communication and Well Spoken: Teaching Speaking to All Students. He is also a program consultant for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Into Reading and Into Literature programs.