Interview with Susana Roza, journalist, lecturer and coach
Today I want to share with you an interview with Susana Roza. I have had the privilege of enjoying myself with the great professional and great person, Susana Roza. For many years Susana Roza has almost been part of our families, since from the small screen she has been informing us about what was happening in the world through the morning news of TVE, do you remember her?
It is a delight to talk to this communication expert about the fundamental keys to efficient communication and its influence on leadership. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did! 🙂
Susana Roza is a journalist, trainer, executive coach and speaker. He began his journalistic career presenting the daily news program of TVE in his hometown, Oviedo. From there she moved to the United States where she worked as an editor and anchor at CBS Telenoticias from Miami and at CNN en Español, in Atlanta.
He was part of the team that received the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation, awarded to CNN in 1997. Seven years later, she returned to Madrid to be the face of TVE’s Morning News, which became the leading news program in its time slot for eight years. In her 23 years as a news presenter, she accumulated more than 10,000 hours of live television.
In 2012 she moved to live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Since 2016 she has lived in Madrid and runs the company Mejor Dicho, dedicated to communication courses, spokesperson training and event presentation in Spanish, English and Portuguese.
I leave you with the interview with Susana Roza.
Interview with Susana Roza
Q: What role do you think communication plays in good leadership?
A: The response is a priority. For me, as a communication trainer, it occupies a priority place, although I also understand that it depends on the type of leadership. A leader can have a fantastic planning, a strategy of ten, but if he does not know how to communicate it, he will always go alone. The basis for convincing teams is knowing how to communicate and get them to get in the same boat in the same direction. What is one of the obstacles we face in this country? Well, no one taught us to communicate well. We think that talking a lot is communicating well and we confuse quantity with quality, (I’m generalizing a little). We also think that introverted or shy people communicate poorly, but we must remember that everything communicates, not only words, but also silences. The important thing is the whole. For me, communication training is essential for a leader.
Q: So what are the keys for the leader to have effective communication?
A: For me there would be three: consistency, coherence and trust. To build trust you have to be coherent and consistent. To be consistent is to do what you say, (otherwise they will never believe you) and believe that you are a good leader who should be followed. Be consistent, communication must be fluid, (it cannot only be in the “Christmas cup”), it must be on a regular basis, with key people, it must be a complete communication, (not only to ask or give instructions, but you have to communicate the how, the why, the for when. I like an example given by Marta Williams, who talked about a person who wants to have his kitchen painted and tells the painters that he wants to have it painted in three hours. After that time he returns and throws his hands to his head, the kitchen is finished, but painted a “chicken yellow”. And he tells them, “but how have you painted the kitchen like this? And they respond: “You told us when you wanted it, but you didn’t say anything about the color.” This is basic for communication, not only to say what is important to you, but to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and think about what you need to say to them that they may need to understand you. Empathy is essential in communication.
Follow the interview with Susana Roza
Q: In some executive coaching processes, it sometimes happens that the leader tells us: “I tell all the information, I give all the details, but then they don’t understand me, they don’t pay attention to me”… What do you think is missing in that communication to have the result we expect?
A: Of course, one thing is how you are going to tell it and another is that they understand you and follow you. If there is no trust you can say whatever you want, but they will not pay attention to you. The first step is empathy, what they need, (not what they need to hear, but what they need to do to continue growing and that’s where we go through this together) comes into play. It’s not just giving instructions, it’s a little more. It is to make your employees grow. It has to be an open dialogue, see to what extent the person can give, what they need, what motivates them, etc. Group communication is not the same as individual. It must be fluid communication in both directions.
There are two facts that can hinder communication in this sense: the leaders who speak from the “cum laude”, sitting in the chair, and those who give the instructions of what must be done “it is done this way because I say so”. We have to stop and think about why they don’t pay attention to us, what is happening, what is the reason for not being able to motivate them to the result. You have to adapt to each person in communication and this is a goldsmith’s job, there are no general keys for everyone the same. If I had to say any key, it is that we remember that people do not “read minds”, that they cannot understand us just by looking at us, that we must give details. On the other hand, that communication is different if it is in a group than if it is one-on-one, you have to adapt the style. And then consistency. And that the best way to communicate, despite networks and technology, is always face-to-face.
Q: Sometimes in companies it seems that information is saved, there are still leaders reluctant to share information out of fear, what do you think about the transparency of communication in organizations?
A: It is true, there is information that cannot be given, it is understandable. You have to know how to select the information that can be shared. For example, when I train spokespersons and we comment when they face situations with journalists. Of course, you don’t have to share all the information. There is a part that needs to be saved. In organizations there is information that is not necessary to share, (surely the least, but some are better not to share). The information that is problematic, difficult, that you take home as a leader and that leaves you sleepless for a couple of nights, that is the one that is not necessary to share. That is part of his responsibility as a leader, he is included in his position and he is paid for it.
Q: Do you mean that the leader must find the balance between the information he must share and that which falls within his responsibility and must “suffer” only him?
A: Yes, I do believe that he should differentiate that aspect. I am thinking, for example, of the case of a family. Parents don’t have to share absolutely everything with their children. If you want to let them grow and develop, you must think as a parent about what you prioritize as information about what they need to know in order to grow.
Q: What role do emotions play in the leader’s communication?
A: For me, a leader has to be clear that their emotions are seen, no matter how they put it. They cannot be hidden. We all know unconsciously what the person who is telling you something feels. We also know unconsciously usually if they are lying to us or if they are afraid, or if they are trying to “sell” us something. If they don’t tell you about it from the heart, you lose confidence. You can give a vote of confidence to see what happens, but unconsciously you know what’s behind it. The first time they can pass it to us, but the second time they can’t. It must be taken into account that if the leader does not believe it, he cannot convince and that’s where his emotions come into play.
Q: Susana Roza, how do you make a message memorable and also motivate the team to action? What should be taken into account?
A: The first thing a leader must do to convince and follow him is to prepare. Think and define what the message is going to be like and how it is going to be transmitted. For me it is also important to put data, it is not only something that he says, but he contrasts it with data, he demonstrates with examples, in a visual or tangible way, that it is not just an opinion, but that it is contrasted. This is not something that is improvised, but has to be prepared. It has to be structured, prepared. On the other hand, convincing is difficult. Of the five basic emotions, joy is based on an adaptive function, how humans from the animal point of view look for certain emotions and express them to adapt to the environment. And the adaptive function of joy is affiliation. That is, how do I make the other join me, appearing peaceful and being joyful. It has been studied that if I am cheerful, people will want to join me. It does not mean that the leader goes with the tambourine all day, but it does mean that when communicating he uses a cheerful tone, using the emotion of joy. It is much more difficult for the leader to get them to follow him with emotions of anger or sadness in his messages. It does not mean wanting to pretend to be a happy boss all the time, because that is not credible either, but it does mean transmitting that joy that others will perceive that they will feel better if they follow them.
Susana Roza, former TVE presenter and her current professional career
Q: In the executive coaching processes that leaders carry out to improve their communication, what are the main difficulties that they identify and want to overcome?
A: Usually it is the fear of counting more than necessary, or fear of how, of not controlling the times. Many times it is the difficulty of managing time in communications or not preparing well, wanting to improvise without thinking about what the structure is going to be. Fear is usually a lack of preparation. It also arises from never having had that training. Sometimes it happens that they think that they have always done it differently and the first step is to become aware that to have better results you have to make changes. On the other hand, sometimes as a difficulty in how we find speaking very quickly. Sometimes I meet leaders who have been gaining in the ranks of organizations thanks to speed, to achieve results in an agile way, to have clear objectives, they are usually very rational people who think quickly and solve situations and problems quickly and they are usually people who also speak quickly. The problem is that they think that others have to follow them even in speech. On the other hand, if we get into the world of multinationals, another difficulty is the leader who thinks that in English he cannot communicate being himself, who gets lost. They think that they feel that they lose power, prestige because they do not feel that they are themselves when communicating in English.
Q: Thank you very much Susana for these interesting reflections that you have raised with us, what would you like to add about what we have commented?
A: Thanks to you. I would just say in closing, that it is a pleasure to help executives speak in public. With some technical keys and practice time we manage to remove fears and make them make brilliant presentations and even enjoy them.
And you, what do you think about these ideas in the interview with Susana Roza? What comments or reflections would you like to share?
