Impactful Communication: Brian Peckrill On 5 Essential Techniques for Becoming an Effective Communicator
An Interview With Athalia Monae
Self-awareness is the backbone of all communication — understanding your message and medium, your strengths and weaknesses. Self-awareness is a pre-requisite to self-improvement.
In an age dominated by digital communication, the power of articulate and effective verbal communication cannot be understated. Whether it’s delivering a keynote address, leading a team meeting, or engaging in a one-on-one conversation, impactful speaking can open doors, inspire change, and create lasting impressions. But what truly sets apart an effective communicator? What techniques and nuances elevate a speech from mundane to memorable? As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Brian Peckrill.
Brian Peckrill is the Interim Executive Director of the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund, a philanthropic family foundation dedicated to furthering William McGowan’s tradition of compassionate philanthropy and ethical leadership.
First of all, thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Can you share with us your backstory — What brought you to your specific career path?
I’m Brian Peckrill. I’m the Interim Executive Director for the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund, a philanthropic organization working across the United States to uplift individuals from poverty using both responsive as well as proactive grantmaking techniques. We also run a ‘Fellows’ program focused on promoting and promulgating ethical leadership in business.
My career arch has been in helping individuals and teams realize a better version of themselves and become the leaders that they are today. This started over a decade ago in Japan when I was a teacher in rural Hokkaido, and although I have had many jobs since then, this role has been integral to the leader I’ve become. I was teaching English, but my job really entailed captivating young students through American cultural coursework to prepare global citizens and build English competency.
Ultimately, beyond being a teacher, I was a grassroots, cultural ambassador, who represented not just himself, not just the United States, but frankly the entire outside world. I realized my words and actions held great significance.
In that role I realized that words and actions matter. They can inform what others think, and with that comes great responsibility, but also a great ability to build bridges, improve lives and empower people to become connected to others.
This experience has helped inform the rest of my career — working with leaders and individuals and helping uplift communities.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
That’s a great question.
Years ago, I ran a leadership program for individuals from North Africa and the Middle East, and I had two participants whose differences often defined them (despite many similarities). Nonetheless, these two individuals were on a program to grow their leadership skills and knowledge and it was my job to be of service to those goals.
In such programs, personal connections are often the biggest takeaway, and so I like to assign seating and I like to do so in a random way to promote as many shared connections as possible.
So, it just so happened that these two individuals were going to be living with each other.
Not only did they learn over four weeks to put their differences aside, but they also realized their skill sets — one, which was in e-commerce — and the other, in services for the elderly.
These were in fact complementary skill sets. In their communities, job opportunities for those who are elderly are limited, and so they created a joint enterprise to service the entire region that would teach e-commerce skills to older, retired craftspeople, so that they’d be able to access the market and support themselves when most vulnerable.
I learned that we have our differences, but we’re not defined by them. And when we can see past them, we can create innovative and unique initiatives that help push the world forward.
Which three-character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success to-date? Can you please share a story or an example for each?
At the McGowan Fund, we have six Principles that we live and work by. They are Accountability, Character and Integrity, Courage, Empathy, Resilience and Self-Awareness. I try to live by these principles.
Beyond luck, I think that my values have been instrumental to my success, and above all, I would probably rank integrity as most crucial.
When you do as you say, it keeps things simple, and it keeps you on track. So, I take what I say and what I do seriously and try to always align those two acts. I’ve found that is one way to simplify business; to simplify what I must do each day.
I also think that empathy is crucial to success, and I don’t necessarily mean putting myself in the shoes of others I mean taking the time to consider how the experiences that people have gone through have informed who they are and how they show up.
And I use that as a tool for compassion, but also for shared progress and developmental advancement.
How would you define an effective communicator? What are the characteristics of an “effective communicator?”
An effective communicator is somebody who clearly and concisely, without ambiguity, conveys their message in a way that promotes direction and alignment in their message, as well as commitment.
Some of the characteristics of an effective communicator are….
i) Somebody who speaks with transparency so that it makes sense and there are no hidden meanings,
ii) Somebody who speaks authentically; speaks in a message using words from their heart,
iii) Last but not least, somebody who speaks with humility and responsibility, conveying what they don’t know, but with a willingness to trust others, and grow through partnership and learning.
How can one tailor their communication style to different audiences or situations?
A core element is empathy and self-awareness. The way that one communicates is so coded to not just their audience, but the culture in which they are communicating.
If you are speaking to a boardroom in Chicago versus a boardroom in Tokyo, the approach that you use to communicate effectively would be drastically different. And I think it’s core in effective communication to understand the audience that you’re communicating with and “…meeting them where they’re at”.
If one can’t do this or is unwilling to change how they communicate, there will be some miscommunication; the message could be lost. So, it’s truly instrumental in effective communication to communicate through a lens of empathy for your audience.
How do you handle difficult or sensitive conversations while maintaining open and effective communication?
I think that humility and transparency are crucial in these situations.
It’s important to acknowledge where your knowledge begins and ends. So, when you’re having sensitive conversations, being honest and transparent about what your message is and what you’re trying to convey is paramount; but also acknowledging where your knowledge base begins and ends is important, as that helps the person on the other end of the message understand what you’re trying to say.
It also validates what you’re saying — that you’re coming from a position of equity — where you’re being honest and acknowledging that you don’t have all the answers.
Again, it’s a question of the effective utilization of empathy.
In your experience, how does storytelling play a role in impactful speaking? Why do you think stories are effective in communication?
In many cases, impactfully speaking, you’re trying to garner from the person or persons you address the notion of viscerally feeling the experience. That’s the call to action.
Our Fellows Program is focused on inspiring ethical leaders. Leadership, particularly an approach focused on embracing a values-orientation, cannot be taught from a textbook or in a classroom.
So in other words, you can talk about ethical leadership, or you can live it.
And when you talk to the students that participated in our Fellows program, for example, we provide them the opportunity to get out of the classroom, and frankly outside of their comfort zone, in finding collaborative ways to help alleviate conditions of homelessness and extreme poverty in Chicago — those stories will resonate in their hearts and will become clear and salient lessons that have a clear call to action when they describe their leadership philosophy and vision.
What are your five essential techniques for becoming an effective communicator? And if you can please share a story or an example of each…?
Self-awareness is the backbone of all communication — understanding your message and medium, your strengths and weaknesses. Self-awareness is a pre-requisite to self-improvement.
Empathy. As I said before, it’s crucial to consider your audience’s experience and their core beliefs and unassailable values.
Courage. To have courage as a communicator means to acknowledge and embrace vulnerability, and to acknowledge communications is a two-way street. Not every message may be well-received and communicating effectively can take courage at times.
Effective communication is grounded in accountability; that words have meaning, and that doesn’t arbitrarily change.
Last, but not least, integrity is crucial. Aligning your actions and words is a prerequisite to building trust in your communication.
In the Fellows Program, each of our Fellows is assigned a developmental coach who works with each student on developing and refining their leadership approach. Over nine months, the coach works one-on-one with each Fellow on how these values above are manifested in leadership, and I have no doubt that this exercise contributes more effective communication.
How has digital communication changed the way you convey your messages? Are there any specific challenges or advantages that you’ve encountered?
Absolutely. Digital messaging has revolutionized how we communicate. It has changed the language we use, how long or detailed our message is, and the formality or medium of communication.
In the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), it is technology that has made us more accountable than ever, ushered in a new era of transparency, and accountability.
What we are seeing now is that how we communicate matters, and if done improperly, it can cost jobs and can affect and impact the bottom line.
So, in this new era, ethical leadership needs to be embraced. The principles we espouse to be critical to modern day leadership need to be considered and factored into decision-making in every correspondence that is handled digitally. To do otherwise is leaving oneself vulnerable to scrutiny by third parties, especially when you steward an organization with the bona fides, the reach, and the legacy of the McGowan Fund.
And when many began communicating digitally 20 years ago, they didn’t understand this new dynamic, and it has led to messages that people wish they could take back, but now and forever will be in the public record. In some circumstances, I believe we need to show individuals grace in what and how they communicated.
So, I think for an effective communicator, digital communications have made us more measured and more prudent in how we communicate.
Public speaking is a common fear. What techniques or strategies do you recommend in managing and overcoming stage fright?
So, I’ve recently had a variety of public speaking opportunities, the first of which was the Ethical Leader of the Year award. We presented our award in front of 24,000 people. More recently, I spoke at our McGowan Symposium at the Northwestern Kellogg School of Management.
When public speaking, I think it’s normal and natural to feel anxiety.
Ideally, one can embrace that fear, and to channel it into focus and preparation. Passion and perspective are also critical. When one speaks on topics of passion and expertise, one can channel it into a conversation — like having a one-on-one conversation between yourself and those in front of you.
Anecdotally, I was one of the keynote speakers at my high school graduation. The reason I wanted to do this was because, at that time in my life, I thought I liked attention, and I thought I could make folks laugh.
But what did I learn from giving a speech in front of a thousand people when I was 18? I found out that I didn’t like attention as much as I thought I did, and I also wasn’t as funny as I thought I was.
I did, however, learn some valuable lessons — I learned that preparation matters. You can take yourself from being below average to above average by planning what you want to convey and how you want to convey it.
I also learned that the audience is looking to resonate with your message.
So, when you’re coming up with your concept and articulating it in real-time, give your audiences opportunities to connect, opportunities to show emotion, and to laugh. Give them opportunities to connect with what your message is and allow them to reflect it back at you.
Finally, when you have passion, the message will come through.
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
About the Interviewer: Athalia Monae is a product creator, published author, entrepreneur, advocate for Feed Our Starving Children, contributing writer for Entrepreneur Media, and founder of Pouches By Alahta.
Impactful Communication: Brian Peckrill On 5 Essential Techniques for Becoming an Effective… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.