Leadership Academy — Week 4 Study Guide: Communication Modes and COIN
A condensed summary of Week 4 for assessment prep — the four communication modes and the COIN framework.
Part of the Leadership Academy series — a condensed study guide ahead of the assessment. Full detail lives in Session 4.
The core idea — four communication modes, calibrated to audience: Up (headline first, confident, drop hedge words) · Across (collaborative, “we” language) · Outward (warm, professional, never silent — even “no update yet, but we’re on it” beats nothing) · Down (context-rich — explain the why, not just the what).
The four-line status update: status (on track / at risk / blocked / complete) → what’s happening this week → what’s next and when the following update lands → any dependency or ask specific to that recipient.
Three types of difficult conversation, each needs different handling: performance/behaviour issue, disagreement, expectation mismatch.
The framework — COIN: Context (about the issue, not the person — avoid loaded openers like “we need to talk”) → Observation (specific, filmable, not interpreted) → Impact (on the work, never framed as a threat) → Next step (specific enough to follow up on, then pause for their response).
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