Leadership Communication_Leadership Excellence_September 2014

1. Leadership Communication
Great leaders are good communicators
By Prof. Sattar Bawany
“Developing excellent communication skills is absolutely
essential to effective leadership. The leader must be able to
share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and
enthusiasm to others. If a leader can’t get a message across clearly
and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn’t
even matter.”
— Gilbert Amelio
Former President and CEO of National Semiconductor Corp.
If you take a look at the life of great leaders in any path of
life including sports, politics, business, or even the military,
you will be surprised to find that all great leaders are good com-municators.
To achieve extraordinary success in leadership, you
not only need a clear vision regarding your goals and objectives,
but you also know how to communicate these objectives to your
subordinates. In order to achieve your success at the highest
levels, you must learn the art of communication, because when
your team knows about your goals, it becomes easier for them
to work, and you can motivate your team through effective
communication channels.
Hence, effective communication is an essential element of
leadership. Leaders are communication champions who inspire
and unite people around a common sense of purpose and identity.
They lead strategic conversations that get people talking across
boundaries about the vision, key strategic themes, and the values
that can help the group or organization achieve desired outcomes.
Effective Communication Practices
Think about it … how do the best leaders motivate and inspire
their people?
Four elements necessary for strategic conversations are:
1) an open communication climate
2) active listening
3) discernment, and
4) dialogue
Open communication is essential for building trust, and it
paves the way for more opportunities to communicate with fol-lowers,
thus enabling the organization to gain the benefits of all
employees’ minds. However, leaders must be active listeners and
must learn to discern the hidden undercurrents that have yet
to emerge. It is through listening and discernment, both with
followers and customers, that leaders identify strategic issues
and build productive relationships that help the organization
succeed. When active listening spreads throughout a group, a
type of communication referred to as dialogue can occur. Through
dialogue, people discover common ground and together create
a shared meaning that enables them to understand each other
and share a view of the world.
Leader communication is purpose-directed, and an important
element is persuading others to act in ways that achieve goals and
accomplish vision. Four steps for practicing the art of persua-sion
are to establish credibility, build goals on common ground,
make your position compelling, and connect with others on an
emotional level. Leaders use rich communication channels, com-municate
through stories and metaphors, and rely on informal
as well as formal communication. Electronic channels can be
very advantageous if used appropriately, but their use increases
the potential for communication errors, and these channels are
not very effective for complex or sensitive messages.
Leading Strategic Conversations
Leadership means communicating with others so they are in-fluenced
and motivated to perform actions that further common
goals and lead toward desired outcomes.
Strategic conversation is communication that takes place across
boundaries and hierarchical levels about the group or organiza-tion’s
vision, critical strategic themes, and values that can help
achieve desired outcomes.
Leaders facilitate strategic conversations by:
• Actively listening to others to understand their attitudes
and values, needs, personal goals, and desires
• Setting the agenda for conversation by underscoring the
key strategic themes linked to organizational success
• Selecting the right communication channels and facilitat-ing
dialogue.
Inspiring someone without effective communication is almost
impossible. You have to keep in mind that all the good organiza-tions
achieve their goals through effective communication at all
levels of organization. To achieve this they have an organized
system of communicating at different levels of the organization.
In Conclusion
As a change leader, communication is the primary and most
important tool. There is no substitute for good judgement,
and change leaders need to be reflective and thoughtful about
the ways they communicate. There is also no substitute for
‘Active Listening’, and receiving feedback from the staff and
colleagues about how the leader communicates. A leader may
make communication mistakes, but the mark of an effective
change leader is that these mistakes are quickly identified through
feedback and discussion, and corrective action is taken. LE
Prof Sattar Bawany is the CEO & C-Suite Master Executive Coach of
Centre for Executive Education (CEE Global). CEE is a premier network
for established human resource development and consulting firms around
the globe which partners with our client to design solutions for leaders at all
levels who will navigate the firm through tomorrow’s business challenges.
Visit www.cee-global.com
Email sattar.bawany@cee-global.com
leadership excellence essentials presented by HR.com | 09.2014 Submit your Articles
31