The Art of Leading by Communicating

What is effective communication?

Merriam-Webster defines Communication as a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a universal system of symbols, signs, and behavior. That is the basic concept of communication but mastering the art of conversation and leading is a complex formula to learn and put in practice. We as a practitioner of communication and leadership continually work on the development of those skills that separate leaders from a follower. The communication practice links our ideas with and those in search of a purpose. A leader who effectively communicates his vision will captive his audience to supports his views, and with time his audience will grow and develop into an active force. It is then when an colorful communicator turns into a transformational leader and define his charismatic leadership within the group or team. The primary element here is to emphasize that communication alone doesn’t establish a good connection between purpose and goal. What is the purpose of communication? It is to build relationships base on trust, opportunities, awareness and to make connection with peoples.

Effective communication is a learned skill that requires understanding of the effect it has in people and how they react to your demands. It creates the space where people see themselves engage, motivated, more creative and innovative. It is used to sale new ideas and maintain consistence within the followers. There have been many reports on leadership and communication and all ended with the same tone. That a Great Leader has a well develop communications skill. According to Michael J. Maher on his book, The Seven Levels of Communications describe as process of connecting with people through a pyramid process of exchanging information from advertising to the top. At the top the communication goes 1-on-1 or A.K.A face to face. Michael J. M. believes the pyramid concept is the best way to connect, communicate and the most valuable communication tool a business leader most possess. As the connection advance, the leader continues grow influence on his new connections.

How successful leaders communicate with their people?

Most of successful leaders are great communicators. They communicate, communicate and communicate. Inspire and motivate their constituent by keep their situation awareness. That is by essence the leadership quality that break thru from the moment a leader addresses his people. No need for a position of authority, or job title. In an instance, a leader can say a word in public and people that haven’t never heard from this person start supporting and rallied behind new goals. Expert on the study of leadership point out the characteristic of a great communicator. His body language, tone of voice, articulation, word selection, listening and writing skill. They have a repertory of well balance skills that fix on any occasion, takes advantage of situation and ease resistance.

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Listening, body language and word selection

Listening, it is said to be the most important skill of a good communicator. According to Dick Lee and Delma Hatesohl, Listening is the most used communication skill. They said, we spend about 9 percent writing, 16 percent reading, 30 percent speaking, and 45 percent listening. They add, the thought speed is greater than speaking speed and that most of us are bad listeners. The study also reveals how challenging it is for a leader to convey his message across a group of people with diversify background and ideology. Even when those same individual share equal viewpoints, they can fail to comprehend and miss the chance to connect with a leader and his message. It is very imperative is the individual has the listening skills to comprehend. An individual can fall into just listening but not really understanding what the leader is trying to accomplish. When that happens, the communication is said to be ineffective and leadership suffer a setback as he is not able to send his message across. By not understanding and being a bad listener, a message gets lost and the individual lack emotion and a desire to be part of a movement or something new. Isolation happens, and individual start drifting out to sea, resisting to assimilate information. Again, a good leader must be a good listener, must deliver a good message and directly connect with his constituents. The other half is having listeners with decent listening skill and ear to comprehend. Another skill of leadership communication is body language; According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, body language is the gestures, movements, and mannerism by which a person or animal communicate with others. Put simply in words, it is the nonverbal or unspoken way of communicating our emotions and feelings negatively or positively. How we stand, gestures, arms movement, use of space and increase/decrease tone of voice. We as leader can quickly see from the listener body language if the message is creating an effective or ineffective impact on his audience. A quiet, not engage, and distracted audience are some of the indication of ineffective communication. The leader can focus his message on a more concrete content where his body language convinced his audience indeed by meeting expectations. Well develop body language skills remarkably improve connection, facilitate communication, and result in an approachable/ understandable situation. However, when improperly used, it completely reverses the results; turning into an unpleasant and ambiguous audience. Word selection; the number one choice of a leader with great communication skill that historically had galvanize their constituents into action.

Example: Martin Luther King rhetoric on his speech; “I have a dream” it is a profound message reached deep inside the congregation core and impeccably unionize them. His notable word selection impact, still serving today as an inspiration to those searching for human justice. A very persuasive speech in content and purposely drafted to align his congregation with cultural and social issues. A speech with such tenacity to address those issues resulting on answering the crowd individual concerns. His metaphor usage of; “bank of justice”, “quicksand of racial justice”, and the paramount phrase of “I Have A Dream” resulted in what is consider today, one of the most social justice invigorate speech in the United State of America. Before his speech, he marched shoulder to shoulder with the crowd, singing along and build confidence. On his speech, his message slowly starts to unfold, his body movement transform, head swing side to side, voice pitch increased, and the congregation pick up momentum, erupted in applause and cheer his leader. At this time of the speech, his message has reached its pinnacle and high level of productivity. An impeccable impact in today society and the rest of the world as of today.

Effective communication

According to Project Management Institute report in effective communication, (Institute, May 2013). Communication is a core competency that, when properly executed, connects every member of the project team to a common set of strategies, goals and actions. The report indicate that successful leaders master the skill of effectively communicate resulting on increasing organization business productivity and profitability while ineffective communication result in losing business, unnecessary risk and often not getting it done. The success of business depends on the critical factor of a leader employing effective communication. (PMI 2013) point out that leaders agree; Communication is critical to the success of their strategic initiative and they cite communication as an integral active component of the strategic planning and execution process. The real risk of ineffective communication is NO aligning the leader’s goal with the audience needs and failing to recognize the impact of effective communication. Regarding effective communication, very effective leaders mastered the game and understand the full concept of communication. Communicate in a format that individual can understand. Early learning of what kind of communication technics is working and what isn’t working for them. If they are encountering communication issues with their constituents, they have to find ways of communicating with clarity, and proper level of details. The focus should be to bringing focus back in line with the leader goals, evolve to individual demands and refocus. To keep current and improving effective communication, the leader has included in his delivery the use of facts, especially for new constituents supporting new initiative. They have to mean what they said, feel very strongly and believe on themselves. The ideal communicator establishes good rapport, persuade his audience and work on keeping them in tune with the goal. (PMI 2013) report add that unclear language is one of the biggest problem in communication. The usage of jargon

A good scenario is when a leader meet with his/her functional leaders to communicate organization achievements and reiterate the mission to his/her leaders. How productive could be for a leader to sit down listen to his people? Very important for an organization that value two ways communication and wants to promote the high motivation of his people. One good example is;

It had to have a common language, social awareness content, and direction for the

Effective communication leads to the development of new business

Since generation x to post-millennial, the information technology revolution has transformed how leaders communicate and drive their agenda. A new wave of the workforce more inclined to respond to new ideas. Following the leaders with technology minded and willing to explore new ideas using the original meaning of disseminating their goal and mission. No millennial is willing to follow a leader that keep the old style of leading without utilizing technology.

Why is so important for leaders to practice good communication?