Communication is a category in which leaders must become excellent. Poor communication leads to confusion, distrust, and an overall feeling of disarray that does anything but inspire confidence among the troops. It doesn’t take very many "I thought I told you," or "That’s not what I said," or "I guess we should have made you aware of that," for a group of followers to lose faith in their leader.
Good communication makes people feel like they are valued by the leader. It helps people to feel included. It makes sure that they have the proper information to act upon and therefore their actions align with the direction and vision of the leader. Clear, timely communication also builds harmony and group spirit, as everyone is "on the same page" and can feel confident that they aren’t wasting their time heading in the wrong direction.
There are several things to consider when communicating:
1. Clarity: it is important to be clear. As one of my professors used to say, "Be clear, be clear, be clear, and if all else fails, be clear!"
2. Timeliness: Get information and announcements out in plenty of time to be useful, calming, and relevant.
3. Informative and Complete: Irrelevant communication is worse than none at all. Incomplete communication looks hokey and kills trust in the leadership.
4. Honest: Nobody wants "spin." Be candid and straight in good news and bad.
5. Using Multiple Channels: With today’s technologies, there are so many ways to communicate that leaders should have an easy job of it. Be sure and use multiple channels for getting your message out. One method reinforces another.
6. Personal: When you can, especially for important matters, use personal communication. Messengers, go-betweens, emails, and other "third-party" communication can actually be bad if the news is bad, of a critical nature, or sensitive and possibly offensive to the recipient. Never use email or phone messages or texts to address behavioral issues or character problems. For the important things, there is no substitute to direct communication.
7. Pervasive: There is nothing that creates division in an organization more than scattered, incomplete communication in which some parts of the organization are "in the know" while others aren’t. Unless there is a specific reason to the contrary, spread information evenly and completely throughout your team.
8. The Law of Buy-In: Many communications should more naturally take in your biggest leaders and influencers first. This gives them a chance to " buy in" to the communication and also gives you, the leader, a chance at feedback before the communication reaches a wider audience. Ignore this one at your own peril.
In addition to this list, it always behooves a leader to become good at public speaking. The better a leader is at expressing himself verbally, in front of a group, the more credibility he is given and the more people are willing to follow. Many leaders could increase their effectiveness significantly if they could just improve their speaking ability.
You have to be able to cast in order to cast a vision. To lead effectively you will have to learn to communicate effectively.
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