5 Uses for Communication in Leadership

Communication is the lifeblood system for Leadership. Without it, no leadership can exists. And just like the lifeblood system has several functions in the body communications has several functions also. 

In the wonderful compendium “Business Leadership”,  you’ll find that communication is at least used in the following contexts by different authors. 

  1. Alignment: No matter what, a Team has to be aligned to reach their goals. To keep the team aligned with the vision and goals is one of the key roles of the leader. Nurturing and maintaining communication helps the team to stay focused and aligned.
      
  2. Expressing emotions: Sometimes expressing emotions can help the team to perform at their’s best. Knowing when and how to express emotions, is a big hitter in the leadership skills.
     
  3. Execution: Achieveng and perfect execution, are distinctive traits of great leaders. A great executor knows well how to communicate instructions, and influence his/her people to achieve. 
     
  4. Motivation: A good leader, knows the people, the team, the group and knows how to motivate them. he/ she looks for all kinds communication forms in order to “motivate” the group and each member of it.
     
  5. Transmitting Values: Let it be a story, or a fable, communication is about transmitting the values the leader considers are the most important for the team. “Walk the talk” is considered another wonderful form of communications, in which you commit to your words and honored them. 
     

Five different “uses” for communication, and five different ways to look at it. These are the uses I’ve found just skimming a book about Leadership, I’m sure you can think of at least five more.

Communication is in everything we do, without it we couldn’t be “connecting” with other people, with our environment. The more you communicate, the more you will improve your “connections”, the more you will know how to connect with new people.  More on that, on following posts.

LEADERSHIP ACTIONS

  1. Think about other uses for communication.  (tip: leading change…)
  2. Communication is a process, a means, a channel? What is it?
  3. What can you do to improve your communications? That is,  to get the most out of it.

FURTHER REFERENCES

Business Leadership: A Jossey Bass Reader, 1st ed., 2003

John Wiley and Sons.

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3 comments

1 Sharif { 10.15.08 at 2:10 am }

outstanding,fantastic and superb information as always.

please post some more topics on communication, trust and leader’s personal development.

Regards

Sh

2 CHUKS VALENTINE AUGUSTUS { 10.15.08 at 3:32 am }

Ken, it’s really great you talked about communication in this series, in practical, it is a process because it involves the following stages: ideation-encoding-channel-sending-decoding-feedback. A leader should recognise the importance of communication and the communication process and also put into consideration the recipient of what is to be communicated in order to improve his/her communications.

Welldone, Ken, for the wonderful jobs you are doing.

CHUKS VALENTINE AUGUSTUS
NIGERIA

3 Anil Mydur { 10.15.08 at 4:47 am }

Developing excellent skills is essential to leadership.The leader must share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others.If the leader cant get the message clearly and motivate other members to act on it then having a message doesnt even matter .
A Great communicator will always make complicated things simpler .That is the trade mark of a Good Communicators
Needless to say that they are trusty & honest in what ever they communicate .

AM

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