Communication is to leadership what the blood system is for the body. If there’s no communication then leadership doesn’t exist.

Remember, leadership is a relationship, communication is then essential. We know this relationship has two sides, the leader and the followers. The leader has to sense the followers’ purposes in order to engage them in a common journey. But how does he do that? Communicating: Listening, presenting, talking, hearing… and so on.

Just like with credibility the followers will not really follow until they are convinced that you’re acting in their best interest as well as your own. In other words, you cannot influence someone unless he or she likes you in some way. How do you influence someone? Communicating.

So underlying every communication between the leader and the followers is the credibility factor. The leader has to ensure that he’s nurturing or at least not compromising his credibility. This is very important, in every contact, or lack of it, question yourself If you’re nurturing the relationship.

Once again I’m refering Kouzes & Posner, they identified that communication is used to:

• Expand the followers and leader vision and establish a shared vision.
• Nurture the leader-follower relationship.
• Celebrate and making the team remember they are part of an “invigorating journey”.

To become a better communicator the leader has to improve his communication skills. Specifically, listening, speaking, reading, writing, presenting, admitting mistakes, asking for clarifications, and responding non-defensively. One key ingredient in every communication is humor. P&K: “Appropriate humor can lead to cohesion and bonding among coworkers”. 

IMPROVEMENT ACTIONS

1. Identify your worst communication skill (listening, speaking, reading, writing) and make a commitment to work on it for the next two weeks 10 minutes a day.  Ask for a friends help, go find some book about the subject, investigate. Only ten minutes.

2. Identify your best communication skill and make a commitment to work on it for 10 minutes a day for the next two weeks. Find if you can improve it a little more. And work on it, only after you’ve worked on your weakest communication skill first.

This 20 minute daily routine will certainly make a difference in your communication skills.

Be Alert, Be A Leader.