Communication On: Leadership

Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal

There are thousands of articles written on Leadership, this “Communication On” series focuses on the importance of where and how communication fits into the subject of Leadership.

Stephen Covey: “communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.”

Peter Drucker : "The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers." To gain followers requires influence

John C Maxwell "leadership is influence - nothing more, nothing less."

Warren Bennis : "Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential."

Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester : "the process of influencing the behaviour of other people toward group goals in a way that fully respects their freedom." The emphasis on respecting their freedom is an important one, and one which must be the hallmark of Christian leadership. Jesus influenced many diverse people during his ministry but compelled no-one to follow Him.

As you can see from those who study and teach Leadership they all summarise using the skills of Communication and Influence.

Leadership requires the aptitudes of a number of skill sets, not limited to:

· Courage

· Focus

· Planning

· Excellence

· Attraction

· Support

· Monitor

· Reward

· Confidence

· Positivity

There are skills that can be taught such as planning, monitoring and rewarding, even the ability to become more focused can be taught, but areas such as Attraction, Confidence and Courage are developed by having Effective Communication Skills.

By becoming a skilled communicator and communicating positively, people will pay attention to you. By becoming a skilled listener you will grow your ability to influence people. This naturally will build your confidence and give you the courage to move forward with the knowledge that you now have the support of your people and the organisation behind you.

Communication skills are invaluable to a leader and therefore when planning your leadership training a strong focus should be made in this area, else you will be at the risk of diminishing any leadership programs you have in place.

Without the ability to effectively communicate your goals and visions your efforts will go in vain.

Research:

In the 2002 research 'What's Working™, The Mercer Survey of People at Work', Mercer asked a broad base of US and UK workers to share their attitudes and perceptions on a range of workplace issues including leadership communication.

A key finding of the survey was that among those employees who said their organisation does a good job of keeping workers informed; only 15 per cent said they were seriously considering leaving their organisation and 6 per cent said they were dissatisfied with their organisation. On the other hand, among those employees who said their organisation does not keep them informed, over 40 per cent were considering leaving and 42 per cent said they were dissatisfied.

Irrespective of whether an organisation chooses to have the 'hands-on' expertise of a communication professional, it is vital that leaders build a bridge of understanding through effective communication and develop communication skills to support this. Interestingly, the survey showed communication professionals believed that 81.6 per cent of senior managers recognise the importance of communication; however, only 35 per cent of respondents believed that senior management recognise that communication was a key element of their job. Additionally, not one respondent indicated that they strongly agreed with the statement that 'senior managers (in their organisation) are highly effective communicators' and only 37 per cent of respondents from top performing organisations agreed.

Even more significant, 80 per cent of respondents from poorly performing organisations indicated that managers from their organisation were not rewarded for communicating effectively, highlighting a lack of commitment from these organisations to developing critical management competencies. Top performing organisations fared better with 26 per cent of respondents indicating that their managers were rewarded for communicating effectively, but there is still room for improvement. This is a call to action for business leaders as we all know that what gets rewarded gets done.

Communication Skills 101 – Sending your Message

Communication is a two way street involving sending and receiving the message. To be the most effective communicator involves a number of procedures, skills and awareness. In this blog we will start to focus on the requirement of sending the message and later will look into what is required to effectively receive a message.

To communicate your message out you will need to follow these steps.

1. Send the message:

a. Be clear about what you want to convey

b. Use the most appropriate media to transmit the message

c. Understand the “noise” filters that the message will pass through

2. Confirm the message:

a. Actively listen to the response

b. Clarify any misunderstandings

c. Confirm the message and next course of action

Be Clear

Firstly you need to be clear in your own mind about what the message is that you want convey. You need to be accurate about the facts that you want to get across and what action, response or outcome you want to obtain from the receiver?

Appropriate media

When communicating you need to consider the most appropriate method to convey your message. If you want to explain how to put together an IKEA cabinet, you would send instructions via a document rather than trying to explain the procedure over the phone. If you were trying to resolve an issue with a work colleague a face to face meeting or phone call would be more appropriate and effective than say an email.

Noise filters

Noise filters are what your message must pass through when the message is being received, this falls into five main categories that we will look into in future Blogs . These include areas such as Thinking Styles, assumptions, distractions, biases and more.

Active Listening

Active listening is another very important skill that is required when completing the communication cycle. I will go into this in more detail in future blogs. Listening to what the receiver has to say about your message will help to steer you to understanding that your message has been received as you wanted.

Clarify

From the receivers response you have the opportunity to clarify and alternatively explain your message until it is understood.

Confirm

Finally you should now be able to confirm that all parties have understood the message and what outcomes are required.

Why do people not understand what I am saying?

It's frustrating, again you thought that you had clearly explained what needed to be done, by when and by what method.

So what went wrong? It didn't get done as you wanted, it was late, it was the wrong location, the wrong time... Again your head drops into your hands and you rock your head from side to side, "It must be me? Why does this always happen, why don't people follow my instructions, what am I doing wrong.....?"

Communication is a Process, and one that follows the same heritage that Claude Shannon a senior engineer from Bell Technologies first produced in 1949. The simple premises is that communication goes like this:

1. The Source - What is the message/content you want to communicate
   
2. Encode - How are you going to communicate the message


3. Noise - What filters will distort the message


4. Decode - How is the message interpreted by the receiver


5. Receiver - What is the final message that is received

The skill in becoming an effective communicator is by understanding the Theory of Communication, understanding the Rules and then putting into Practice what you have learnt.

In my next blog I will look into the "5 Filters of Distortion" this is the noise that we need to communicate through so that our message receives the minimal amount of distortion and has the best chance of being clearly understood.