Being an effective leader means knowing what to say, when to say it, how to say it, and to whom. This is leadership in a nutshell. Great leaders speak not just to direct, but to inspire, to motivate, to provoke, to instruct . . . and the world is starving for more great leaders! The great question of our age is who will arise to fill the empty space left by the great communicators of ages gone by?
Show me a great communicator, and I’ll show you a great leader! And show me a great leader, and I’ll show you a great communicator! Leadership is communication. There is not one aspect of leadership that does not boil down to an act of communication. And this becomes painfully obvious wherever a problem in leadership is discerned, for leadership problems always come down to one (or more) of five scenarios:
- Something was communicated that should not have been
- Something was not communicated that should have been
- Something was communicated that should not have been communicated yet
- Something was communicated that should have been communicated earlier
- Something was not communicated correctly/clearly/appropriately/effectively
If you can avoid these five communication dysfunctions, you are a perfect leader!
This is so obviously true that it is a great wonder to me that someone has not produced a leadership development process that is communication-centric. If we have any interest in developing the next line of great leaders, we must go about developing ways of imparting the power of effective communication!
The first thing that we need to understand is that communication is communication. Yes, there are different forms of communication . . . public speaking, private conversations (between friends, coworkers, or even husbands and wives), language translation, presentations, sales pitches, blogging, drawing, sign language, inflections, hand gestures . . . but at the end of the day, the qualities of effective communication are communicable. If you can speak to one person, you can speak to a thousand people, and if you can speak to a thousand people, you can speak to one person.
So many communication programs miss this by focusing on the performative aspects of a particular communication event . . . how to stand, what to do with your hands, how to use inflections to get applause . . . When communication is boiled down to a performance, the speaker comes across like an actor, or a politician. The event loses its relational character, and the leader loses her sense of authenticity.
Communication is not a performative event, it is a relational event. It is about connecting with people, connecting people to a message, and using that message to connect people to a vision for a better tomorrow. And these three components of an effective communication event are readily accessible criterion for evaluation. Did the people feel connected to the speaker? Did the people feel connected to the message? Did the people walk away with a greater vision for their future?
The answer to those three questions will define the power of your communication, and thus the significance of your leadership.
