Building Bridges: How Communication Drives Transformational Leadership

Leadership often approaches communication from a perspective where information flows from one individual to the other to achieve certain objectives or lead to completion of deliverables. Such interactions are unidirectional in nature, closely resembling transactional leadership. This kind of communication often lacks depth of engagement and empathy necessary for active listening, processing, and responding to the information in a meaningful way.

Therefore, as leaders it is imperative that communication centers both the speaker and listener in a way that can inspire action and maintain the momentum of action without needing constant supervision. For this transformative experience, leaders must prioritize empathy, inspiration, trust and collaboration, which are the traits of transformational leadership. Communication under transformational leadership emphasizes on creating a culture where individuals are heard, valued and motivated to grow. This ensures that the leadership builds strong relationships for driving meaningful organizational change.

One of the most important skill sets to develop as transformational leaders is to enable a culture where employees are able to communicate effectively enabling them to take on leadership roles in the future. We all have a dedicated communications department looking after the communication that is being sent out of the organization, but in reality communication is not just limited to this department. Communication is the lifeblood of an organization. It is present in each and every corner, and forms the crux of internal communication. And as a leader, it becomes important to be engaged and involved in ensuring the right communication, reaching the right individuals, at the right time.

However, when hiring individuals, we often assume that they possess strong interpersonal communication skills without evaluating this competency explicitly. Yet, interpersonal communication is a crucial core competency, particularly given its inherent connection to effective leadership. In the nonprofit sector, our mission extends beyond merely impacting the lives of beneficiaries; it also encompasses transforming the experiences of internal stakeholders, such as employees, and external stakeholders, like donors and funders. Hence, the manner in which the narrative of transformation is communicated throughout the organization to foster dedication to the overarching vision becomes paramount. This underscores the significance of transformational leadership, as it plays a significant role in inspiring and aligning others with the organization's mission.

At Lotus Petal Foundation, our approach to communication revolves around prioritizing the needs of children and fostering a people-centric environment. By placing trust in our team members, we uphold our dedication to the well-being of every child, recognizing the invaluable contribution of each changemaker to our mission of transforming lives through education. We embrace a culture of openness, where vulnerability, failures, and challenges are openly acknowledged and discussed, fostering non-judgmental and safe conversations that encourage receptivity to feedback. Moreover, we emphasize the importance of active listening with empathy and kindness, ensuring that understanding is prioritized over simply responding, thereby nurturing a culture of compassion in every interaction.

As an individual having worked for more than 20 years in different contexts and industries, I have learnt, unlearnt and relearnt countless practices which influence how I communicate with others. As transformational leaders it is imperative that we focus on cultivating a culture where communication is not only effective but also drives people to align with the mission. The following 7 principles forms the basis of communicating effectively, while leading an organization:?

1. Active Listening: Communication and comprehension are often confused, but they're distinct. Communication enables comprehension through mutual exchange. However, many listen only to respond, mistakenly thinking they understand. True comprehension requires active listening—absorbing, reflecting, and asking questions. Transformational leadership emphasizes active listening, essential for collaboration, feedback, trust, and transparency within organizations.
2. Listener Centric: In every conversation, be it an external stakeholder, internal stakeholder or employee, it's crucial to prioritize the listener's perspective. By stepping into the listener's shoes, you gain insight into the various factors that may be influencing them, allowing you to navigate personal biases and challenging circumstances more effectively. Approaching each interaction with compassion and kindness fosters trust and ensures that the listener feels heard, seen, and valued. Even in moments of disagreement, maintaining respect and civility is essential to fostering a productive dialogue and nurturing long-standing relationships.
3. Adopting and Adapting to different Communication styles: Effectively navigating interactions requires tailoring your communication style to suit the specific needs and preferences of your audience. Whether communicating with external or internal stakeholders, or potential investors it's crucial to adjust both the content and delivery of your message based on the listener's comprehension level and capabilities. In non profit spaces, adapting and adopting to a different communication style takes on a very different meaning as you have to deal with a diverse set of individuals especially when it comes to beneficiaries. Beneficiary demography also shows a lot of diversity, for example you cannot use the same style of communication for children and the children’s parents, you will have to modify it accordingly based on who you are addressing. There are many times where adapting isn’t enough. When beneficiaries drop out of a program, it is imperative to show empathy but also provide critical feedback so that they can push themselves and take charge of their progress. Our communication cannot be limited to continuous hand-holding but it needs to spark ownership in them. Therefore, you must also actively adopt different communication styles to address varying individuals and circumstances, ensuring smooth operations even in the face of setbacks.
4. Storytelling:? Transformational leaders are excellent storytellers. And effective storytelling blends rationale, evidence and emotion, persuading audiences to listen to your message. These stories reinforce vision, communicate values, and inspire action, which is instrumental in guiding the organization forward. However, storytelling plays a very important role in the nonprofit sector especially when it comes to fundraising. These stories have to appeal to their emotions to connect them with the cause. As tangible impact takes time, we must bring in the aspect of inner transformation through self-fulfillment as a rewarding experience for the donors.? Therefore, how you communicate it to your potential donor becomes central to storytelling.??Even within the organization, it can serve as a tool for motivation. Sharing anecdotes of fellow colleagues can ignite passion, fostering a culture of empowerment and helping employees overcome obstacles. Similarly, while teaching children from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, sharing stories of individuals from their community enables them to relate to it, enhancing their learning process and grasping ability.?
5. Less is More: In today’s fast-paced world, respecting others' time is integral to effective communication. It involves breaking down complex ideas into simpler, more accessible parts, for better clarity and understanding. Clear intent, structured thinking, and concise expression are key to delivering messages effectively. When addressing a diverse audience, it's crucial to craft messages that are comprehensible and engaging, avoiding unnecessary jargon and complexity. By prioritizing simplicity and relatability, we can capture attention and ensure our message resonates with a wider audience, facilitating meaningful communication.?
6. Open Mindedness: Approaching conversations with an open-mind prioritizing - “trust”, “empathy” and “sensitivity” is very important. Transformational leadership flourishes when leaders promote open-ness through their communication practices. Under no situation or circumstance should your words lower the dignity of the other person, always build a golden bridge to enable the person sitting across the table to walk away with their dignity intact. A culture which fosters open communication, will always protect the dignity of the people who work for the organization, accord them their due respect and help them to move forward from challenging situations and circumstances.
7. Predictability: Consistency in conversations is crucial for establishing a reliable communication pattern. Regardless of personal challenges or frustrations, it’s vital not to let emotions dictate words or actions that could adversely impact changemakers and teachers. Maintaining this balance prevents misunderstandings and preserves trust. Inconsistency may leave others feeling unsettled and affect their performance, leading to decreased efficiency. As transformational leaders, staying approachable and consistent in communication motivates employees, builds trust and makes them feel respected enhancing overall efficiency.

These principles of communication have been foundational for promoting a culture of trust, collaboration, empathy, kindness and openness that supports the growth and development of all changemakers, teachers and the organization.

As already mentioned above, communication is a skill that needs to be improved and worked upon from time to time to adapt to the changing needs and pace of the modern world. Therefore, to ensure that our changemakers adapt to the changing times and inculcate the 7 principles of communication we conduct the following measures and initiatives for this purpose:

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1. Learning and Development Workshops: Investing in employee growth and development is central to motivating the employees and ensuring that learning becomes an indispensable part of their organizational journey. We organize tailored and targeted communication workshops for our teachers and changemakers, on a regular basis. With communication there’s always scope for improvement, hence these workshops ensure that changemakers and teachers identify their shortcomings, clarify their objectives and improve their skills to facilitate better learning among students and engage donors/funders.?
2. Voice It Survey: At Lotus Petal Foundation we encourage our changemakers to use both direct and indirect channels for communicating within the organization.Even in a thriving communication culture, people may not be able to verbalize their concerns to the management in a direct manner. To ensure that all voices are heard and equally valued, we conduct an annual Voice It survey, which involves all changemakers and teachers to complete a survey form anonymously to evaluate the organization's management and leadership. This process upholds confidentiality, fostering trust in the feedback process. The aspect of anonymity also helps respondents feel at ease and less intimidated when verbalizing their concerns. Therefore, such a process promotes transparency and inspires all stakeholders to wholeheartedly dedicate themselves to the organization's mission.?

But effective communication and acquiring the skill set for it also includes an individual’s appetite to train themselves in this technique. Organizational training and culture can only help an individual to an extent, so one must invest in self-training given how crucial the skill is to build enduring and fulfilling relationships. Some of the ways which have assisted me in refining this skill are as follows:?

1. Reading: A fundamental skill for effective communication demands investment in reading.?

1. TEDx Talks: Watching TEDx Talks helps in gaining exposure to a variety of ideas and concepts. By watching these talks, one can learn to articulate complex ideas clearly and engage audiences with compelling storytelling and insightful narratives. TED Talks encourages active listening, and provides opportunities for analyzing and evaluating presentations.

What are some of the ways that you have tried to train yourselves in the art of communicating effectively?