Communication Skills That Define True Leaders

COMMUNICATIONS - THE PROBLEM

With it said that yes indeed true leadership can be quite time demanding and require an immense amount of real-world experience, it does not justify a denial of the need for continuous improvement regardless of your title or experience. And should there be a singular area that spans the full breadth and width of corporate success it undoubtedly is communications. A leader's potential success or failure in any sector stems from their ability to effectively communicate to both their peers and their teams. This has been deemed true by various employee studies such as the findings from Dynamic Signal's State Of Employee Communication and Engagement Study from 2019 which surveyed 1,001 U.S. employees and found 80 percent of the workforce reports feeling stressed because of ineffective company communication. This is only compacted as the crucible for true leadership success by the likes of Billionaire Entrepreneur Richard Branson who states "Communications Is The Most Important Skill Any Leader Can Possess".

So why is communications such a big problem in a modern world filled with the most resources and technologies ever known to man for supporting and encouraging greater communication? Well, no one has been able to more elegantly define the overall problem better than the great George Bernard Shaw who once said - "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

Yes, we have all experienced it before, whether it be at work or at home, the accusations fly, "You never told me that" or "I didn't know" regarding a topic or situation which was indeed communicated previously and potentially even documented in an email or message. And while it is an immortal truth that "Sh%* Happens", more often than not, the real truth is you have at some moment in time communicated a point which may have been heard yet it was not delivered in a format that allowed it to be understood. So on continues the vicious cycle of miss-communication. And as a leader, there could be no greater cause for catastrophe than having a wayward team that fails to consistently hit the target, not due to their inability but rather due to their leader's lack of communication skills.

COMMUNICATIONS - SOME SOLUTIONS

As previously mentioned this is a realm that forever will require continuous improvement. Especially as the modern world continues to develop with more new and innovative tools for communication. So while there are various areas in which a leader could dedicate hours toward learnings, below you will find the top 4 areas my experience has deemed worthy of attention.

Transparency & Context

The topic of transparent communication gets lots of criticism as being a cliche. Yet when it comes to being transparent in communications rarely ever is it in black and white. Rather almost always there is a blur of colors from the entire spectrum which takes a genuine amount of time and effort to filter out so that those being communicated to can align with and understand what it is you are aiming to say or do.

Not only does it take time and effort but many times even more so it takes courage and the strength of humility to truly communicate transparently with your peers and staff. This is the case because most times the reality is as displayed in the illustrated above. There are usually more unseen and at times unknown difficulties and challenges than there are solutions when it comes to reaching overall success. But therein lies the tremendous danger of not being transparent. Should you not have the courage to risk the chance of one personal criticism towards you for stating things as they truly are, you in fact shall be risking ultimately Titanic size catastrophes. If not in the short term certainly in the long term when you avoid sharing the full scope of your knowledge on any given task or shared challenge.

For Example - Executive leadership sets a deadline for a project, yet, said executive leadership has not worked down on the ground for an extended period of time. Meanwhile, the company has been downsizing its head count and your team has recently been cut in half. How should you proceed? If you simply cascade the project down to your team then you and only you have the full view of the challenge of meeting that deadline. Therefore it sets a clear risk to all parties involved due to an overall lack of complete transparency. Now doing so may save you face with leadership but it also sets you up for multiple complaints and tragedies within your team. And herein lies the moments that define true leaders. A true leader sees the value in risking the short-term disapproval from executive leadership and maintaining integrity for the long-term benefits of the trust gained from both leadership and your staff which comes from the use of transparency.

This is where the context matters most, as all parties while playing their essential roles, rarely ever will maintain the same viewpoints at any given point in time. Hence, aligning executive leadership with the realities down on the ground while still adhering to ambitious goals. Plus aligning your team with the difficult realities of meeting such ambitious goals with the reduced workforce and simultaneously sharing your own middle man position will help you align the context for all.

This type of transparent and contextual communication will not only help you align your teams and reach the target but even greater it will help build trust within the team which is an even greater power just within itself.

Timing & Empathy

As clearly displayed in the "smiling sun with smiling birds" photo below, timing is everything. What we see, hear and experience is all perpetually changing from moment to moment. What otherwise may have been seen as just another random photo of some birds flying by, now is seen as something far more meaningful and timeless. So is the case for what we communicate, it is immensely influenced by 1 - when we say it (at a good time or a bad time) and 2 - how we say it (with or without empathy).

But when is the right time? This is where EQ & Empathy come into play. Typically speaking in the corporate world there will always be a consistent closing period and or other variables which will directly influence the overall workload for employees. Such basic knowledge coupled with the ability to differentiate need to know VS nice to know content can influence the potentially right or wrong time to release communications. And having empathy as a driving force behind deciding when to or not to release full population or specific population communications is vital to how your teams will receive and act on it.

So what is empathy? And why is it so important for leaders to inculcate into their communications?

It is crucial that we separate the difference between empathy and sympathy. As the above video so elegantly illustrated, "Empathy fuels connection, sympathy drives disconnection". And if there should ever be a role which leaders should excel in, it is the crucial role of building connections. Connections between themselves and their team, connections between the team itself, connections from an executive level to an employee level, connections from an employee to a customer level. Empathy can and should be a driving force behind your communications. Empathy for your clients position will drive you to help find and provide them with a better solution. Empathy for your teams position will help you balance their workload effectively. Empathy for your executives position will motivate you to fulfil their requirements more genuinely. And in turn the connection build between you and all parties will only help sustain and drive greater business for all.

Such genuine empathy should almost innately help you to determine when is and when is not the right time to communicate almost anything whether it be need to know or nice to know. Yes it is that simple and no communication leaders and consultants should not overcomplicate it. We need to start using the tools and technologies we have for communicating to our teams in a human manner. If you maintain this built in human empathetic reasoning to whatever tool your using it will only help you connect to your audience better. We will never be able to replace the need for human to human connection anywhere we go, not at home, not at work, not on the street. So if you are not already doing it as a leader then you need to start letting empathy be a crucible for all of your communications in order to lead and communicate more successfully.