Good leadership is a conversation
The command-and-control approach to management has in recent years become less and less viable. Globalization, new technologies, and changes in how companies create value and interact with customers have sharply reduced the efficacy of a purely directive, top-down model of leadership.
What will take the place of that model? Part of the answer lies in how leaders manage communication within their organizations—that is, how they handle the flow of information to, from, and among their employees.
Traditional corporate communication must give way to a process that is more dynamic and more sophisticated. Most important, that process must be conversational.
A conversation is an honest and transparent exchange of issues, insights and ideas driven by an implicit or explicit intent. It is a dialogue between two or more people that respect each other as equally valuable adults. Good organizational conversations have four elements: Intimacy, Interactivity, Inclusion, and Intentionality.
These are the Four Is of Organizational Conversation (Harvard Business Review).
INTIMACY (Getting Close) - How leaders relate to employees
Old
Information flow is primarily top-down;
Tone is formal and corporate
New
Communication is personal and direct
Leaders value trust and authenticity
INTERACTIVITY (Promoting Dialogue) - How leaders use communication channels
Old
Messages are broadcast to employees
Print newsletters, memos, and speeches predominate
New
Leaders talk with employees, not to them
Organizational culture fosters back-and-forth, face-to-face interaction
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INCLUSION (Expanding Employees’ Roles) - How leaders develop organizational content
Old
Top executives create and control messaging
Employees are passive consumers of information
New
Leaders relinquish a measure of control over content
Employees actively participate in organizational messaging
INTENTIONALITY (Pursuing an Agenda) - How leaders convey strategy
Old
Communication is fragmented, reactive, and ad hoc
Leaders use assertion to achieve strategic alignment
New
A clear agenda informs all communication
Leaders carefully explain the agenda to employees
Strategy emerges from a cross-organizational conversation