Why ‘authentic communication’ is essential for leadership success

This year, the most essential leadership quality you can develop is authentic communication. That’s because when leaders communicate in an authentic, honest, and appropriate way, they create the opportunity to leave a positive and lasting impression on others and change outcomes for the better.?

What is authentic communication?

Authentic communication is about having the right tools to speak your truth in an authentic and honest way, at the right moment – to gain the trust of others and to inspire them to commit to a shared endeavour.

So, how do you communicate authentically? Start by building trust with your stakeholders.

Trust in the workplace

Trust features prominently in every leadership model. Of course, there are many variations, but every model speaks to the importance of leaders treating people with dignity and respect and ensuring comfort at a human level.

That’s because people do their best work when they feel trusted, empowered, and appreciated for the unique contribution they make. When there is trust, people can truly be themselves, freely share concerns and identify friction points before they become major pain points. This, in turn, has the potential to unlock personal breakthroughs, leading to team and business breakthroughs, that can increase productivity and achieve business goals.

To gain trust, however, leaders must be authentic and honest. We witnessed a fantastic example of this during the global pandemic when New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was authentic and honest enough to admit that she didn’t have all the answers. Instead, she surrounded herself with the best people, listened to them, took the tough decisions, and regularly communicated to every different stakeholder group. In contrast, many other leaders tried to project – and protect – an image of confidence, control, and power. However, all too often, they got it wrong, and lost trust the trust of their stakeholders in the process.

As leaders, when we walk towards our people, we want them to feel able to open-up about their work, their role, their team, the organisation, their personal life. When your people can do that, you know you have created a safe and trusted environment – or culture – and that’s what leads to personal and business breakthroughs.?

Creating psychologically safe workplaces

When authentic communication is consistently and effectively applied, and there are high levels of trust in the workplace, we have psychologically safe workplaces. That is the shared belief among a group of individuals that it’s ok to share ideas, ask questions, take calculated risks, and ‘own’ mistakes — all without fear of negative consequences or reprisal.

Some of the key benefits of psychological safety include a freer flow of ideas resulting in better innovation; improved workplace practices leading to better productivity and profitability; higher employee retention; and improved company reputation and brand equity.

Sounds simple, right? But the truth is, in order to truly create psychologically safe workplaces, you need to be consistent in the way you communicate, interact, and make decisions. As a leader, if you want to build psychological safety, unlocking potential, retaining top talent, and creating a great place to work, you need to know how and when to speak up, share your thoughts and feelings, and allow others the same space. And that’s authentic communication.

What’s missing in leadership?

I believe that authentic communication is the essential missing link between leadership based on trust and a psychologically safe workspace, and it is what leaders must focus on in 2024. So, how can you develop this essential leadership skill?

• Start by creating space to develop a better awareness of what’s going on within and around you. Do that by investing in awareness, for yourself and others. Self-awareness helps you understand your strengths and weaknesses; where and how you can add most value; how to challenge appropriately; and how to turn your ideas into new realities. Awareness of others helps you become more understanding and accepting of, and empathetic towards others. It also helps you to adapt and connect, and collaborate more effectively to achieve better business outcomes.
• Create space more often for important conversations to take place. As leaders, role model authentic and honest communication – learn to articulate your ideas in important conversations, to influence the outcome for the better. And be bold in exhibiting vulnerability by lowering your guard and confronting whatever is playing out around you.
• Be an active listener. Knowing when and how to listen can be as impactful as knowing when and how to speak up. Leaders who create a positive and lasting impact have the ability to listen first, and then speak – allowing them to hear everyone’s views, ensuring that people feel heard, gathering all the data, and avoiding a toxic ‘yes’ culture, where people agree with the most senior voice in the room, rather than speaking up.
• Encourage respectful challenge in your team/organisation. Is everyone saying yes to keep the peace? Are things being done the same way to avoid potential conflict? Are decisions consistent with full input and consideration from all contributors? Demonstrate empathy to better tap into the emotions that others might be experiencing.
• Replace blame with curiosity by depersonalising failures and focusing instead on why something went wrong. What can be learned from the experience? What could be done differently next time? How could this experience support others to achieve better outcomes next time? Acting with compassion will help ensure individuals and groups feel genuinely cared for.
• Where possible, depersonalise language and explain what you’re experiencing. Share your communications preferences with colleagues and learn theirs, then make an effort to move toward them. By taking a 5% step towards the preference of others, we are 10% more aligned – and that makes a huge difference.

Often, being authentic requires us to be vulnerable – and that requires judgement, courage, and skill.

However, learning the tools to communicate authentically as a leader, with the right amount of vulnerability in the right moment, will create a stronger sense of trust and belonging in your team and result in a psychologically safe workplace culture, where personal breakthroughs lead to business breakthroughs. So, why not make this the year you master authentic communication and achieve the leadership success you seek.