Tahsin Alam, Zhongyao Cai, and Wendy Silverman
Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.
Bernard Baruch
It’s not enough to have an ideology; you have to be able to pass it on, to infect others with your ideas.
Gary Hamel
Introduction
The key to the success of any executive is the ability to communicate effectively. Can you imagine an effective leader who is not an effective communicator? Some research suggests that leaders devote 7 of every 10 minutes of their leadership time in some form of communication (Grossman, 2017).
Leaders today must be adept at one to one, one to many, and all forms of “e” communication. Effective communication, in real time, is now not only expected, it is critical to organizational success and the leader–follower dynamic. Leaders must be adept at both verbal and written communication as well as the “softer” skills—listening, observing, and the use of questions. Today’s employees demand a collaborative or mentoring leadership style. This is highly dependent on interpersonal skills.
Leaders today often pride themselves on the ability to “multitask” especially through the use of technology. Others argue that this creates superficial relationships and interactions with employees and it is far more effective for leaders to focus on the “moment” and to create meaningful interactions with employees. Leaders must be able to connect with employees, create buy-in, and affect behaviors. The best leadership attribute to do this is being an effective communicator.
Leader as communicator may at first seem to be a simple concept with little explanation needed. However, as we embrace contemporary society and its norms of electronic communication, blended teams, and multicultural approaches, the critical role of communication begins to grow in complexity. Many of the competencies discussed in other chapters of LeaderocityTM require the foundation or partnership of an astute communicator in order to fulfill their goals. What is a visionary without the communication to create buy in? How can a producer achieve results without communicating their action plans? Can an exemplar or inclusionist encourage ethical or global thinking culture without clearly communicating those beliefs to stakeholders? The leader as communicator strives for transparency, understanding, feedback, and shared meaning.
Effective communication can happen electronically, verbally, and through nonverbal messages. Whichever medium is being used to communicate, it is important to employ caution to avoid miscommunication or misunderstanding. Body language, terminology, and attempts at using humor can easily lead to misunderstanding when engaging across generations, cultures, or language barriers (Gratis, 2018). When a leader has achieved mastery as a communicator, their messages are both clear and concise, addressing issues or goals broadly and completely.
This no-surprises attitude should come from an authentic place while demonstrating openness to feedback from their stakeholders. The communicator encourages similar behaviors in their community and ensures that alternate points of view are made welcome. While a communicator understands and acknowledges the existence of organizational hierarchies and silos, they utilize their authority to reach through these barriers to facilitate a culture of understanding and respect.
The leader should make a consistent effort to bridge the often deep gap between leadership and staff. These common hierarchical issues can impact employee engagement and retention as well as organizational culture as a whole (Maasik, 2019). Communication across different areas of the organization needs to be transparent and reliable. “Sharing data and information in a transparent manner will ensure that everyone is in the loop, and that everyone is aware of any potential issues with the business, product or service that can be addressed in a collaborative manner” (Johnson, 2020). An organization that enables cross unit communication initiatives will see more organic opportunities for collaboration as well as leadership directed connector efforts. Pettit et al. (1997) found that information transmission within an organization played an indispensable role in the process of building trust and satisfaction.
Leaders are the voice of an organization and need to be well informed in order to become better communicators. They hold influence over the opinions of internal and external stakeholders as well as potential customers. Goals for a contemporary leader include easily and smoothly communicating with others and building trust within the team, rather than just sitting in the office and giving orders. In order to use communication skills to speed up decision making, leaders should utilize a staged approach to the communication process: first, gain others’ attention, second, establish awareness and understanding. Leaders can then do the third—gain the advantage of persuading others (Mai and Ankerson, 2003).
Hallmarks of Effective Communicators
These abilities galvanize communicators on their journey to expressing sincerity and confidence from the start to end of their interactions. Within that process, communicators need to listen to the audience, accurately receive both silent and spoken messages, and actively express empathy to their colleagues. Thoughtful planning before communicating, and learning to utilize nonverbal factors, along with use of supportive information can bring your progress as a communicator closer to mastery. When those unavoidable mistakes occur, trustworthy communicators should apologize as quickly as possible to reduce negative effects. This level of care brings its own set of considerations when taken digitally.
Be Honest, Don’t Lie
Trust between people is very fragile. Because of implied organizational hierarchies, trust between leaders and others is often more tenuous. In today’s work environment, well-utilized communication methods can promote trust between people in the organization, which can encourage collaboration and efficiency. Destroying trust can happen quickly, but maintaining it demands a long-term commitment. Communication between leaders and stakeholders, particularly those at a different level in their hierarchy will always be intimately examined for these reasons.
In addition, most people are reluctant to have in-depth conversations with people they don’t believe are trustworthy. If a leader is regarded as an untrustworthy communicator, people will always be wary when talking with him whether in formal or informal settings, so he will lose many opportunities to gain helpful information from others. Narrow information channels, which are not conducive to creative thinking and decision making, will also lead to organizational failures.
Project Confidence
Vague communication tied to a lack of confidence will lead to confusion and doubts in your audience. Leaders need to demonstrate self-confidence, eagerly evaluate themselves, others, teams and organizations, and give solid suggestions. Unclear suggestions can easily lead to employees’ loss of interest, or their misunderstanding, which can create drift from a specified plan of action. Therefore, when leaders articulate their requirements and goals, they need to express very clear opinions with confidence and a firm but open attitude.
When a leader issues a statement, if their attitude is lacking confidence, they may be regarded as timid or indecisive. This is not congruent with public expectations for their image and will affect not just their personal brand, but also that of the organization. Therefore, before speaking events, the leader should rehearse and gain feedback to ensure that their voice is passionate and powerful, eyes are firm, and posture is straight. This will create contagious confidence and convey a positive and upward spirit in their messaging.
Connect with the Audience
When gathering or sharing information with others, leaders need to maintain a close relationship with their audience. Outdated theories may tell leaders to keep a formal distance from employees, but distance from others will lead to abstraction, distortion, and misunderstanding in the process of information dissemination. Leaders who do not build personal relationships with others will only receive information that is repeatedly refined and purified, which creates false narratives. At the same time, leaders need to consider the human element to the audience when delivering information. We don’t always have the opportunity to communicate with others individually. But no matter the size of the room or audience, effective communicators can always adjust their methods and content of information dissemination, establish close contact with everyone present, and make the audience feel a personal connection.
The Importance of Listening
Communication is multidirectional, and the role of listening is critical. When others are speaking, listening carefully demonstrates respect for one another, which is conducive to building others’ interest in a further in-depth discussion. At the same time, leaders need to know when they should speak and when to stay silent. Communication is never a monologue, but works to create dialogue. A skilled communicator will make an effort to confirm that the purpose of their conversation has been achieved. In other words, they will ensure that they and their audience understand each other and a consensus has been formed. If misunderstanding exists, a good leader is not to blame the audience, but to work on their ability to receive messaging and confirm that messaging.
Empathy
Leaders need to reduce the influence of ego in the process of communication and focus on others instead. Too much self-expression and displays of one’s capabilities demonstrates arrogance, which will reduce the willingness of others to communicate openly with leaders. The optimal thing to do is reduce projecting your own feelings and consider situations or messages from the standpoint of others. Empathy means putting yourself in others’ shoes, which is one of the fundamental factors of communication. Empathy is also useful in solving communication problems, because expressing your understanding can calm people’s anger and reduces negative emotions in the team.
Focus Your Message
When leaders communicate, they need to confirm the core intention and content of the conversations before actually talking with others, instead of casually attempting an unpracticed message. A key reason for this is to avoid wasting time, the other is that few people would like to spend their time on worthless communication. A common understanding is that good communicators need to communicate diplomatically with others, but that does not mean that there is no valuable truth in the messages. Leaders need to figure out the “what” and “how” in information dissemination, so as to avoid leaving the impression that they put greater emphasis on formation rather than the content.
Nonverbal Cues
As discussed in the section on connecting with your audience, good communicators will always pay attention to the reactions of their supporters. They are adept at recognizing changes in facial expression and body language. Impacts of communication are not only determined by the verbal content, but also by the whole body. Whether conscious or not, nonverbal factors exist all the time and influence the flow of communication. Even when verbal content conflicts with other nonverbal factors, people would be wise to abandon language and emphasize what may be perceived by the latter. Nonverbal factors are more difficult to control and often accurately express the real feelings that may be difficult to express, particularly with a workplace superior.
Facial expressions and actions are much more difficult to control than content or vocal tone. Leaders need to be comfortable making eye contact with an audience; eye contact is the most easily recognized nonverbal factor in interpersonal communication. A listener should look at the other person to show concern, but the speaker should take care to be culturally sensitive and not express aggression when returning a gaze particularly during one-on-one scenarios. When the speaker is ready for feedback, they can turn their eyes to their companion to demonstrate interest in dialogue. Facial expressions of a leader should be consistent with the content to be expressed, so that the leader’s speech can be impactful. Body language can also reflect attitude, including use of conversational gestures to attract the audience’s attention or stress certain content. Communication is an art and through the learning process, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. It includes not only the expression of language, but also the nonverbal factors that reflect a person’s internalized feelings about the messages being exchanged.
Contextual Awareness
A skilled communicator can emphasize a certain meaning or the opposite by changing their volume, and the same content may have the opposite meaning in different tones. While a soft voice expresses candor and friendliness, when excited, words may seem shaky, when sympathizing, their tone will be low. The pace of speech will also affect the level of understanding of what we say. If a leader speaks too fast, it may cause the listener to feel confused and distracted, whereas speaking too slowly will cause the listener to lose focus.
In order to be a skilled communicator, many leaders will practice their pronunciation, vocabulary, tone, and posture repeatedly, but it is not enough to focus on themselves. At the same time, leaders need to consider these same factors related to their audience and be sensitive to the expressions shared by others. By perceiving the emotions, attitudes, and concerns of the audience, they can interpret messaging from the people or organizations they communicate with and adjust results or feedback they provide according to these needs. This does not advocate dishonest messaging but expressing the same information in different ways, so that the needs of the supporters may be met.
Using Supporting Content
In order to enlighten your audience and lay the groundwork for your message, a sophisticated communicator knows how to incorporate supporting content. These may include questions or humor that drive your narrative, stories, analogies, and relevant data. While simplifying complex narratives into data and charts can be very efficient, often these visual tools have their own internal logic, which must be clearly explained in order to help the audience glean understanding and knowledge. Proper oral interpretation of data and charts is necessary, otherwise these visual concepts cannot help the audience to comprehend or remember key points.
Utilizing a story can be an essential part of communicating, early speeches of former President Barack Obama began with his personal story, because it helps to draw the public ear with approachable and relatable information. Leaders should make use of this approach by incorporating stories in order to draw in the listener and promote their sphere of influence. When leaders show their own views and perspectives, they must make it concrete and visualized. If they can visualize it, it will be more influential.
Apologize and Admit Your Mistake
When leaders are hesitant to admit mistakes, the core of the problem is trust. If leaders are error prone, their supporters will lose confidence in them. But if they never admit mistakes, even when they are obvious, audience trust is equally damaged. The dilemma is obvious. When errors occur, leaders should admit their shortcomings frankly, because it will make them more relatable and trustworthy and can aid in uniting members of the team. An adept leader will find problems in the communication process before everyone realizes it. After recognizing the problem, they should also demonstrate courage to take the responsibility of solving the problem, rather than falling back on diplomatic words. But leaders should not be self-deprecating when admitting mistakes and shortcomings, because this will make leaders lose credibility in the team.
e-Communication Awareness
Digital communication platforms are growing and changing every day but the best practices for using them will vary little. Many of the prior hallmarks here are equally if not more vital when considering e-communication. Connecting with your audience through a focused, honest message will aid your communications whether a character limited tweet or an email to one or more stakeholders. Projecting confidence should not excuse neglecting common courtesies such as a greeting or closing line for an email.
Since you do not have voice modulations or body language to complete your messaging, words must carry the burden alone. As a result, clarity and focus are crucial components, including subject lines or attachment titles for emails. Your message recipient should know exactly the value of what they are receiving before even opening your missive.
Formality of your messaging will vary based on the level of personal rapport between you and your recipient. However, there are complications to consider, such as where a message may go later. If your friend is receiving a message from you that they may want to forward onto another party that is not the time to choose too casual a language or refer to unrelated personal information. If you are sending a message of introduction between people, adhere to the most formal wording that any party involved should use with the other. If you usually address someone by their first name because of your long-standing relationship but are introducing them to a new party, you would want to refer to them in that message by the title this new person will use (Doctor, Professor, Mr., Ms., et al.). This denotes a standard of respect and formality for your colleague and the newly introduced party.
Social media adds levels of complication to your communication brand. It may be wise to focus your social media use to one or two platforms in order to not be too broadly spread and be reduced to repeating messaging across platforms or being unable to respond in a timely manner. There is also a temptation to behave outrageously in order to gather attention or followers. If that is the leadership image that makes sense for your personal and professional goals then embrace that urge, otherwise proceed with caution. Occasional use of humor at the right time can lend you that approachable quality that aids in building connections. But if your attempt at humor falls flat that creates an opportunity to own your mistake. In the limited amount of time social media has existed many individuals have learned how to acknowledge past mistakes when a jest does not hold up over time. Consider also how photographs or videos shared may reflect your personal brand whether or not they include you personally.
When e-communication involves video or audio interactions, virtual meeting spaces for instance, it is important to demonstrate the same level of respect to your companions that you would in any in-person meeting. Put other devices away and remain focused on the attendees and the business at hand. If you must engage in activities that may be a distraction for others, let them know it is not a good time for you to have the camera on and disengage that device. Of course, you should always have your microphone muted when it is not time for you to speak. If you are the meeting host, get to know your platform and utilize settings such as having all attendees automatically on mute when they enter the space. Letting your colleagues know that intention in advance will allow them to enter the meeting confidently.
Leader as Communication in Action
Speaking Briefly and Effectively
In order to communicate effectively, leaders need to first consider what information they want to say and then how to present it. Steiner (2012), a Speech Language Pathologist, provides examples of how one may struggle with social language. These may include giving too much information, inappropriate use of phrases, sudden topic changes, or using difficult to follow stories to illustrate your message.
Before starting a focused conversation, leaders need to consider what core information they need to share in order to avoid the listener’s attention being drawn to superfluous information. In the workplace we face a variety of competing information daily. Leaders must learn how to clearly express meticulous ideas in minimal time. In order to achieve this goal, three traps must be avoided: overexplaining, underpreparing, and completely missing the point.
Ensuring Understanding
Leaders must ensure their message is received and understood. Our definition of effective communication is when a leader’s message is received and understood as intended. The only way to ensure understanding is through some form of feedback. This can be in the form of more dialogue, use of questions, or observing actions. Harnessing some key communication skills such as paraphrasing and summarizing can be used to confirm clarity on both sides of a conversation (Cserti, 2019). Gaps between management and employees can be lessened by giving attention to communication transparency, Gibson et al. (2020) stress the importance of frequent and clear communication in order to ensure that employees know their value they add to the organization. Feedback should be given regularly and include both kudos and critiques, but not at the same time. The historically popular sandwich method leaves employees with mixed messages and their perspective may encourage them to hear only the negative or only the positive, so it is best to only give one message at a time to ensure your point is clear (Gibson et al., 2020). Top behaviors associated with effective leadership include transparent communication and bringing out the best in others (Durham, 2015) and giving effective specific feedback and accolades brings both of these priorities together into one action item (Gibson et al., 2020).
It is important to keep any follow-up questions focused on the matter at hand and not to try to offer solutions quickly or downplay the importance of what you are being told. Allow yourself to feel the emotions being expressed by your conversation mate, empathy is a key towards understanding (Schilling, 2018). Understanding is not limited to a process where messages are sent and received it also delves into appropriate self-disclosure. When your employees make mistakes or face difficult problems, sharing about your own struggles or errors can help them to understand that you have been in their place. This can lead to an open culture where struggles are addressed and not exacerbated by anxiety (Miller, 2019).
Moving the Team Forward
Regardless of your role, everyone in the room can positively contribute to ensuring that meetings are facilitated properly. One of the main tasks of a facilitator can be compared with an orchestra conductor, cuing members and “guiding the use of their instruments toward the desired result” (Cserti, 2019). The facilitator can look for those nonverbal cues in the group, asking themselves if someone may be holding back a thought that they would like to contribute. They can look for context in the information being provided and restate the contributions of others in order to ensure clarity and shared meaning. Acknowledging the emotions that may be evoked is important, particularly when there is conflict among members or lack of cohesion in outcomes sought. Recordkeeping has become an important part of leadership, determining what ideas or solutions are moved forward and ensuring that notes accurately reflect the determinations of the group (Cserti, 2019). After a meeting takes place, it can be helpful to give clear communication in writing in order to ensure that members know what deliverables are expected from them (Kashyap, 2019).
The Value of Practice
How can we prepare to be better communicators? As the old joke says, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” The key of course is practice. Maddox (2015) suggests planning before you have a conversation and isolating your key points in advance. Think about it as the headline for your leading story. When it comes to active listening, incorporate nonverbal cues along with the words used, include emotional contexts and summarize or paraphrase what has been shared with you at the close of a conversation. Schilling (2018) recommends committing to that practice for a week consciously in order to make it a habit. If this seems awkward or uncomfortable you can tell colleagues and family members that you are working on your active listening skills and express an intention to confirm and summarize their messages.
In a group scenario you can explore facilitator recommended techniques such as the “ladder of inference” taking the time to observe the verbal and nonverbal cues of multiple individuals and how they are feeding off of or responding to each other (Schwarz, 2017). An important skill to practice is giving others the opportunity to communicate without interruption. Speaking before the other person finishes can degrade not only your communication opportunity but the level of esteem in which others believe you hold them. Try to ask follow-up questions that will add clarity or understanding instead of leading off in another direction (Schilling, 2018). Afterwards make an effort to thank people for their participation and contributions, particularly anyone who may not be as adept or frequent a contributor to the group (Cserti, 2019).
The Art of Questions
Gregersen (2018) offers several insights into the power of questions as a currency of effective leadership. “Questions have a curious power to unlock new insights and positive behavior change in every part of our lives.” He argues that “the ability to continuously question everything is probably the most important attribute an effective leader possesses.”
Great questions like these have a catalytic quality—that is, they dissolve barriers to creative thinking and channel the pursuit of solutions into new, accelerated pathways. Often, the moment they are voiced, they have the paradoxical effect of being utterly surprising yet instantly obvious.
In an interview with MIT News (2019), it was noted:
The power and privilege of the C-suite can leave leaders insulated from internal trouble, external signals, and important insights. This “CEO bubble” creates a dangerous disconnect for leaders who must recognize when a major change in direction is required, yet often lack the information required to perceive a looming threat or opportunity.
While persistent CEOs may eventually get the information they request, it’s the questions they didn’t know to ask that often come back to haunt them. These unanticipated risks—or “unknown unknowns”—are business threats that can come out of nowhere.
Asking questions is essential in today’s world where globalization, digitization, and disruption push leaders to the edge of uncertainty and urge them to figure out what they don’t know they don’t know—before it’s too late. He offers four steps to propel conversations:
• Ask better questions: Obvious, but tricky nonetheless. He suggests the best results are achieved when you “compose and wait.” Don’t impatiently dive into finding an immediate solution. Pause to consider other variables that may redirect your focus in exciting new ways.
• Shut up and listen: You don’t have all the answers—you need collaborative feedback. As a leader, it’s important to create safe spaces for all employees to feel comfortable asking questions. Set the tone by acknowledging you’re not the expert, graciously accepting feedback, and not immediately dismissing ideas.
• Pain + Reflection = Progress: Placing yourself in situations that allow you to be uncomfortable (pain) and quiet (reflection) are ideal for stimulating new questions and ideas. Embrace the awkwardness!
• Still blocked? Try Question Bursts: Our natural inclination is to (over)explain a question or a problem. This only guides others down your narrowed mental path, when the objective is to broaden it. Gather folks, state your goal, set a timer for five minutes, and let people loose with questions. Just questions.
Summary
Our multigenerational, multichannel, and multiplatform world today demands that leaders adapt communication styles that suit the modern workplace. In the past, setting a direction may have been enough in some industries, providing capital may suffice for others. Today, leaders are expected to be participatory leaders, personally active in communicating their points of view, identifying effective ways to interact in one-on-one and group settings, while simultaneously developing a robust and clear e-portfolio of communication platforms. Critical to becoming an effective communicator today are some core tenants covered in this chapter—active listening, body language, honesty, and humility. Without these, leaders run the risk of being seen as talking heads rather than active participants in what must be an exchange between leaders and followers. Empathy is currency, declarative commands are not. Yet in consuming all of this, it is important to remember that the vast majority of the population are not born communicators; practice still makes perfect when it comes to this critical leadership competency, and the time to start that practice is now.
Key Takeaways
• Collecting, providing, and transmitting information are the three keys to being an effective communicator of substantive material.
• Honesty and brevity are key characteristics of an effective leader’s communication style.
• Often communicating is misrepresented as purely a one-way conversation. In fact, today’s communicator needs to be able to read her audience as well as be an effective listener. In the twenty-first century, listening is equally if not more important than talking as it is a vehicle for mutual understanding, as is the ability to ask the right questions.
• Reading and projecting nonverbal cues, while elusive, can be mastered with practice. In an age where most communication is electronic, in-person communications will become a sought-after skill.
References
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