Communication and Effective Leadership

Welcome back to this week’s blog!  Today’s posting will focus on Communication and Effective Leadership. Does a leaders communication skills affect his/her leadership abilities?  And, how and why is it so important? In most cases the lack of communication skills negatively affects a person’s leadership abilities.  Leadership is important for many reasons because it helps develop, inspire and strengthen the core or organizations.  Leaders have impacted the lives of many people whether they know it or not, whether good or bad.  Where can we focus our leadership development? By increasing effective leadership skills and improving performances more leaders may be ready to meet the difficult challenges of effectively leading.  The ultimate goal and voice of leadership is to learn how leaders inspire, influence and achieve results.  Leadership and communication goes hand-in-hand with success.  In preparing for leadership roles we must remember that our goal is to motivate others to achieve.

In today’s demanding and critical work environments, CEO’s, President’s, managers and other frontline supervisors are constantly challenged to find new and innovative ways to promote a cohesive working environment that fosters an atmosphere for effective communication.   In working to find this common ground, leaders can sometimes hinder the communication process if their leadership skills and abilities are lacking.  Many of the communication pitfalls that wreck relationships come from poor leadership abilities and the inability to influence people.  We tend to be slow to listen and quick to speak our minds, which often results in confusion.  In these tough economic climates good leadership traits are essential for organizational success.  Focusing on internal and external communication skills could prove to be vital in achieving communication goals and objectives.

How Do We Communicate?

One of the most important elements of any successful team is open and honest communication with each other.  The sharing of opinions and information are certain to open the air ways of communication.  Excellent communication between employers and employees is an important channel of communication.  Communication is more than just our ability to talk, but also our ability to listen.  As we communicate with each other, the first part of the process is listening and in order to fully understand the communication process, we must be diligent in seeking understanding and learn how to become active listeners.  We should also examine the manner in which we communicate with each other.  Our forms of communication should always be presented in a professional manner.  We should also be aware of our body language and facial expressions as we communicate to others.  These areas are often time responsible for the breakdown in communication. We should develop a certain level of awareness where this is concerned.

Let’s talk about the different ways we can foster effective communication within a team or organization. It is very important that we cultivate an atmosphere where individuals feel at ease and we inspire them to commit to better communicating.  Taking the time to schedule regular face to face meetings with the entire team or organization, encouraging communication between other employees, listening to what each other has to say and encouraging questions are some techniques that have been incorporated within my organization.  We must provide an example to others to aspire to and allow the atmosphere to break down barriers.  Encourage honest communication for the purpose of correcting what isn’t working, create anonymous ways to gather data, so people will feel comfortable in coming forward with important information.  Reward employees who can communicate problems intelligently.  All of these techniques have been suggested within an organization that I am affiliated.

We should also be aware of our verbal communication, “which is used to express emotions, to teach and to inspire.  Verbal communication is the exchange of messages using orally spoken words.”  Verbal communication strategies can help to ensure clarity and accuracy of messages being exchanged.  Think about what you are going to say before you say it because often time the message can be unorganized and lacking in clarity without some thought, which results in more confusion.

Multimedia Communication

In today’s advanced and tech savvy society, the concept of multimedia is very present in the communication arena.  People communicate through a variety of ways through multimedia.  What is multimedia communications? It is referred to as communications through media, such as phones, email, television, magazines, newspapers, web, podcasts, blogs and text and any other format of relaying information.  Basic multimedia communication is the technology that covers a wide range of multimedia devices, such as sound cards and graphic cards that permits users to create visual presentations that output sound and/or images.  Multimedia usually means that combination of two or more continuous media namely audio and video. The role of multimedia in communication is to combine text, audio and video to communicate a message. 

Internal & External Communication

Internal communication involves the communication that exists within an organization.  It is the function of responsibility for effective communication among participants within an organization.  Why is internal communication so important?  Effective internal communication is one of the key enables of employee engagement and key to the success within.   Most experts on organizations, management and leaders say that there cannot be too much communication. 

External communication is the process of exchanging information and messages between organizations, groups or individuals outside a structure.  The goals of external communication are to facilitate cooperation from outside groups and to present a good image to potential customers.

How well we listen to others and what we say and what we don’t say can strengthen or damage the very relationships that we try to mend.  As we strive for better communication we have to work on understanding others and being understood, which may be the essence of good communication.  The leadership skills of management attract a stream of criticism and are often not forgotten.  Different strategies are required to cope with the ever changing social climate which requires new, fresh and innovated ideas.  As times are changing and new and younger leaders emerge the focus on social change is greater.  This generation of communicators recognizes the diversity needed to make a difference and embrace the constant change.