Communication - Successful Leadership Process

Communication in Leadership

The medium and methods of communication will undergo drastic changes in the times ahead, but what will not change so fast is the human element.

Hence, it is important to understand human Communication – what it is, how it takes place, the barriers to effective communication, and lessons for successful communication.

Success is achieved through conscious effort to satisfy a need by applying a definite process and overcoming difficulties which may arise.

We, therefore, do not use the term success when we do things naturally like breathing, or when fortunes are the result of luck.

Leadership communication therefore involves:

Conscious efforts. 
Satisfying a need.
Applying a definite process. 
Overcoming road blocks and difficulties.

Communication transmits

Knowledge, Skill
Authority and power
Dominance
Regulation and control
Freedom
Creativity
Feelings, emotions, attitudes, moods

Communication is a very versatile tool for Successful Leadership

It opens, discovers, dissects, and creates a view and a vision by the process of asking.

It fixes, consolidates, compacts, and removes by the process of  telling.

It separates, selects, identifies by the process of listening.

It creates a new product by creating understanding.

Key Points for successful Communication

Silence may not be consent. A person may be silent to avoid an argument, to save time.

Facts which are communicated must be related to the objective and context.

Check if communication is in the natural mode, or in anger, in nervousness, etc.

Listening and seeing may be done on a selective basis. People hear and see what they want to hear and see which may not necessarily be the facts.

There is a difference between understanding and acceptance, and  understanding and agreeing.

The amount of person absorbs decreases with the volume of the communication. Hence, communicate in small bits so that absorption is always at the optimum level.

Styles must be suited to time, Place, audience, circumstances, mode of communication (letter, telephone, etc.)

Communication reflects our inner attitudes, knowledge and skills

Leadership Communication itself is a human need.

Communication in business is basically an act of selling – creating a customer for one’s ideas and information. By looking at communication in the above manner, we are able to differentiate it from other forms of human activity, like reading and thinking. Communication is a tool It multiplies human effort giving leverage, speed and coverage. It is a tool for the conquest of space – the space in men’s minds.