Page 17 - Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

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PROLOGUE
FIGURE P-1 Leadership Messages
Develop Sustain xv
Leadership
Messages

Deliver

While each of these ideas is distinct, they form a cycle. There are no
boundaries at which one begins and another ends. Effective leaders are always
developing, delivering, and sustaining their leadership messages as part of
their regular communications. The secret to good communications is to do it
every day. Leaders who communicate regularly and frequently, both in good
times and in bad, will improve organizational and individual performance, get
results, and create a successful enterprise. And with each passing year, it
seems, the imperative for good communications grows stronger.

A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE
The chief reason that CEOs fail to achieve their aims is not lack of vision, lack
of ambition, or even lack of desire. No, according to a Fortune magazine arti-
3
cle, the chief reason leaders fail is lack of execution. Three years later, For-
tune explored why corporations fail. Of the ten reasons cited, four (“see no
evil, dysfunctional board, fearing the boss, [and] dangerous culture”) can be
attributed to a failure of another sort—a failure of communications. 4
Further affirmation of communications as a leadership attribute comes
from presidential historian Robert Dallek. He describes five key factors of a
successful presidency: “vision, pragmatism, consensus-building, charisma,
5
and trustworthiness.” Four of these factors depend heavily upon an ability to
communicate on multiple levels. Presidents, like all leaders, need to be able to
describe where they are going (vision), persuade people to come along with
them (consensus), connect on a personal level (charisma), and demonstrate
credibility, i.e., do what they say they will do (trust). Even pragmatism