Page 18 - Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

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PROLOGUE
depends on communications. Leaders need to describe the options facing an
organization and make tough decisions about those options. It is then their
responsibility to communicate the reasoning behind their decisions and the
results of those decisions. So in a very real sense, leadership effectiveness,
both for presidents and for anyone else in a position of authority, depends to a
high degree upon good communication skills.
It is easy to take communications for granted. After all, anyone who has
the ability to climb into a position of authority over others can communicate,
right? Wrong. Communications is seemingly the easiest of leadership behav-
iors, but experience tells us that it is often the hardest to carry out consistently.
How often do we hear about bosses who fail to set expectations, fail to listen
to what people tell them, and in the end fail to achieve the results they were
hired to achieve? Communications itself is not difficult. Verbal expression and
listening to others are common human behaviors. The reason people find
communications difficult is that it takes so much commitment. Often leaders
are so busy doing all the other important things related to managing systems
and people that they simply run out of time and thus do not communicate
effectively. And that’s the reason so many leaders fail at communications.
Communications requires discipline, thought, perseverance, and the willing-
ness to do it again and again every day.
Effective leadership, both personal and corporate, is effective communi-
cations. Leaders and employees need to be in synch throughout the
decision-making and implementation process. Leaders and employees need to
understand one another. Leaders and employees also need to be able to
exchange ideas in an open and honest way. These things can occur only
through communications, in particular through what I refer to in this book as
leadership communications.
Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders is the result of more than
20 years of helping leaders at all levels communicate their messages in ways
that reflect their own viewpoints as well as those of the organizations for
which they work. Just as there is no single way to lead, there is no single way
to communicate—in fact, there are countless ways. What matters most is the
willingness to do it, with a consistent message, a constancy of purpose, and a
frequency of performance. In other words, leaders communicate all the time
and do it willingly in order to convey their goals, gain support for those goals,
and demonstrate concern for all who follow them.

MANY LEADERS, MANY STYLES
Examples of leadership communication form the context and heritage of our
culture, past and present. These include