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Leaders need to do more than just stand up and speak. They need to inte-
grate communications into everything they do as leaders so that their commu-
nications, both oral and written, emerge from who they are as leaders and
within the appropriate cultural context. Leaders who fail in communications
will fail to achieve their organizational aims.
THE IMPORTANCE OF LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATIONS PROLOGUE
Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders shows how to develop and
deliver the leadership message: how to develop it for organizationwide com-
munications, create strong e-communications, and connect with the winning
presentation. The book features a multipart communications planner, com-
plete with illustrations, that provides advice and examples on how to craft a
powerful presentation, deliver it with style, and create a lasting relationship.
This book contains four sections:
Part I deals with developing the leadership message, which is defined
as a communication from the leader that covers a key organizational or
business issue and is rooted in the cultural values of the organization.
Examples of leadership messages include vision and mission state-
ments, calls for transformational change, and calls to action. The main
purpose of a leadership message is to build trust. The effectiveness of
the leadership communication depends upon how it is communicated
and in what manner it is disseminated—all-employee meetings,
face-to-face, video, or email. Developing the message includes plan-
ning and proper selection of communication channels. Part I also traces
the development of the message by tracking the evolution of a topic
from its inception through the stages of an outline, draft, revision, and
visualization.
Part II covers the delivery of the leadership message. The leader must
take what is in the message and proclaim it to the outside world. The
leader must know the audience and what it expects to hear. An under-
standing of audience perception is essential to success at the podium.
Connecting to the audience through voice and movement is necessary
to underscore intention.
Part III involves sustaining the leadership message. The work is not
complete when the presentation is over; communications is an ongoing
process. Essential to communications is ensuring continuous feedback.
Leaders need to iterate and reiterate their messages in ways that con-