Page 56 - Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

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GREAT COMMUNICATION SECRETS OF GREAT LEADERS
When a leader informs his or her people, involves others in the effort,
ignites ideas about what is to be done, and invites people to participate in the
process, that leader gains support for his or her ideas and makes the process of
achieving results possible. Also, as with all strong leadership messages, the
leader makes it possible to build greater levels of trust, the bond upon which
all leadership must be grounded.
COMMUNICATING UP
When we think about leadership communications, we often assume a down-
ward flow of messages from the leader along with a bubbling up of messages
from an engaged audience or individual. This communications loop from
leader to followers and back again is not the whole story. Leaders also need to
communicate upward. The recipient of such messages may be the leader’s
boss, a company director, or sometimes an advisory committee. These mes-
sages, like other forms of leadership communications, are grounded in the
culture of the organization and are about significant issues related to vision,
mission, and transformation. Likewise the purpose of upward leadership com-
munications is the same: to build trust and drive results.
In his book Leading Up, Michael Useem describes examples in which
leaders in subordinate positions strive to do the right thing. General Roméo
Dallaire, commander of the U.N. troops in Rwanda, tried unsuccessfully to
persuade his superiors, both military and civilian, to allow him to take aggres-
sive military action to head off the threat of genocide. It was to no avail, as the
majority Hutus and the minority Tutsi began a genocidal attack on each other;
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more than 800,000 people died during the bloodbath. Charlene Barshefsky,
as principal U.S. trade deputy, negotiated a trade deal between the United
States and China that both permitted the latter’s entry into the World Trade
Organization and integrated the myriad special interests on the U.S. side,
including those of business and labor. In other words, it was a job that bal-
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anced both negotiation skill and salesmanship. Both Dallaire and Barshefsky
employed effective communications; sadly, only one of the two succeeded.
And there is a lesson in this. Leaders will not always succeed, but they must
always communicate. And through the continual practice of communications,
they will improve their likelihood of success down the line. When communi-
cating up, it is wise to keep these points in mind:
Keep everyone on the same page. People deserve to know what is going
on. Leaders at the top often feel isolated from what is happening at the
grassroots level, either with customers or with front-line employees,