Effective communication involves many components, and some are more appropriate than others at a given time and in a given scenario. Effective communication is moving both directions, but most people I have known who consider others as good communicators, refer to such people mainly as good listeners. I have always wondered a little at this, as to why good listening is considered good communication. I think the reason is that the non-verbal, or the minimally verbal communication connotes empathy, patience, and the importance of the other person and whatever it is they want to communicate.
This has tremendous implications for managers. It is important that a leader not be afraid of the sound of their own voice. This of course does not mean every good leader or manager must be by nature, an orator with perfect inflection and elocution. But they do need to communicate as team leaders. What they also need is a key strength as an intuitive listener. The leader has to “have their ear to the ground” to understand what is going on around them, and the discernment to interpret information that is communicated to them, and in turn respond through strategic and operational actions. These actions are conveyed through effective communication, moving in both directions.
On the personnel side, effective communication means those in leadership need to act judiciously by carefully guarding their time, but somehow not ignoring the need for staff to be heard. There are certain levels of propriety to be sure. In the past, I briefly worked in one of the most bizarre managerial circumstances of my entire career. It was a small regional banking institution where the President and CEO, obsessively wanted to hear every granular detail from each and every person, from the person dusting the blinds to the VP of Finance. This ran effective communication within the organization right off the rails and fomented chaos between managers and staff who reported to them.
But there is something to be said for staff believing that leadership genuinely cares about them and what they think. There are many ways to demonstrate this of course, but the most tangible and accessible is effective communication that demonstrates an inherent value that leadership holds regarding input from staff. This is where skilled leadership will exercise the tools available to assemble and lead teams for both general (moral) and specialized (focused) purposes within an organization. Ideas will be sought out and implemented. Innovation, efficiencies and new ways of looking at things will be petitioned. But only effective communication of mission, vision and values will motivate and inspire these ideas. The challenge is, how do tomorrow’s leaders communicate well and yet interface with the avalanche of unanalyzed information and communication in a postmodern marketplace?
Reference:
Bond, D. (2007). Reflections on Conscious Communication: A Critical Process for Transitional Societies? In April, K & Shockley M. (Eds.), Diversity (pp. 219-225). New York: Palgrave MacMillan Publishers.