If you want to be an effective leader, you need to excel in communication. In fact, the success of your business relies on it. According to a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit, poor leadership communication skills can lead to low morale, missed performance goals, and even lost sales. A separate study found that communication and leadership go hand in hand and inadequacy can cost large companies an average of $64.2 million per year, while smaller organizations are at risk of losing $420,000 annually.
Leadership effective communication is what enables them to rally their team around a shared vision, empower employees, build trust, and successfully navigate organizational change.
Why is communication skills important in leadership?
Strong communication skills allow leaders to clearly define their visions in a way that inspires and empowers the people around them, whether politically, personally, or professionally. Effective communication is vital to efficacy in leadership because it helps to generate rapport, build trust, and encourage collaboration towards a common goal.
A leader is someone who inspires positive, incremental change by empowering those around them to work toward common objectives. A leader’s most powerful tool for doing so is communication.
Effective leadership communication is vital to gain trust, align efforts in the pursuit of goals, and inspire positive change. When communication is lacking, important information can be misinterpreted, causing relationships to suffer and, ultimately, creating barriers that hinder progress.
Leadership communication tips
The importance of communication and the ways to enhance leadership skills to be more effective in your role are listed below.
Adaptability
Understanding one’s leadership style to better understand how to interacting with, and perceived by, employees across the organization. Every employee’s motivations are different, so knowing how to tailor your communication is essential to influencing others and reaching organizational goals.
Good listener
Effective leaders know when they need to talk and, more importantly, when they need to listen. Showing that one cares by asking for employees’ opinions, ideas, and feedback. And when they do share, actively engage in the conversation. It’s important to stay in the moment and avoid interrupting. Keep your focus on the employee and what it is they’re saying.
Importance of transparency
Transparency can go a long way in breaking down that communication barrier. By speaking openly about the company’s goals, opportunities, and challenges, leaders can build trust and foster an environment where employees feel empowered to share their ideas and collaborate.
All should be aware of their role in organization’s success. The more transparent leaders are, the easier it is for employees to make that connection.
Clarity
When communicating with employees, speak clearly. Define the desired result and be clear about what you want to see achieved by the end of each milestone. The more clear one is less confusion there will be around priorities. Employees will know what they are working toward and feel more engaged in the process.
Empathy
There’s a reason empathy has been ranked the top leadership skill needed for success. The better you get at acknowledging and understanding employees’ feelings and experiences, the more heard and valued they’ll feel.
Leading and communicating with empathy is crucial for leadership success. The better you are at recognizing, acknowledging, and validating the feelings and experiences of your employees, the more valued they will feel and the more likely they will be to meet your goals.
To be an empathetic leader, it’s also vital to express genuine curiosity about the people you work with and take a personal interest in their lives, which helps to build stronger relationships.
Asking open-ended questions
To understand employees’ motivations, thoughts, and goals better, practice asking open-ended questions. Phrases like
“Tell me more.”
“Explain what you mean.”
“Define the concept for me.”
By leveraging those phrases when speaking with team, one can elicit more thoughtful, thorough responses and ensures clarity around what they need from the leader to succeed.
Ability to give and receive feedback
If you take on a leadership role, it will be your responsibility to give feedback effectively and receive it thoughtfully. Providing clear and constructive feedback to employees through routine communication gives them the chance to course correct as needed, leverage their strengths, and improve their overall efficiency and effectiveness.
To become a better leader, it’s equally important to receive feedback from your employees. Strong leaders appreciate that they are fallible and must constantly learn and grow. While receiving feedback from team members, it’s essential to be open and aware of ones body language and tone of voice, try to remain objective rather than defensive, ask questions for clarification as needed, and assess the input to create an appropriate action plan.
Communication skills is at the core of effective leadership. To influence and inspire team, one needs to practice empathy and transparency, and understand how others perceive you, through ones verbal and non-verbal cues.
To improve communication skills and become a better leader, begin by assessing effectiveness so one can identify areas for improvement. Then, set goals and hold yourself accountable by creating a leadership development plan to guide and track progress.
