Leadership Communication
Communication is an essential part in a leaders daily work life, and without it, effective leadership does not exist. However, it is possible to be able to communicate without having to lead. These interactions can consist of transmitting communication through messages, pictures via email or text messages. For most humans it comes natural to interact through communication and shared symbols. Leaders can face barriers of communication, but finding new methods or tools that work appropriately in order to transmit their information is a crucial factor.
The Way a Leader Communicates
The way a leader communicates is not dependent from his or her age/generation. The classification of generations are chart by their birth
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My leadership style has flourished by my hard work in hopes to leave an imprint and a legacy for my children. Unlike the past generations that were work obsessed, I have learned to be patient and empathetic. My empathetic leadership may be my flaw but for now, this has worked for me in the health care field. My primarily focus in my communication style is based on listening first and then thinking before I speak in order to give an appropriate answer or solution. My generation finds it easy to value change and innovation. For me, being a leader is not about delegating work but about coaching, teaching, and mentoring subordinates. It brings me joy to see one of my subordinates develop new skills and become promotable, due to my help in training him/her. I believe this is due to being an empathetic leader since another leader took a chance in my earlier years, and ingrained in me that I too could be a leader someday with his coaching. My formal written communication style may not currently be up to par with my verbal communication. However, it is something that I am currently working on. For example, it takes me twice as long to write a formal email compared to an informal email. This is because I know the informal recipient. Not knowing my recipient personally is what affects the trust in my writing. This hesitation comes with doubt, writer’s block, stress, and worry. Once, I overcome my
Hi Doug. I agree that communication is a very good perspective to contemplate when considering leadership. Communication can be essential to successful leadership through identifying risks, issues, and other barriers on a project, or in an organization. Regardless of the skills, abilities, or traits that a leader may possess, being deficient in effective communication will cause failure in reaching the goals and objectives of a group (Solaja, Idowu, & James, 2016). This is due to the importance of information across all spectrums of an organization, including leaders and followers (Solaja et al., 2016). Understanding how people give and receive information will allow a leader to change the various methods of communication (e.g. newsletters,
This work is part one of an ongoing communications portfolio which will be expanded upon weekly. Barrett (2011) describes leadership communication as “the controlled, purposeful transfer of meaning...” (p. 6). The following is a self-assessment (Barrett, 2011, pp. 407-411) which will help gauge my current leadership communication abilities. Each area will be answered with either excel (master of skill) , competent (acceptable but could improve) or need to develop (needs attention).
“Developing excellent communication skills is absolutely essential to effective leadership. The leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others. If a leader can't get a message across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn't even matter."
In the changing business environment, leaders of all organisations may face unprecedented uncertainty, especially the technology advancement and changes among the employees. To survive and succeed, leaders should have some necessary attributes. Meanwhile, some changes for leadership skills have to be made to confront the challenges.
I do believe that leaders communicate differently based on age and generation. As a late generation baby boomer I find that I have adopted my communication style to the current times, but still garner traditional communication styles as well. I do utilize technology to the fullest; I no longer receive a newspaper, but keep up with current events by reading them on the internet. As a leader I communicate often by e-mail, but still enjoy face to face meetings and team collaboration. I like to surprise people with a hand written note and send it in the mail, something later generations rarely do.
Every leader has their own idea of what effectiveness looks like (Jones, 2015). For this study, authentic leadership will be the focus, as defined by Avolio, Gardner and Walumbwa (2004) an individual acting according to their values and convictions, building credibility and the respect and trust of those that follow. Authenticity is a choice that individuals must choose to embrace instead of a character trait that comes from within (Murphy, 2012). Outcomes of authentic leadership remain limitedly researched both theoretically and empirically (Miniotaite & Buciuniene, 2013). Authentic leadership lacks empirical evidence between the leader’s perception and the follower’s perception (Peus, Wesche, Streicher, Braun, & Frey, 2012). Wang, Sui, Luthans,
The focus on leadership, in its myriad of forms, has long been an interest among researchers in academia. Scholars from many disciplines such as communication, psychology, sociology, political science, and education have examined principles of leadership: scrutinizing everything from the interactions of leaders in small group scenarios (Barge, 1994; Bennis & Nanus, 1985; Eagly, Karau, & Makhijani, 1995; Kouzes, & Posner, 1995; Stogdill, 1948) to the impact of the rhetoric of major political leaders such as the president of the United States (Bostdorff,1994; Campbell, & Jamison, 1990; Davis, 1995; Stuckey, 1991). Scholars have examined the communication of leaders providing insights to everything from the lexicons (Abelman & Dalesandro, 2008; Bligh, & Hess, 2007; Hart, 1996) to the universal themes (Burke, 1966; Crowley & Hawhee, 1999) used by leaders to spread their messages.
For the Bible declares, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: and the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27). God has set this mandate for all believers. Furthermore, servitude is an essential part of what believers are called to do. Through serving one another, there are different offices in the body, and leadership is one important office. Moreover, Romans 12:3-8 declares, that all members in the body are blessed with giftedness to empower the body for excellence.
It is essential for business leaders to have excellent verbal and non-verbal communication skills, as leaders are often a symbol of a company’s integrity and this affects not only how customers perceive the company, but also impacts the thoughts and actions of lower positioned employees. For example, a leader that speaks using improper grammar, or writes correspondence with spelling errors throughout it, could project a negative image that can be harmful to a company. Customers might conclude that the leader is incompetent and they might decide that they do not wish to purchase goods from a company that hires inept leaders. Furthermore, employees might become less apt to respect an authority that appears to be uneducated, as well as employees might feel that if the leader disregards using proper communication than it is not necessary for them to use it either. Business leaders need to know when to listen, when to talk, and how to share ideas effectively. Clear and concise communication states exactly how, who, what, and when and serves to guide, direct, protect, persuade, and to inform. Communication is essential for decreasing miscommunications and for increasing productivity, motivation, and efficiency. When someone uses effective communication, he or she is more apt to have favorable results and his or her requests will become granted more often. Furthermore, communication builds goodwill. Having excellent communication skills is
To avoid catastrophe wherever leadership happens, a fundamental clear purpose becomes the beginning point to successful communication (Sanborn, 2010). Fundamental communication begins at the center of the leadership communication framework. Therefore, leadership communication, under the framework, begins with a core set of skills that involve developing a strategy and combining it with effectual writing and speaking (Barrett, 2014). From these base set of skills, the framework then expands outward to individual groups and teams, while further expanding into complex environments found in the upper echelons of management and corporations (Barrett, 2014). Core skills, while rather simple, must be
What should a leader look like? Important leaders, such as presidents and prime ministers, work hard communicate an impression of confidence and power. A leader, they assume, should look like a leader, and many of them hire an image specialist to learn how. Wherever they go, press agents, bodyguards, loyal assistants, and throngs of eager admirers follow in their wake. In the Bible, Matthew depicts Jesus as a true leader, a king in fact, however one who broke stereotypes. Jesus had undeniable power and he was not concerned about a powerful image. The Word of Matthew 13:54-55 tells us, “Where did this man get his wisdom and these miraculous powers? They asked. Isn’t this the carpenter’s
Leadership is one of the main areas of study nowadays. A number of books, articles, and research papers are written on this discipline and we receive much information about this. Leadership is a relationship between leaders and followers, and building this relationship requires an appreciation for the personal values of those who would be willing to give their ener¬gy and talents to accomplish shared objectives. Transformational leadership and leader-member exchange are popular theories in the leadership arena. Various researchers and writers have established the validity of these concepts. A number of writers emphasize the role of fairness in the relation between a leader and a follower. In this essay I will try to compare and contrast
One of the topics in organizational development today is leadership. Leadership is what individuals do to mobilize other people in organizations and communities. According to Kouzes & Posner, there are five practices and ten commitments of exemplary leadership. The five practices of exemplary leadership include: Model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, and encourage the heart. In the Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner found similar patterns and actions of leadership that created the essentials to achieve success. Utilizing the research conducted by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, I have created a leadership plan that would apply to the Admission Department at Texas Wesleyan University.
Two of my favorite leadership components from the Personal Leadership Plan are goal setting and time management.
Communication involves a sender, a receiver, and the content (message). Receivers’ characteristics such as personality, attitude, motivation, and perception affect how the message is received and decoded, regardless of the media used and the actual content (Kreitner, R., & Kinicki, 2013, pp. 399-401). Communication can be verbal or non-verbal. With words, effective communication needs the right choice of media in delivering the message. Media differs in richness from low richness for impersonal static media, such as newsletter, to high richness for face-to-face conversations. Choosing the wrong media would result in overloading of information or oversimplification of message (Kreitner, R., & Kinicki, 2013, p. 417). On the other hand, leaders communicate non-verbally by their actions. For