Learn How Communication Works!

If someone asked me what’s the greatest skill a leader must develop, without a shadow of a doubt it will always be communication. So many times when things are wrong with the team or the business the route cause analysis will reveal that poor communication is the underlining problem.

You must have heard it a thousand times from the floor or even muttered it yourself “there’s a lack of communication”, “no one ever tells you anything”, “I didn’t know”, “when were we supposed to start doing that”. Yet defensively the manager or boss will say, “I sent everyone an email” or “There’s a flyer on the staff notice board, it’s been there for ages”. This I’m afraid is lazy communication. If you want to communicate effectively, you’re going to have to work a bit harder.

The two reasons mentioned above will appeal only to the ‘reader’. You’re going to have to work out how you get to the visual learner, perhaps a video, the audio (talk to individuals) and the kinaesthetic, they need to feel it, touch it, do it if they are going to get it. There is so many ways to get better at communicating, as a leader you need to get learning them. Don’t think that the greatest communicators you know were born with this natural talent, they developed it, read books on it and attended courses on it. That’s why they are respected, they seen it as the most important skill in creating a team, selling a product or leading a nation.