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As business gets more complex, great leadership is more dependent than ever on simple and clear communication.
January 2008
Volume VI, Issue 1
YOUR GUIDE TO SECURING THE POWER OF PERSUASION
COACHING SERVICES TO IMPROVE PUBLIC SPEAKING, PRESENTATION & COMMUNICATION SKILLS
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Leadership Communication
in the 21st Century
It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead… and find no one there.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt |
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Leadership is difficult. Good leadership is rare. And great leadership
appears so infrequently that we remember it clearly when we see it.
One of our basic beliefs is that great communication skills make everything in professional
life easier. The ability to speak well, write clearly and communicate powerfully helps
you accomplish many things – and chief among them is leadership. As we think about
the examples of great leadership we have seen, the common denominator among them is always
great communication.
Business in the 21st century is more complicated and more challenging than ever before.
The global flow of information, goods and services creates more choices, more scrutiny
and more competition. As the world gets more complex, we believe that great leadership
will be defined by the ability to help organizations navigate the complexity to arrive
at simplicity and clarity. Simplicity eases fears. Clarity creates confidence. Human beings
inherently react positively to communication that is both simple and clear.
We have a good friend and client named Matthew who has a great leadership story that will
help illustrate our point.
Three years ago, Matthew inherited the leadership position in a broken global organization.
The organization Matthew inherited had all the classic problems you might see in a business-school
case study: a rich history of success that had eroded over the last 20 years; intense and
well-funded global competition; sagging revenues that were not nearly sufficient to do
everything that needed to be done; and a frustrated workforce that neither worked well
together nor trusted leadership. The picture was not pretty.
The reasons behind the problems were just as classic as the problems themselves. The business
model that had made this organization historically successful was no longer valid. The
world had changed, but the organization had not. Matthew’s predecessors had not embraced
change – in fact, they had resisted it.
When we first met with Matthew three years ago, he laid out a multifaceted plan for change
that focused on great communication. This plan relied heavily on two key concepts: simplicity
and clarity. His goal was to galvanize the organization around a simple mission by communicating
it directly and clearly to all involved.
Fast forward three years… We recently visited with Matthew for a progress update,
and the picture he painted for us was now vastly different. Revenues are now up more than
300%. The workforce is rejuvenated and feels supported with a team dynamic that is more
communicative and collaborative than ever. The organization is producing its best
results in almost a generation. Global competition is just as intense, but the team feels
it can compete. Team members told us they were proud to be involved. The turnaround was
significant.
The Latimer Group’s Five Rules for Great Leadership
As we dug deeper into Matthew’s story, we recognized five key themes that we have
seen with many of our other senior executive clients. We call these The Latimer Group’s
Five Rules for Great Leadership:
1. Set a clear direction. We believe that the primary responsibility
of the business leader is to set the course for the organization and communicate
it to everyone. Great leaders have a vision of the mission and destination of the
organization. They then communicate where that destination is in a way that lets
their people see it and feel it. Imagine every person in an organization represented
graphically as an arrow written on a page. The leader’s most important job
is to make sure all of those arrows are pointing in the same direction.
2. Provide clear roles and delegate responsibility. It’s
not enough to identify and communicate a destination. The great leader also decides
and communicates the roles that people in the organization will play. The members
of the organization must understand what their contribution is expected to be. Motivated,
goal-oriented people don’t just want to be passengers on the train, they want
to have a role in its destination.
3. Create ownership in the outcome. People always perform better
when they care about the outcome of their efforts. And the quickest way to make your
people care is to give them ownership of that outcome. How? Give them a voice. Allow
them to have input. When people contribute to the process, they own the
process. That’s why the most powerful four words you can say within your organization
are “What do you think?” People care about what they own. Remember, no
one washes a rental car, and no one paints a rented house.
4. Take credit rarely; share credit broadly. Too
many leaders make the mistake of taking credit for a successful outcome. If your
name is at the top of the organizational chart, credit will naturally come to
you. And a successful outcome almost always means there is plenty of credit
to go around, so share it broadly. Sharing credit makes people feel wanted and appreciated,
which solidifies the connection they feel to the organization and the leader. So,
when someone tries to pat you on the back, make sure your own hand is not already
there.
5. Convey passion. Passion can be infectious. Great leaders display
passion for a successful outcome. While not everyone will share that passion, many
will follow the lead of the passionate leader. Conversely, if the leader does not
care, why should anyone else? |
There are many skills that a successful leader needs, and we have hardly captured all of
them here. But some skills carry more weight than others in certain professional environments.
The realities of the 21st century place a disproportionate level of importance on communication
skills.
As a business culture, we have more information available to us than ever before, which
gives our leaders unprecedented visibility and places them under unprecedented scrutiny.
Decisions are second-guessed almost before they are made. Every speech, every public comment,
every decision is debated on the air and online, often in real time.
Furthermore, organizations have become complex organisms serving markets and customers
that are rarely homogenous. Our leaders must be able to communicate with the engineer in
Germany, the creative team in California, the advertising team in New York, and the line
management in Asia. Our leaders must be able to manage a senior executive team, motivate
a workforce, provide clarity for Wall Street and the investor, and persuade the customer
to buy. Our leaders must be able to communicate their organization’s difference from
the competition when the only difference is a shade of gray, and when price and value
comparisons are only a click away. Our leaders must be able to introduce and communicate
change when change is necessary without alienating critical constituencies along the way.
In the midst of such great complexity, all of us yearn to be able to look to someone for
simplicity and clarity. Simplicity eases fear. Clarity reduces indecision and creates confidence.
The complications of the 21st century world place value on the leader who can help his
organization sift through the complexity and create a simple, clear plan for success.
Our point is simply this: Great leaders set direction and provide clear roles. Great leaders
create ownership, share credit and convey passion. When you do all these things, you’ll
never look over your shoulder and find no one there. Instead, you will find a group of
people eagerly following your lead.
Dean M. Brenner
President |
Marni H. Lane
Media Specialist |
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© 2008 The Latimer Group. All Rights Reserved.
Dean M. Brenner -
The Latimer Group: 203.265.4344.
Feedback or comments: dmbrenner@thelatimergroup.com.
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