The Leadership Dipstick: Are you communication-ready?

Many of the most admired leaders present ample evidence that they benefited from being great communicators. The words of leaders like Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King still resonate with us today. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered in August 1963, is rated as one of the most inspiring speeches of all time. Ronald Reagan was known as the great communicator by mainstream media. Barack Obama connected with people across the world with his communication. In the Nigerian setting, Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikwe were notably skilled communicators. We can hardly dispute the communicative capacity of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini who rallied millions of citizens to causes, albeit with less honourable motives. There are many pointers to the maxim that “great leaders are great communicators”. This is not to say that one cannot be a great leader without being a great communicator.

Being communication-ready

Communication cuts through barriers and propels commitment, engagement and implementation. Leaders should be deliberate about honing their communication skills and being communication-ready. Although, speaking is mostly glorified as the core communication skill, this article intentionally highlights other skills that leaders should give attention to. A leadership dipstick test should assess how communication-ready a leader is. Here are four skills to note:

Listening

Listening is not typically viewed in the same light as speaking. Speaking stirs hearts, sticks in the memory and can be documented for posterity. Yet, in the practice of leadership, listening skills are invaluable in fostering collaboration and engendering participation. Listening also conveys to its beneficiaries that they are important in the overall scheme of things. One leadership assessment aptly defines a behaviour as “actively listens to diverse points of view”. The key word is actively. Leaders may love to be listened to but should be far better at listening to others. Leaders who fail to listen to the voices and contributions of their constituents will fall into regrettable situations sooner or later.

Types of listening include: selective (choosing what you want to hear), external (not hearing and not responding), internal (interpreting with personal filters), focused (fully present and focused) and intuitive (blending fully into the conversation). The commonly identifiable types are the first three. However, leaders will derive immense gains from cultivating the final two, focused and intuitive.

It is pertinent that the word listen is an anagram for silent, enlist, inlets, and tinsel. This short verse reminds leaders to listen more:

When we listen, we have to be silent.

When we listen, we more easily enlist others.

When we listen, we make ourselves inlets for the words and ideas of others.

When we listen more than we speak, our words are less likely to become like tinsel to the hearers.

Listening is not something leaders should say, it is something they should do.

Questioning

Lawyers fully understand the potency of questions in deciding cases. The winning argument is often framed upon a series of questions designed to weaken the opponent’s case. Questioning is combined powerfully with listening to gain advantage. In leadership settings, winning leaders utilise questions to extract ideas, share information in non-threatening ways and elicit the cooperation of others. Leaders have to realise that questions are the foundations of change, innovation and mental stimulation. Questioning skills and techniques promote consensus and establish rapport. Questions can range from the small talk, open type to the constraining closed questions. Whatever we do as leaders, we must learn how to ask good questions as part of our communicative repertoire.

Visioning

Visioning is the skill with which leaders take others on journeys they probably did not intend to go on. Visioning is useful to begin the journey or to refresh it in the minds of the travelers. Without visioning, a leader might have the best ideas in the world but will not be able to form a team to execute them. Sometimes, leaders might assume they have travel companions only to discover later that they merely had travel luggage. Companions go with you but luggage weighs you down. Visioning creates companionship. As mountain climbers will affirm, what inspires people on the climb is the possibility of getting to the mountain top. It is the responsibility of leaders to show people the mountain tops they can reach.

Persuading

Persuading is involved in visioning but it also stretches leadership capacity during turbulent times. In reality, people may faint in the course of the journey and become discouraged or frustrated. Consequently, persuading is a more frequently required skill than visioning. People who are not persuaded display compliance but lack the commitment to achieve results. Persuasion gets people on board the ship for their own reasons and not just for the leader’s reasons. Persuasive skills can be learnt and enhanced. Leaders have to persuade individuals to continue good work and not imagine that good work will continue.

Closing note

Being communication-ready is not an assumption but a reality borne out of practice. Leaders should activate their communication-readiness by practising the relevant skills. Are you communication-ready?

 

Weyinmi Jemide