Chapter 1: What is Leadership Communication?

Chapter 1: What is Leadership Communication?

Researchers seldom agree completely on how best to define leadership, but most would agree that leaders are individuals who guide, direct, motivate, or inspire others. They are the men and women who influence others in an organization or in a community. They command others’ attention. They persuade others to follow them or pursue goals they define. They control Leadership Communication: A communication Approach for Senior-Level Managers by Deborah J. Barrett, Ph.D. Handbook of Business Strategy Emerald Group Publishing, 2006.They improve the performance of groups and organizations. They get results. These individuals may not be presidents of countries or the CEOs of companies, but they could be. They could also be employees who step forward to mentor less experienced or younger employees, managers who direct successful project teams or vice presidents who lead divisions and motivate their staff to achieve company goals.  Through effective communication, leaders lead. Good communication skills enable, foster, and create the understanding and trust necessary to encourage others to follow a leader. Without effective communication, a manager accomplishes little. Without effective communication, a manager is not an effective leader. In fact, being able to communicate effectively is what allows a manager to move into a leadership position. An early Harvard Business School study on what it takes to achieve success and be promoted in an organization says that the individual who gets ahead in business is the person who “is able to communicate, to make sound decisions, and to get things done with and through people”. By communicating more effectively, managers improve their ability to get things done with and through people.

Question

1. What is the shape of the perfect leader and does he or she exist?

To paraphrase W. Somerset Maugham, “There are three rules for creating good leaders. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”

There is no perfect leader, which is why good leaders are always trying to improve themselves through self-study, training, education, mentorship, making mistakes and then learning from them, etc. Since there are no perfect leaders, it is hard to build a good leadership model, which is why there are hundreds of them. But, we can be sure of a few things that good leaders have: A vision of the future. The ability to encourage followers to jump into that experience. A love of self-improvement for themselves and their followers. This love makes them good coaches and mentors.

Empowering their followers to get things done.

2. Does a leader need power? How can a leader avoid being corrupted by the power?

The degree of power that a leader requires is determined by the goals that she must achieve. For example, the leader of a country requires different powers than the leader of a church. Power is the possession of control, authority, and/or influence over others. This power is used to achieve a goal. Some leaders, such as presidents, have all three possessions, while others, such as Mother Theresa, might have only one influence. Power does not corrupt. Corruption is the degree that someone's action has veered from a moral value that a society or community has set. Although the amount of their action is controlled by the type of power they have, it is their inner-self that drives the action. For example, Hitler was a leader by almost every definition, yet there were certain groups that he hated. This hatred drove him to mass corruption. If he never achieved the position he held, his inner-hatred of select groups would have still been there. His inner-self controlled the power. The only preventive medicine for corruption is a healthy respect for others.

3. Does a leader need to be motivated? How can leaders maintain themselves to stay motivated?

A leader definitely has to be motivated; those who are not will quickly be seen as frauds in their followers' eyes as they expect their leaders to be enthusiastic about their work. Motivation comes in two forms: extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivators come from the outside. For example, one reason that I go to work is that I need to make a living in order to survive. Intrinsic motivators come from within. For example, another reason that I go to work is that I get a great deal of satisfaction when I accomplish a difficult task. Good leaders set and achieve goals that allow them to get a healthy balance of both motivators. Although many people believe that intrinsic motivators are the best, that is not necessarily so. Often, the extrinsic motivators lead us into new situations and then our love for doing it carries us through and on to new heights.