Leadership communication

Chapter 9
The leadership experience
Richard l. daft
How Leaders Communicate
• …”a process by which information and understanding are
transmitted”
• Leaders use communication to motivate and influence people
• Communication model
• Communication breakdown
• Importance of feedback
• Communication is cyclical
Management Communication
• “information processor”
• Manager spend 80%of day communicating
• Center of information networks to facilitate completion of task
• Leadership communication serves a different purpose
Leader as Communication Champion
• Communicate the big picture
• Unite people to common sense of purpose and identity
• Enable followers to live the vision in their day to day activities
• “walk the talk”
Leading Strategic Conversation
• ….refers to talking across boundaries and hierarchical levels

• Leaders facilitate by
• Asking questions and active listening to others to understand their attitudes,
values, needs, personal goals and desires
• Setting agenda for conversation by understanding the key strategic themes
that are linked to organization’s success
• Seeking right communication channel and facilitating dialogue
Leading Strategic Conversation
• Six components facilitating strategic communication
1. Creating an open communication climate
2. Asking questions
3. Listening
4. Discerning hot topics
5. Dialogue
6. The Johari window
1. Creating an open communication climate
• Communication flow should be in all directions
• Everyone should be heard
• Break boundaries

• ONE FORD
2. Asking questions
• Myth- Leaders are suppose to know all and have all the right answers
• Amazing power of asking questions

• Two types of questioning

I. Leader centered
II. Follower centeres
2. Asking questions (contd…)
I. Leader centered
• Seeks to inform leaders
• Helps leader to tap into expertise and ideas of followers
• Helps to gather wide range of data
• Shows that leader values knowledge of others, cares about how others feel
and open to new ideas

• ….this helps in building trusting and respectful relationship

2. Asking questions (contd…)
II. Follower centered
• Develop new insights
• Encourage critical thinking
• Expand people’s awareness
• Stimulate learning

• Socratic method
• Leads to follower self confidence and help build positive attitude
3. Listening
• …”involves the skill of grasping and interpreting a message’s genuine
meaning”
• Difference between hearing and listening
• Helps to influence followers by understanding their ideas, suggestions
and problems
4. Discerning hot topics
• ….“to be able to detect the unarticulated message”

• A critical skill that enables leaders

• To tap into unarticulated often deep seated needs, fears, desires and hopes of
followers

• A discerning leader hears the undercurrent that have yet to emerge

5. Dialogue
• ..“people together create a stream of shared meaning that enables
them to understand each other and share a view of the world”
• People have tendency to infuse
• How to have a fruitful dialogue
• Free of prejudgments
• Avoid personal agenda
• Understand there are no right answers
• Don’t presume to know the outcome
• Don’t sell your convictions
Both serves the
purpose but
• Discussion
solves the
problem at
hand
• Dialogue paves
the way for
future
6. The Johari window

By
Joseph Luft
Harry Ingham
6. The Johari window (contd….)
• Open
• Represents information known to self and known to others
• Facts like your name
• Cognitive elements like feelings, motives, desires, wants and needs
• Fewer items at “forming” stage (new group) but gradually increases
• Aim is to increase the size of open quadrant
• By having deep self awareness
• Being open to others about feelings, motives etc

……leading to good communication and improved cooperation

6. The Johari window (contd….)
• Blind
• Known about an individual by others but unknown to individual
• E.g., food on my face
• People have blind spots about more complex issues

• ..by knowing and discussing, blind area can be reduced.

6. The Johari window (contd….)
• Hidden
• Known to individual, unknown by others
• We keep certain feelings, fears, desires hidden from others
• If these effect performance at workplace, they need to be moved to the open
quadrant

• ….reducing hidden area reduces potential for misunderstanding and conflicts

6. The Johari window (contd….)
• Unknown
• Unknown to both individual and group
• E.g., unknown illness, repressed or subconscious feelings

• …through self discovery- unknown can be moved to hidden or open area

6. The Johari window (contd….)
• Good leaders
• Encourage self discovery
• Constructive feedback
• Honest disclosure
• Create an environment where people can learn about themselves
• Communication free from distraction, mistrust and misunderstanding
Communicate to Persuade and Influence
• Command and control (old school mindset)
• People want to know what to do and why
• Nowadays lines of authority are blurred
• Major companies are focused on influence rather than command

• Persuade: induce (someone) to do something through reasoning or

argument
• Influence: the capacity to have an effect on the character, development,
or behaviour of someone or something, or the effect itself.
Communicate to Persuade and Influence
(contd…)
1. Establish credibility
 Based on leader’s knowledge and expertise
 Leader demonstrates well informed and sound decisions
 Decisions showing to “have other’s best interest at heart”

2. Build goals on common grounds

 When people see how they will personally benefit from doing something-
they are more eager to do it
 If leader can not find “common advantage” they need to adjust goals and
plans
Communicate to Persuade and Influence
(contd…)
3. Make your position compelling to others
 Appeal to others on emotional level
 Use symbols, metaphors, stories to express the message rather than relying
on facts and figures

4. Connect emotionally
 Empathy- adjust your approach according to emotions of followers
 Have knowledge of how followers have responded and responded in past
events to have an idea how they’ll react to ideas and proposals
Selecting rich communication channels
• Communication richness: …is the amount of information that can be
transmitted during a communication episode

• Richness influenced by 3 characteristics

1. The ability to handle multiple cues simultaneously
2. The ability to facilitate two way feedback
3. The ability to establish a personal focus for the communication
Selecting rich communication channels
• Channel selection
• Routine
• Effectively communicated through low rich channel
• Used when audience is widely dispersed
• Official, when permanent record required
• Non-routine
• Concerns issues with change, conflict complexity
• Potential for misunderstanding
• Characterized by time pressure/surprise
• Rich channel preferred
Non-verbal Communication
• Body language, facial expressions etc
• Contains half of the message
• Walk the talk
• Management By Walking Around (MBWA)
Communicating in a crisis
Four skills required by leaders to effectively communicate in a crss
situation
1. Stay Calm
2. Be visible
3. Tell the truth
4. Communicate vision for future
Communicating in a crisis (contd…)
1. Stay Calm
• Leaders emotions are contagious
• Absorb people’s fears and uncertainties
• Tailor message
• Reflect hope and optimism
• Acknowledge difficulty
• Give comfort and inspiration
2. Be visible
• People need someone in control
• Step out immediately
Communicating in a crisis (contd…)
3. Tell the truth
• Get information fast and “get the awful truth out” asap
• Control rumors (critical step)
4. Communicate vision for future
• Things need to get back on track
• Rebuilding process- something to look forward to
Please ask questions in the online taught class on Monday