Communicative Leadership in Organisations

Communicative lead­er­ship is a require­ment for all leaders.

I some­times make the argu­ment that we need more lead­ers than we have. ¹Silfwer, J. (2023, March 23). Overcoming the Leadership Gap (With Fewer Leaders). Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​l​e​a​d​e​r​s​h​i​p​-​g​ap/

So, how do we make this equa­tion work? In short, all lead­ers must learn to com­mu­nic­ate better.

Here we go:

Enter: Communicative Leadership

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Communicative Leadership

Is excel­lent com­mu­nic­a­tion an out­come of out­stand­ing lead­er­ship? Or is strong lead­er­ship a product of excel­lent com­mu­nic­a­tion? Either way, all lead­ers should pri­or­it­ise devel­op­ing their com­mu­nic­a­tion skills.

Good Communicative Leadership

What is required from com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­ers? According to Catrin Johansson, Vernon Miller and Solange Hamrin: ²Johansson, C., Miller, V. D., & Hamrin, S. (2011, October 15). Communicative Leadership: Theories, Concepts, and Central Communication Behaviors. Demicom, Department of Media and Communication, … Continue read­ing

• Communicative lead­ers coach and enable employ­ees to be self-managing. 
• Communicative lead­ers provide struc­tures that facil­it­ate the work. 
• Communicative lead­ers set clear expect­a­tions for qual­ity, pro­ductiv­ity, and professionalism. 
• Communicative lead­ers are approach­able, respect­ful, and express con­cern for employees. 
• Communicative lead­ers act­ively engage in prob­lem-solv­ing, fol­low up on feed­back, and advoc­ate for the unit. 
• Communicative lead­ers con­vey dir­ec­tion and assist oth­ers in achiev­ing their goals. 
• Communicative lead­ers act­ively engage in the fram­ing of mes­sages and events. 
• Communicative lead­ers enable and sup­port sensemaking.

Poor Communicative Leadership

Conversely, non-com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­ers are typ­ic­ally dis­tin­guished by these characteristics:

• Non-com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­ers keep inform­a­tion from their teams in an attempt to assert power. 
• Non-com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­ers use pass­ive aggres­sion to shame their teams into per­form­ing better.
• Non-com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­ers blame their teams for poor out­comes but take the cred­it for them­selves when things go well.
• Non-com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­ers use praise sub­ject­ively and stra­tegic­ally instead of object­ively and fairly.
• Non-com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­ers add lay­ers between them­selves and the prac­tic­al out­comes, like addi­tion­al lay­ers of unne­ces­sary man­agers or meetings.
• Non-com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­ers are pla­cing their careers before the careers of their teams.
• Non-com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­ers exclude their teams from par­ti­cip­at­ing dir­ectly in mean­ing­ful dis­cus­sions; they need to place them­selves in a pos­i­tion to fil­ter and manip­u­late any feed­back from the group.
• Non-com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­ers are hos­tile towards new ideas from sub­or­din­ates because they believe that any­thing that bene­fits someone beneath them­selves in the organ­isa­tion­al hier­archy is a poten­tial threat to their position.

Learn more: Communicative Leadership in Organisations

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Checklist for Communicative Leadership

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The Checklist for Communicative Leadership

Being a great lead­er can be daunt­ing. However, with effort (and atten­tion to detail), all lead­ers can prac­tice express­ive and pre­cise communication.

“The single biggest prob­lem in com­mu­nic­a­tion is the illu­sion that it has taken place.”
— George Bernard Shaw

How can you ensure your lead­er­ship is express­ive and pre­cise in prac­tic­al situations? 

As a rule of thumb:

• It’s gen­er­ally bet­ter to “over-com­mu­nic­ate” (tol­er­able added effort) than “under-com­mu­nic­ate” (sub­stan­tial added risk).

Make sure to pass these com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­er­ship checks:

• This is what we are doing.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is why we are doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is who will be doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is how we are doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is when we are doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is where we are doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is for whom we are doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?

“Expressive and pre­cise com­mu­nic­a­tion styles have a stronger link to lead­er out­comes than per­son­al­ity traits extra­ver­sion and con­scien­tious­ness.”
Source: Human Performance ³Bakker-Pieper, A., & Vries, R. (2013). The Incremental Validity of Communication Styles Over Personality Traits for Leader Outcomes. Human Performance, 26, 1 — … Continue read­ing

Learn more: The Checklist for Communicative Leadership

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PR Resource: Leadership PR Course

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Doctor Spin’s PR School: Free Leadership PR Course

Take advant­age of this Free Leadership PR Course to sharpen your pub­lic rela­tions skills and become a con­fid­ent and influ­en­tial lead­er in any industry.

• Communicative Leadership in Organisations
• The Checklist for Communicative Leadership
• Split Sessions: Recognition, Rewards, and Feedback
• The Sword of Certainty: Information is Power
• Principles of Communicative Discipline
• Speak First: A Simple Yet Powerful Leadership Hack
• The Ritual of Giving Instructions
• Symbolic Pacing in Communicative Leadership
• Serve Decisions, Not Solutions (to be published)
• The Servant Attitude for Communicative Leaders (to be published)
• Troublemakers as Cautionary Totems (to be published)
• The Inverted Curve of Leniency (to be pub­lished)
• The Fireside Solace: Over-Sharing for Leaders (to be published)
• Leadership Rhetoric: Micro Speeches & Poethic Schticks (to be published)

Bonus Content

• 11 Evil Leadership Techniques

Learn more: All Free PR Courses

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PR Resource: Existentialism and Leadership

Existentialism: Thought Leadership, Advisory, and Education

Regarding thought lead­er­ship, advis­ory, and edu­ca­tion, I often remind myself of the beau­ti­ful words of the Danish exist­en­tial­ist Søren Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855): ⁴Søren Kierkegaard. (2023, November 27). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard

According to Kierkegaard, ser­vitude is the found­a­tion for suc­cess for all aspir­ing thought lead­ers, advisers, salespeople, and educators:

“If one is truly to suc­ceed in lead­ing a per­son to a spe­cif­ic place, one must first and fore­most take care to find him where he is and begin there.

This is the secret in the entire art of help­ing.

Anyone who can­not do this is him­self under a delu­sion if he thinks he is able to help someone else. In order truly to help someone else, I must under­stand more than he — but cer­tainly first and fore­most under­stand what he under­stands.

If I do not do that, my great­er under­stand­ing does not help him. If I nev­er­the­less want to assert my great­er under­stand­ing, then it is because I am vain or proud, then basic­ally instead of bene­fit­ing him I really want to be admired by him.

But all true help­ing begins with a hum­bling.

The help­er must first humble him­self under the per­son he wants to help and thereby under­stand that to help is not to dom­in­ate but to serve, that to help is a not to be the most dom­in­at­ing but the most patient, that to help is a will­ing­ness for the time being to put up with being in the wrong and not under­stand­ing what the oth­er under­stands.”
— Søren Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855)

Learn more: Existentialism for PR Advisers