Good Leadership and Good Communication Go Together

Nearly everyone would say that keys to being an effective leader, an excellent communicator, and a very good listener, are each important to positively influencing people. Vitally important!  Well, if we all know that, why do so many of us struggle with communication?

Of course, we could rationalize, e.g., the busyness of our lives today, endless information coming at us, and distraction by the internet and our smart phones. These surely make it difficult for us to focus on our team members and others. Yet, leadership – and good communication – stem from our attitude, and our attitude must be based on connecting with and serving others!

Serving others means helping others be successful, lead good lives, feel good about themselves.

Yes, feeling good about themselves is key. Everyone wants to feel:

• Appreciated and valued
• They are heard
• Their ideas matter
• They are an important member of the team
• They are kept informed

This means that they feel connected, cared for and supported by those close to them, certainly including their manager and others in authority.

Being a good communicator, sharing information, and feelings, completely and honestly – on a timely basis – make an important positive difference…as does being an active listener. Being truly interested and listening to understand and learn, without a personal agenda, are key to effective communication.

And our responsiveness is critically important!

My purpose in writing this short article about highly effective leadership principles and practices is that just in the past few months, I have encountered a surprising number of situations when people simply were not responsive. They are people who should be leaders, but definitely fall short in responsiveness.

I have facilitated extensive 360 leadership assessments for leaders in business and in the church, and over and over again I have heard that when someone fails to respond to a message and or request to a manager or pastor, for example, on a timely basis the resulting feeling is that the manager/pastor does not value them, nor their ideas, nor their work. They feel the manager/pastor believes she or he is more important.

Leadership is serving others! Leadership is how we help people feel about themselves. And failure to respond on a timely basis conveys lack of respect.

Please – I encourage everyone, no matter our position and role – to commit to respond to messages and requests as soon as possible.

People understand we can be in meetings, at appointments, on calls and may not be immediately available and they appreciate a brief message that we are tied up and will be back to them later in the day or the next morning. Such messages honor them and are appreciated.

No matter what we do, we are in a people business. Let’s help others feel appreciated, valued, and honor them. This is leadership!

And prayerful wishes to everyone and our families this holy season.