LEADERS COMMUNICATION

PRACTICES
--Sunil Sarkar, 2015, July 15
Communication is the most integrate attribute of leadership.
It is a process by which a person encodes the messages, the
messages reach to another person by the channels or mediums,
and the person decodes the messages and after receiving the
messages sends the feedbacks to the sender and wait for more
messages. If the messages and feedbacks effectively flow
between these two people, it is called communication and every
communication usually builds relationships between two people
or among a group. A leader is a person who motivates people and
achieves things by his/her communications and relationships with
the individuals or the group. Therefore it is important that a
leader learns the effective communication practices from the
other leaders ahead of time to effectively influence the people
around him/her. The principles can be learned from the core
knowledge and experiences of the communication practices of the

past leaders to use them as tools for future leaders to be

successful in their leaderships.
.

Importance of communication practices

The exchange of information and understandings between
the senders and receivers occur through the channels or mediums
of communication. During the communication process if the
messages get interrupted in the channels or mediums in the
between before the decoder receives the message or the encoder
receives the feedback from the decoder, it is called a NOISE in
communication.
Many people often cannot become a leader due to these NOISE
he/ she creates that does not sooth to the inner ears of the
followers. A leader needs to understand his/her followers to
properly response to their needs to motivate them. He/ she must
practices

appropriate

communication

skills

to

achieve

relationships with the followers. During this age of information

and technology it is not possible to become an effective leader to

motivate

people

unless

someone

learns

the

effective

communication practices. Therefore all the leaders must learn the

knowledge and experiences of the communication practices from
the core principle of leadership.

(Adili Jasmine, 2011, March 3).

Appropriate communication skills of the leader

Every individuals encounter uncountable information and
messages in their mind every day and it is important for a leader
to have the skills to segregate the messages and choose to
effectively response to the appropriate ones that will brings
positive change and development in our society. To influence the

people the leader needs to know how to communicate and how

not to communicate.
A leader should carefully listen to the messages, select the
appropriate channels and the mediums to communicate and
provide suitable responses to effectively communicate people.
He/she needs to makes sure that the messages are encoded and
decoded properly between him/her people with Zero defect. The
leader too needs to maintain the appropriate communication flow
reducing all the communication barriers. Noise, inappropriate
medium, assumptions/miss conceptions, emotions, languages
differences, poor skills, use or jargons, time and distance, and
destructions are some of those communication barriers the
leaders should learn to reduce from their effective communication
practice. George Bernard Shaw (nd) said the single biggest
problem in communication is the illusion it has taken place. It is
important for a leader not to wrongly perceive the information.
He/she should not have vague communication practices, because
if a blind leads a blind, both fall into ditch. He should make sure
he has carefully and he is understood by the followers clearly.
Listening is the key to understanding in communication. Phoenix

R. Cavalier stated, Being very good at speaking to a person

requires the ability to listen for understanding, to ensure what you
said, is what someone else has heard (2010, December 24).

Appropriate type of communication of the leader

Different types of communication through different channels
and mediums often keeps the human mind so busy that common
people hardly make out time to select the type of communication
for the success. The leader must learn to choose appropriate
types of communication time to time to reduce noise and
effectively benefit the group. Some of the things he must speak,
some of the things he must write and some of the things he must
show to communicate and bind his followers. Some of the things
leader should communicates through verbal mediums, some of
the things through written mediums and some of the things shows
through visual mediums. And a leader need to be an expert on
which medium or channel he/she should use in times to be
understood too his followers. Sometimes he needs to choose the
faster communication through phone, instant messaging, front to

front talk and sometime he/she needs to choose slowest medium

like emails, newspaper, journals, books, web, audio-visual aids.

(Free Essay, 2015)

Appropriate purposeful communication of the

leader
The leader communicates his/her follower for a purpose to
motivate them to achieve a task. Leader alone does not do
everything but he/she influence the people and the group to
achieve the goal of the community. Therefore the leader change
the behavior of people by getting their attention to ensure
understandings among the group. The leader need to persuade
people by exchanging information through the mediums. He/she

change the society by developing their behavior and foster

relationships to maintain peace and nobility in a society. He saves
people through the core knowledge and experiences that
develops the group and society as a whole.

(The Employability Factor, 2011, August 5).

Appropriate practice for instant communication

Everything rises and falls at the feet of leadership. A person
can do right thing on a wrong time, wrong thing on a right time,
wrong thing on a wrong time or right thing on a right time. An
effective leader knows how to instantly motivate his followers
immediately through his communication skills. He follows the best
practices of instant communication skills adopt from core

knowledge and experiences of other leaders. Here are the 8 best

leadership practices skills listed by Phoenix R. Cavalier (2010,
December 24) for instant communication:
1. Start with a question think end means.
2. Focus on quality, not quantity - communication is about
quality and not quantity.
3. Speak with truth and compassion speak what they
want to hear, speak in a way they will listen, mind their point
of view.
4. Focus on the listener, not yourself - three mode of
communication- self centered, message centered, and
listener centered.
5. Simplify the message- time, easy concept and repeat.
6. Entertain to engage- grab attention, hold, address and
positive.
7. Feedback and feed forward- make them repeat what you
have said.
8. Tell a better story Tell excellent stories. Share personal
stories to bridge a connection.

Appropriate practices of leader for permanent

communication
Even though the leaders are efficient and are able to
move people instantly, they too act for the purpose of
permanent relationships among the group members. Here

are 13 of these communication practices are listed by

Stephanie Reyes (2015, March 24):
1. Be personable: Care about the followers, connect with
them in personal level and express some humor in their
stressful time.
2. Gain trust: Keeping promises, telling the truth and people
will forgive many if trusts.
3. Tell it like it is: Sugar-coating bad news, covering up
mistakes or understanding risk to help. Tell them if anything
goes off track and refocus on moving forward.
4. Avoid ambiguity (uncertainty): Keep your target and
vision without confusion. Be specific, concise and clear about
objectives and principles they embrace.
5. 5. be open-minded: There are multiple routes to reach a
target, accept and map ways for them.
6. 6. Listen: They need to be heard, be present with them,
reflect their priorities and speak for them.
7. 7. Stay calm: When tempers fray and plans blow up, stay
calm. Keep cool composure in spite of all external pressure.
8. 8. Empathize: Feel their emotion, concern and perspective.
During their hard times communicate from heart and not
from egos.
9. 9. Set the standard: Set standards for dressing, language,
treatments and behaviors of the team as center of
excellence.
10.
Practice perception: Be aware, emotionally alert,
anticipate and response to challenge even before appear.
11.
Be a thought leader: Be a source of knowledge and
information to help them grow. Bring challenging information
to build their conceptual thinking and creativity.

12.
Appreciate: Use words like please, thank you.
Publically recognizing their team input and credibility and
reinforces through appreciation.
13.
Be congruent: Have values and principles in leading
the members. Walk the talk.
The communication practices need to be skillfully learned
than blindly received. Every leader must try to develop their
communication skills following the communication practices of
experienced leaders. Communication is the life of every
relationship and relationships are the life of every group or the
society. To develop the society the leaders themselves be first
learner of applicable experiences to practice communication
among the group members. And then the understanding, peace
and stability of the society will easily grow by following the words
of the leaders. Let no corrupting talk come out of our mouths,
but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that
it may give grace to those who hear. - Ephesians 4:29 (ESV). Let
God save all of us through His redemptive knowledge and skills.

References

Adili. J. (2011, March 3). Communication Process Model: An

Interpersonal Perspective. Retrieved from
http://managementandenglish.blogspot.com/2011/03/communicat
ion- process-model.html
Cavalier P. R. (2010, December 24). 8 best practices for
communication.
Retrieved from
http://www.virtualprojectconsulting.com/8-best-practicesleadership-communication/

for-

Free Essay. (2015, July). Essay Charts. Retrieved from http://freeessays.essay4u.org/index.html#img4

Holy Bible (ESV).
Reyes S. (2015, March 24). 13 Communication Practices of
Leaders. Retrieved from http://tribehr.com/blog/13communication-practices-of-leaders
Shaw G. B (nd) George Bernard Shaw Quotes. Retrieved from
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/george_bernard_sh
aw.html
The Employability Factor. (2011, August 5). CommunicationGeneral. Retrieved from https://mfactorblog.wordpress.com/