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 leaderEvery 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 leaderDifferent 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 communicationEven 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/communication-process-model.htmlCavalier P. R. (2010, December 24). 8 best practices for communication. Retrieved from http://www.virtualprojectconsulting.com/8-best-practices-for-leadership-communication/Free Essay. (2015, July). Essay Charts. Retrieved from http://free-essays.essay4u.org/index.html#img4Holy Bible (ESV).Reyes S. (2015, March 24). 13 Communication Practices of Leaders. Retrieved from http://tribehr.com/blog/13-communication-practices-of-leaders Shaw G. B (nd) George Bernard Shaw Quotes. Retrieved from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/george_bernard_shaw.htmlThe Employability Factor. (2011, August 5). Communication- General. Retrieved from https://mfactorblog.wordpress.com/