Why Effective Leaders Must Be Excellent Communicators
January 19, 2024 – In my experience, it appears that many leaders underestimate the importance of the need to have strong communication skills. Too many leaders believe that their technical skills determines their success on the job. However, although technical or commercial skills is the pathway to progressing in your career at the early stages, it is very difficult to be a high-impact CEO or business/organizational or institutional leader without being an excellent communicator.
Effective leaders need to build a shared vision within and outside his or her organization. They need to be able to inspire and motivate employees to buy-in to the vision and strategy of the organization and work towards the achievement of its objectives.
Effective leaders set the tone for delivery within an organization and ensure that people know and understand what the entity stands for and what is required of them in terms of performance, culture and delivery. This can only be done through effective communications.
Communications is essential for effective leadership. It is simply impossible to be an effective leader without being a strong communicator because otherwise, how would you get people to follow your path or leading? It is for this reason, that I would advocate that communications skills be part of the criteria that is considered in selecting CEOs, Board Members etc because the ability to speak for the brand, business or entity and for your words to carry weight and meaning is absolutely important for the success of the overall endeavor.
Leaders who may have gap in this area should actively work towards developing their communications skills and expertise for various scenarios e.g. public presentations, public inquiries, media interviews, townhall sessions, public launches, stadium events etc. Depending on the nature of the business and influence of the organization, it is essential to have a Leading Voice that can articulate the position of the organization, command the attention of the audience and bring the message home with desired results.
It is not by chance that the leaders of the most valuable brands globally are visible at conferences and platforms where their voice on key issues is heard. Everyone has seen or heard Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs speak. Regardless of where we are in the world, we hear their voices. Because their products are used by consumers around the world and it is important that they speak to us on a very high-level, to create space and support for their brand, marketing and sales communications to breathe and take root in diverse markets, audiences and communities around the world.
– Sola Abulu is the Principal Consultant of Sola Abulu & Associates (SA&A)
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SA&A is a strategy and communications consulting and training firm focused on enabling businesses, brands and organizations to achieve their objectives through strategic communication, organizational effectiveness and reputation management.