Leadership Communication: The Merger of Leadership and Communication

by Diane M. Hoffmann, ph.d./th.

Of all communication, leadership communication is the most potent. Why? Because a) leadership is the beginning of effective management and b) communication is part of that leadership that leads to good management.

What do I mean by leadership being the beginning of effective management? By that I mean that leadership is where it all begins. Without leadership you can’t have effective management, or management at all, in any area of business or personal life.

To lead means to show the way, to direct the course by going before and along with; to conduct, to guide, to cause one to follow, to mark the way, to hold the hand, to pull along, to persuade or influence a course of action or thought….

Placing this adjective next to communication means that, now, communication takes on the same lead role and becomes a whole other dimension of basic communication, and becomes the most important leadership skill.

As leadership is the beginning of management, leadership communication is the beginning of leadership. Without effective communication you cannot lead or manage effectively. When you merge leadership and communication, you have the most potent of communication skills.

What is necessary to make a leader? Are leaders born or are they made? One might think that personality types would limit the possibilities for someone to become a leader. But personality types have both strengths and weaknesses, and it is the strong points that make the difference.

What makes a leader, is the recognition and capitalization of these strong points in any personality type. Anyone can be a leader in business or at home, no matter whether you are a type A, B, C, D or whatever other label you chose to describe your personality with.

But leadership without the “serving” attitude is dead. Leadership is not about bullying. Leadership is not about serving yourself at the expense of others. That will eventually lead to destruction rather than construction. It is about serving others. Every day we are serving someone.

So how does one become a successful leader and keep on being a successful leader?

Firstly, by being mindful of wanting to be a leader. Secondly, by pursuing being that leader through learning. And, thirdly, by continuously asking yourself questions, such as are found in the book “Serve to Lead” by James Strock:

Who are you serving? How can you best serve? Are you making your unique contribution? Are you getting better every day?

Leadership communication begins in successful leadership. It is all of the communication process and activities, conscious and unconscious, instinctive or created, that stem out of leadership into the effective management of our business and personal lives. /dmh

Article Copyright(c)Diane M. Hoffmann. You may print this article making sure to include the following bio without any changes.

Diane M. Hoffmann is the founder of Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications and author of the 296-page printed book "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training". Diane also provides a 2-part e-book version of her printed book, "Improve Communication, Verbal and Nonverbal" and "Improve Communication, Organization and Training" as well as many free articles which can be seen at her blog at http://contextual-communication-hrd.blogspot.com/.

***Sign up for my weekly "TipSheet" on Communication Verbal-Nonverbal, Organization and Training...***