Communication
A leader
needs to be a good communicator.
This quality
is essential to sell his “vision”, to convince, to win
supporters for his project.
The leader
should have a considerable vision of the future. However, if he doesn’t
know how to communicate this vision, he will not make people enthusiastic.
Another
aspect related to communication is the need for the leader to have
top quality information at hand, and therefore it is necessary to
go to the sources when necessary, and not to limit himself to just
trusting the information that is received from the hierarchical channels.
The lowest
levels of the organization constitute as an invaluable source of information,
they know unknown business details, they can give very interesting
ideas.
This does
not imply that they are going to spill the beans but they will give
the leader some good information.
On the
other hand, so that the management team work efficient they have to
work “together”. Therefore, it is important that communication
flows with its members.
It is important
to have systematic meetings, (daily, weekly, etc) meetings with the
leader and his team.
The leader
should worry about establishing a climate within the organization
that favours communication.
Communication
has to flow in a descent way, but also ascending and horizontal between
the different departments.
You have
to share information; within the company the leader can not accept
watertight departments that hide information. The leader has to fight
against secrets.
The attitude
that the leader adopts towards information (share it or not, accessibility
or not, open doors, etc) will decisively influence in the model which
the company will use.
It is very
important that the employees know each other (company dinners, activity
days, organized trips, etc), as this helps communication.
The leader
has to favour openness within the organization and outside.
The leader
should not hide negative information for fear of the possible consequences.
It is usually more dangerous if later his information is found out:
it generates mistrust towards the management, besides the rumours
usually exaggerate the severity of the situation.
The leader
has to favour truthful communication within the company, avoid a false
story. You can not kill the messenger.
Finally,
point out that communication begins when someone knows how to listen.
