Communication - Difficult but Critical

So much of leadership is communication. So much of life is communication.

Communication is both a blessing and a curse. How incredible is it that we can express to one another our thoughts and emotions. To articulate ideas, feelings and insights to others is a format that makes sense is a key to relationships and cooperation. Exchanging perspectives, debating issues, and sharing concepts permits collaborative efforts that accomplish great things.

Telling your wife that you love her and putting into words the deep feelings of you heart allows you to communicate on deep levels with individuality and emotion. Communicating with your children in order to express your pride and joy in their accomplishments and character, provides you with vital opportunities to let them know much you value them.

Communication can also be one of the most difficult things to do and the easiest things to mess up. Words that often slip off the tongue can be knives that wound the soul. Comments meant to be humorous can drive discouragement deep within the heart. Ugly words serve as poison in relationships and angry words are left on the table with regret. Conversations can not be taken back or rewound for editing (this is entirely unfortunate).

I have found myself so misunderstand at times. The size of the audience does not seem to matter. One-on-one chats often lead to disappointments because of a lack of clarity. Thinking that I have plainly shared my opinion, I find out later that my wife, friend, son, employee, or boss totally heard something else. I am amazed sometimes that when a conversation concludes, I leave thinking one decision has been made while the other person has concluded something totally different.

Small groups have just as much danger of miscommunication. I have provided many professional development sessions for executive leaders. After presenting my information and sharing my insights, I have a time of questions and answers. Some of the questions that some leaders ask demonstrate that my words failed to accurately communicate my thoughts. Whether it is my words of their ears I am not sure, but it is obvious that all is not well in the communication process.

Have you ever left a meeting with everyone thinking that someone else is responsible of a particular action item? The next meeting rolls around and no one has addressed the issue. Communication is key to execution.

Large group communication is not much better. I have been on both the sending side and the receiving side of a oral presentation that just missed in an accurate transfer of information. I have walked away from a conference plenary session totally missing the point of the main speaker. On the other hand, I have gotten feed-back after making a large presentation only to find that some of the participants have misunderstood my thoughts.

Communication can go wrong in so many ways and yet communication is critical if change is going to take place in an organization. Change is effective when adequate communication has occurred and the members of the company are all on a similar page of understanding. Once the telling of the story has been articulated the personnel of the organization must embrace and “own” the narrative. They must enter into the story as major characters in the change. Will we fail in communicating our hearts and minds? Absolutely! Must we continue to communicate despite our failures? Obviously! Is it imperative that we carefully share and constantly evaluate the accuracy of our story? Without question!