Leadership Communication Skills - The Importance of Connection

Leadership communication is widely regarded as being the most important leadership skill. This is not surprising when you consider that research has demonstrated that leaders spend 80% of their time communicating with clients, staff, investors, the media and other stakeholders.

The most effective leaders are generally those with the most effective leadership communication skills . Examples of leaders who have mastered effective leadership communication include: Bill Clinton, Jack Welch, Hilary Clinton, Steve Jobs and Barack Obama.

In order to master leadership communication a leader must:

• Have good public speaking and presentation skills.
• Know how to use their non verbal communication.
• Have leadership charisma; and
• Be able to connect with their audience.

Great Communicators Are Made Not Born

Many wrongly assume that leaders who are great communicators, were born with huge amounts of natural talent and were persuading groups of children when they were still at Kindergarten. On the contrary, Ronald Reagan was trained by some of the best acting coaches in the world and was known for consistently working on his timing and delivery.

Bill Clinton’s speaking abilities left a lot to be desired in the early years of his political career. Perhaps his most memorable public speaking disaster was during the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. His role at the conference was to introduce the party’s presidential nominee, Michael Dukakis. He was allocated fifteen minutes to speak but droned on well past thirty minutes, resulting in the conference organizers having to switch the lights on and off, flash "times up" on the teleprompter and eventually lower the mechanical podium which Clinton was still standing on.

Clinton, who had closely studied the speeches and communication styles of John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King, worked intensely on his communication skills undergoing both NLP and body language training. The results of this leadership communication coaching are evident to all and were key factors in his ability to maintain his popularity throughout the various storms he encountered during his Presidency.

Like Reagan and Clinton, Obama is reputed to have worked hard on improving his public speaking abilities. You only need to see some earlier film footage of Obama speaking, to see the significant improvement in his performance.

The Importance of Making a Connection

Unless a leader connects with people, they will fail to achieve their true leadership potential. By connection I do not mean superficial networking. I am talking about the ‘connection’ that leaves the other person feeling that they matter, even in some small way.

A leader must connect with people on an emotional level, as that is the playing field where they can have the greatest impact and influence. Research has established that people form opinions and make decisions based on their emotions. First people listen to their emotional guidance system, then they justify with reasons, then they rationalize.

Bill Clinton is very effective at engaging people by making them feel that they matter. In the early years of his Presidency, Clinton speaking to members of the public, often used the phrase "I feel your pain". Through the effective use of body language, eye contact, smiles and listening skills, Clinton appears to radiate a form of ‘feel good’ energy which can properly be described as ‘charisma’.

It is because of these qualities that Clinton was able to survive the Lewinsky affair, despite having blatantly lied to the American public and being subjected to an attempt to impeach him. According to news reports, Clinton’s popularity actually soared to an all time high during the impeachment proceedings!

Connect Using All Communication Channels

To make an effective connection you have to use the full range of your communication channels. Professor Albert Mehrabian of UCLA, in his widely praised research, established that the impact of your communication is broken down in the following way:

• Your words count for a mere 7%
• Your tone of voice counts for 38%; and
• Your body language counts for the remaining 55%.

It necessarily follows that for you to truly communicate effectively as a leader, you must, at a minimum learn how to deploy your words, tone of voice and body language for maximum impact.

When we look closely at the great connectors we see they have the following qualities and characteristics in common;

• Energy
• Warmth
• Smiles
• Expressive open body language
• Eye contact
• An ability to make the listener feel they understand
• Their own distinctive communication style
• Openness about their feelings and beliefs

While establishing connection is at odds with the old model of leadership communication, modern leaders know that the ability to make a connection is often the most powerful persuasion tool in a leader’s toolbox.