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​As a leader, you might be an expert in your field. Maybe you have a degree or two. You might even have many innovative ideas that could help solidify your company's future.

But if you can't convey those ideas in a meaningful way to your employees and clients, your influence will be limited.

"The ability to communicate with clarity and purpose is the key to personal and professional success," says G. Riley Mills, co-founder of Pinnacle Performance Co. in Chicago and author of The Bullseye Principle (Wiley, 2018).

Effective leaders must be able to inspire, motivate and persuade those around them to achieve organizational goals. However, leaders often fail to devote as much time to developing their communication skills as they do to honing other business skills, experts say.

Communication failures can be costly for organizations, causing wasted time and effort, low morale, reduced productivity, and a loss of trust and credibility, according to Dean Brenner, president of The Latimer Group in Wallingford, Conn., which provides executive coaching.

Here's some advice from communication experts:

Know your audience. One of the most common communication mistakes that leaders make is failing to tailor their message to fit their specific audience, says Chris Westfall, a communication coach and author of Leadership Language (Wiley, 2018).

To be effective, leaders must make a connection with their audience, whether it's employees or clients.

"The strongest message always starts with what your listener is thinking. You have to understand the challenges and concerns of your team," Westfall says.

"You need to start by connecting to where your team is if you want to create real influence," he says. "Browbeating doesn't capture the hearts and minds of employees."

Whether speaking to a group or an individual, leaders can help make a connection by using "you" rather than "I." For example, say, "Have you ever noticed ... " instead of "This is the way I see it."

"Ultimately, the best leader serves the needs of the team, just as the team serves the leader," he says.

Mills coaches leaders to ask team members and clients, "What do you need? How can I help?"

Create meaning. Twenty years ago, the smartest person in the room at work was the one who had gathered more and better information than anyone else.

"Today, the smartest person in the room ... is the one who can simplify all the things that are going on and create a path through the complexity and toward a simpler solution," Brenner says.

Many leaders spend a significant amount of time creating slides containing all kinds of data but don't put those numbers in context. They need to explain what the numbers mean for each specific group that they address.

"The real mistake is to assume that everybody cares about the nitty-gritty of the data as much as you do," Brenner says. "What you have to realize is everybody's listening to what you're saying and thinking in their heads about how they can apply it to what they're doing."

Effective leaders find a way to make their message relevant to what their employees are working on, he adds.

Become a better listener. A huge barrier to good communication is poor listening skills.

But learning to be a better listener can be challenging in a world filled with electronic distractions. And listening skills usually aren't recognized or rewarded within organizations, Brenner says.

"We tend to promote people because they're decisive and do things proactively," he says.

When coaching executives to improve their listening skills, Brenner advises them to:

Respect the situation by choosing to ignore the

distractions.

Retain the information by engaging in a conversation or taking notes.

Review what they've heard. If a colleague is in the meeting, compare what was heard. "We all listen through different filters," he says.

Too often, people listen just enough to confirm what they already know or to defend their own position. Instead, they should be listening to discover what they haven't heard before. Is there an opposing viewpoint that might be beneficial?

"Discovery is the listening that leads to innovation," Westfall says. "Effective leaders know they have to gather information before they can make an informed decision."

Prepare properly. When leaders at large companies are scheduled to give a presentation, their first step is often to search for an existing slide deck on the topic, Mills says.

"They think they're saving time, but I would argue they're adding time," he says. "Think about what you want to say first. Who is your audience? What do they care about?"

Mills encourages leaders to focus on their objective as they craft their talk. Choose a strong, one-word verb to guide you. Do you want to excite audience members? Challenge them? Reassure them? "Most leaders go into it to inform, and there's no emotional connection," he says.

Practice makes perfect, but few executives perform trial runs, according to Darlene Price, an executive coach and author of (Amacom, 2012). In fact, her surveys show that fewer than 5 percent of 5,000 business leaders who have attended her workshops said at the outset that they practice their presentations aloud or conduct a dress rehearsal.

"Most of the time, leaders deliver a rehearsal to their audience, and that's just a huge mistake because they're not putting their best foot forward," says Price, noting that many mistakenly believe they're already good at public speaking.

Mills, a former actor, says he hears many CEOs say, "I'll just wing it. I don't like to be tied down." But their message can get lost if they ramble or misspeak.

He coaches executives to prepare by using the three phases that actors use:

The read-through, which is often stilted and awkward because they're not yet familiar with the content.

The stumble-through, when they add physical movement as they learn their lines.

The dress rehearsal, when they wear the clothes that they'll present in; use the slides, projector and microphones; and get comfortable in the setting.

Price reminds business leaders that 93 percent of communication's impact comes from nonverbal cues, including body language and tone of voice. Without a rehearsal, leaders may unintentionally send mixed messages. They may be concentrating to remember their talking points, but their audience might see their furrowed brow or clenched hands and worry that the company's situation is far worse than it is, she says.

When leaders strengthen their communication skills, they boost their "executive presence," Price adds.

"A leader's No. 1 job is to inspire," she says. "That's really why leaders need to work on communication skills-so they can inspire and motivate, and ultimately lead people in the desired direction."

Dori Meinert is senior writer/editor for HR Magazine.

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How to Improve Leaders' Communication Skills

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​As a leader, you might be an expert in your field. Maybe you have a degree or two. You might even have many innovative ideas that could help solidify your company's future. But if you can't convey those ideas in a meaningful way to your employees and clients, your influence will be limited.

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​The average person makes thousands of decisions each day, and most of them have little lasting impact.

However, decisions made by business leaders can determine whether an organization ultimately succeeds or fails. A glance at recent news articles will show plenty of examples of poor decisions that sent companies into a downward spiral. In fact, there's a 95 percent correlation between companies that excel at effective decision-making and those with strong financial performance, according to research by Bain & Co., a global management consultancy in Boston.

In today's fast-paced and complex business world, leaders must continuously refine their decision-making processes and practices to ensure they stay on the right path.

"A good leader is open-minded and takes into consideration other ideas and points of view," says Jennifer Lee Magas, vice president of Magas Media Consultants in Monroe, Conn., who has a background in HR and employment law. "Having a narrow-minded approach to decision-making can limit your growth as a leader, and you may be missing out on a decision that could actually benefit you and the company."

Because each decision is different, leaders would be wise to choose the appropriate decision-making style for the situation at hand, says Marie Hansen, SHRM-SCP, dean of the College of Business at Husson University in Maine.

"Determining which style to use and when requires an understanding of your authority and role as leader, the expectations of your team, and the types of decisions to be made," Hansen says. "Leaders who remain transparent in the manner in which they make decisions and why they choose different styles, dependent on the type of decision, are able to build trust and respect."

Four commonly recognized decision-making styles are:

Directive. The leader uses his or her knowledge and past experience to reach a decision without seeking information from others. The advantage is that decisions can be reached quickly; the disadvantage is that the leader might not consider the long-term ramifications.

Conceptual. The leader seeks ideas from team members, which encourages creativity and innovation. This style is suited for long-term projects and planning.

Analytical. The leader relies on direct observation, facts and data.

Behavioral. The leader collaborates with others on options and is highly influenced by their feelings and opinions. The downside: If a consensus can't be reached, the leader must choose a different approach.

Key Steps

Incorporating a process or checklist can help strengthen the decision-making skills of C-suite executives.

Financial guru Dave Ramsey, author of EntreLeadership (Howard Books, 2011) who trains leaders on better decision-making, says the key steps include:

Set a deadline. "Procrastination can be avoided by setting a self-imposed deadline," Ramsey says.

Gather many options. "Quality decisions come from having the most options-find them," he says. "Options have the power to remove fear."

Determine the worst-case scenario. "When you emotionally digest the absolute worst-case, you can make the call with a degree of confidence," he says.

Follow your guiding values. "When you have a clear sense of ethics, you can make decisions more easily and quickly," he says.

Understand that inaction is an option. At times, doing nothing is the best choice. "That's different from being paralyzed," Ramsey says. "Deciding not to decide is a decision."

Another important step that leaders sometimes overlook is to review the legal ramifications of their decisions before they render them.

"A lot of the litigation I see, at least in the area of employment law, arises from executives making snap and uninformed decisions," says Nannina Angioni, a labor and employment attorney with Kaedian LLP in Los Angeles.

Seeking legal advice before announcing layoffs, for example, can help reduce the risk of legal troubles, she says.

The Roadblocks

Fear of making the wrong choice, worrying that the decision won't be popular, or being unable to decide altogether are a few of the challenges that executives encounter when they need to make important decisions.

"Fear is the ultimate cause of paralysis, and, just like the squirrel that runs in front of your car and can't decide what he wants to do, fear will get you killed," Ramsey says. "Of course, there will be times when you're afraid. Just don't allow indecisiveness due to fear."

'Leaders who remain transparent in the manner in which they make decisions and why they choose different styles, dependent on the type of decision, are able to build trust and respect.'
Ma rie Hansen, SHRM-SCP

Such delays can cost an organization "first to market" position and have lasting consequences, says Larry Mietus, founder of Speaking of Strategy, a consultancy in Buffalo, N.Y.

"When your heart, brain and gut tell you that you've got about 80 percent of the data collected ... make a decision," he advises.

On the other hand, leaders who are overconfident and don't seek other opinions can create problems as well. When a business leader offers his opinion before soliciting input from others, other team members are likely to be reluctant to offer different ideas. As a result, innovation and creativity could be stifled, Mietus says.

Heather Ishikawa, senior vice president of Caliper, a human capital analytics company in Princeton, N.J., warns that confirmation bias can occur when leaders seek only information that confirms their beliefs and dismiss information that does not.

While input from the group is a worthy goal, holding out for consensus is often a bad idea, says Jim Hauden, author of What Are Your Blind Spots? Conquering the 5 Misconceptions that Hold Leaders Back (McGraw-Hill, 2018).

"We shouldn't need a vote," Hauden says. "We want the wisdom of the group to lead us to the right path. While the decision-making process does culminate in a decision, it's the art of co-thinking and synthesizing together that yields the most powerful results."

Of course, having a process alone doesn't ensure that leaders will make the right decisions, ones that will benefit their organizations over the long run.

"Empathy plays a pretty significant role in good decision-making because leaders need to actually care if their decisions have a positive impact," says Helen McPherson, founder of McPherson Consulting Group Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas.

Trust Your Intuition

In the end, the best decisions involve a mix of knowledge, intuition and a willingness to take a bit of risk-some of which has to be developed over time through experience.

For this reason, Greg Githens, author of How to Think Strategically (Maven House, 2019), likens decision-​making to an art form rather than a process. Leaders need to develop insight.

"It is the insight that allows them to effectively cut through all the data-noise," Githens says, "so that they can recognize the 'crux of the matter' and make good strategic and tactical decisions."
Dawn Onley is a freelance writer based in Frederick, Md. illustration by Michael Morgenstern for HR Magazine.

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​The average person makes thousands of decisions each day, and most of them have little lasting impact. However, decisions made by business leaders can determine whether an organization ultimately succeeds or fails. A glance at recent news articles will show plenty of examples of poor decisions that sent companies into a downward spiral.

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Though advancing employees with leadership skills is essential for the future success of a business, a recent survey shows more than half of businesses lack employees with the ability to lead. ¹

Obtaining leadership skills on the job is challenging, which is why more employees are turning to online programs like Lewis University's Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership to enhance their career advancement and workplace skills.

Here are five organizational leadership skills that leaders need to succeed in today's business world:

1. Leading People

Seventy-three percent of businesses surveyed by the Center for Creative Leadership say leading people is the most vital skill needed in the workplace. ² To lead authentically, a manager must be able to direct and motivate a team.

Leaders should identify the strengths of each individual, empowering employees and delegating responsibilities accordingly. Fostering a communication-rich environment and providing opportunities for employees to succeed are among the skills every business wants.

2. Strategic Decision-Making

No matter what the business climate, a leader must be able to make decisions that reflect the best interests of a company's short-term and long-term goals. In ideal situations, leaders take time to weigh options, consider consequences and stand by their decisions once made.

A strategic decision-maker may rely on team members and others with specific expertise to help support their decisions, using the resources available to make choices in the best interest of the business.

3. Conflict Management

Leaders have to manage conflict in the workplace, which can be a formidable task in some industries. Resolving conflict is about more than choosing sides; it is about weighing the priorities of the parties involved, resolving the situation in an effective way, and learning from the experience as a whole.

Efficient conflict management is not just a valued skill, it is a cost-saving measure. Conflicts can lead to high employee turnover, which is a financial burden to a business.

Statistics from the Center for American Progress show the cost to replace a mid-level employee making $40,000-$50,000 is 20 percent of that salary. ³ All the more reason companies want leaders who can manage and resolve conflicts quickly.

4. Participative Management

Companies are not looking for leaders who rule from afar and hand down decisions without collaboration. Progressive business models show participative management, where employees are involved in the decision-making process, can greatly benefit a business.

By being included in the planning, design, and execution phases of a business, employees are more motivated, productive and creatively fulfilled. ⁴

5. Challenging the Status Quo

To promote growth, businesses must go beyond the status quo. A leader must reflect on the company's goals and employ critical thinking skills and reflection to find innovative ways to elevate the business.

By developing a company culture that promotes creative and abstract thinking, a leader can draw upon his or her work environment for inspiration to offer new solutions to improve productivity and revenue. Change leadership is a fundamental skill for leaders today. ⁵
Students can obtain all these skills in the online Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership at Lewis University. Through this program, students can target their leadership skills through five unique concentrations and three graduate certificates. With the education acquired, students can advance their careers and develop leadership skills to achieve their professional goals.
References
¹ Ernst and Young Survey: http://www.ey.com/GL/en/Issues/Talent-management/How-companies-use-teams-to-drive-performance
² Center for Creative Leadership: http://www.hreonline.com/pdfs/02012010Extra_CLCStudy.pdf
³ Center for American Progress: https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/CostofTurnover.pdf
⁴ Reference for Business: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/index.html
⁵ Jim Collins: http://www.jimcollins.com

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Top 5 Organizational Leadership Skills Leaders Need

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Though advancing employees with leadership skills is essential for the future success of a business, a recent survey shows more than half of businesses lack employees with the ability to lead. Read the five organizational leadership skills that leaders need to succeed in today's business world.

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The Principal's Role in the Instructional Process: Implications for At-Risk Students - Issues ...about Change, The Principal's Role in the Instructional Process: Implications for At-Risk Students, Volume 1, Number 3

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In schools where at-risk students are achieving at high levels, principals structure time to evaluate and monitor students' progress, and lead staff efforts in designing focused instructional approaches to meet the special and specific needs of students. They work in concert with the teachers to review, modify, and adjust their instructional efforts.

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Spread the loveThere are four major styles of leadership which apply well in the educational setting. While each of these styles has its good points, there is a wide berth of variation, and in fact, transformational leadership is truly an amalgamation of the best attributes of the other three.

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Posted February 11, 2016 | By Tricia Hussung

Good communication skills are crucial when it comes to success in the business world. When members of a company are able to work together effectively, chances are it stems from being able to communicate well. How employees within a company interact determines whether projects will run smoothly or be fraught with challenges.

This is where leadership comes in, and good leaders must also be excellent communicators. Because they interact with every team and a large number of employees, how a leader communicates sets the tone for the rest of the organization. Throughout history, the greatest leaders have also been motivators, able to encourage others to work toward a common goal. Think of Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill, arguably two of the most effective leaders in history. Though they approached challenges in different ways, both excelled at communication.

"When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that 'a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.'"
-Abraham Lincoln

If you have experience in the modern workplace, you know that good communication makes business processes run smoothly. Despite having several different departments carrying out their own deliverables, successful organizations are able to ensure separate teams work together as a unit through clear communication. And in terms of service quality, the lines of communication must be open between a company and its customers. It is vital to interact frequently with clients in order to meet their needs and constantly improve services based on feedback.

Yet another area in which communication plays an important role is in internal relations. All organizations have a hierarchy in place, with executives at the top and employees existing in a set structure below. To create an inclusive atmosphere, companies should have good communication from the most important C-level position to more entry-level roles. Open lines of communication help to create a positive atmosphere, one that allows internal problems to be addressed with minimal fallout.

Qualities of Good Business Communication

So what makes for good communication? In the business world, it is all about getting your point across. "Good communication means the intended message you send is received by your audience without any distortions in meaning," according to an article from Chron Small Business. Of course, this definition can apply just as easily to personal communication as it does to communication in a professional context. Clarity is the most important aspect of successful communication, because it helps "get the job done well, on time and on budget," the article explains. "The boss or team member who can communicate objectives, reasoning and step-wise tasks in a concise and coherent manner contributes more to a company's success that one who does not. These communicators are highly valued in today's complex and competitive business world, and are often earmarked for promotion and increased responsibility."

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, it's also what it takes to sit down and listen."
-Winston Churchill

Today, we can communicate with coworkers and leadership in more ways than ever before. In fact, what once may have taken a 30-minute phone conversation to relay can now be said instantly in a series of text messages. The ubiquity of modern communication has made it even more important to convey thoughts and ideas effectively. We have all experienced a miscommunication due to shades of meaning or tone that were lost due to digital communication. (There really should be a sarcasm font.) Good communication is simple and easy to understand, two traits that can be difficult to achieve. However, it is possible to hone and develop better communication skills through study. This is one of the key skill areas that are covered in most high-quality MBA programs, for example.

How to Communicate Effectively

Four Strategies for Success

Though there are many strategies for successful communication, all of them work toward a common goal: transparency. According to Forbes, statistics show that companies with happy, loyal staff share transparency as a common corporate principle. The ease of sharing knowledge and data ranks high with employees for job satisfaction; in fact, it's "crucial to building trust in the workplace." Employees at all levels perform better when companies have a distinct vision and a culture of straightforward communication. Leaders can achieve this in a variety of ways, from providing clear expectations for work quality to being open about pay grade. Just as it is important for businesses to be transparent with their customers about product quality and services rendered, employees seek the same kind of transparency from their employers. Fostering clear, accessible communication is one way that business leaders can create a culture of success.

"To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful."
- Edward R. Murrow

Another way to develop excellent communication skills is through active listening. This type of listening requires you to "make a conscious effort to hear not only the words that another person is saying but, more importantly, try to understand the complete message being sent," Mind Tools says. To practice active listening, the first step is to pay close attention to the person with whom you are speaking. Try not to get distracted by your own thoughts or what is going on around you. Signal to the other person that you are listening, processing and understanding the points they are trying to convey by nodding the head or using phrases such as, "Right," and "I understand," throughout the conversation. Using these signals serves the dual purpose of letting the other person know you are paying attention while reminding yourself to stay tuned in. Other active listening tactics include asking occasional questions or commenting on particularly good points.

Cultivating emotional intelligence is another helpful communication strategy. This concept is rooted in our ability to "understand, interpret, and respond to the emotions of others," according to Psychology Today. This communication technique is so important that some experts suggest it may be more important than IQ. Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to "the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions." It was introduced by Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer in 1990. These two experts defined EI as "the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions." Salovey and Mayer identified four different facets of emotional intelligence: the perception of emotion (understanding nonverbal signals such as body language), the ability to reason using emotions (using emotions to prioritize what we pay attention to and interact with), the ability to understand emotion (interpreting the causes of shown emotion) and the ability to manage emotion (responding appropriately to the emotions of others).

"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen."
- Ernest Hemingway

Finally, asking good questions is a key part of effective communication. When you ask the right questions in a particular situation, you open up possibilities for better understanding and information exchange. Mind Tools points out that you can gather better information, learn more, build stronger relationships, manage people more effectively and help others learn. Some common questioning techniques include open questions, closed questions, funnel questions and probing questions.

Closed questions require a single word or very short answer, often "yes" or "no." These questions are good for testing your understanding or making a decision. Open questions, on the other hand, elicit longer answers. They usually begin with words like what, why and how. This type of question invites the respondent to participate by adding information, opinions or feelings to the conversation. Funnel questions start with the general and move toward more specific answers. Usually, funnel questions start with closed questions and progress to open questions. They are ideal for finding out more detail. And probing questions are another way to find out more information. They are most often used to clarify, and include words like exactly, actually and so.

Becoming a Better Communicator With CSP

Communication is essential. Verbal, written or visual, communication keeps the business world going. Serial entrepreneur and innovator Richard Branson puts it like this: "Communication is the most important skill any leader can possess." But while this skill is critical, it also can be elusive. For many, communication seems like a gift. In reality, it is a skill that can be learned through education and practice.

If you are looking to master communication and become a better leader, consider Concordia University, St. Paul's online Master of Arts in Strategic Communication. This degree program is designed to help you create solutions to communication challenges using strategic thinking and logical analysis. It is ideal for those who have professional experience or career interests in corporate communication, public relations or other management functions. You can learn more about this responsive, relevant and real program here.

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Communication Strategies for Great Leadership

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Posted February 11, 2016 | By Tricia Hussung Good communication skills are crucial when it comes to success in the business world. When members of a company are able to work together effectively, chances are it stems from being able to communicate well.