Improving Communication Skills for Effective Leadership

Leadership for innovation 1
Introduction
Leadership is the ability of an individual to lead a group of people or an organization. Leadership plays a
significant role in the growth of an individual. The ability to be a good leader opens several doors of
opportunity and growth. A leader is bestowed upon with the responsibility of motivating team
members, guiding them, being their mentor and leading by example (Arnold & Boggs, 2015). There are
several attributes of an individual’s personality that make him or her a good leader. Leadership had
always been important to me as I encountered several leadership roles and opportunities in my life.
These opportunities have shaped my personality for the better. This report throws light upon certain
attributes of my personality that I would like to change in order to be a better leader. Through this
course, I have been able to reflect upon my leadership abilities. This has helped me in identifying my
weaknesses as a leader.
Communication: Relevance, significance and contribution.
The first area of leadership that I would like to make a more effective contribution to is communication.
Communication is a significant aspect of leadership. A great leader must be able to efficiently
communicate with followers. In fact the role of communication within any organization has been largely
underrated. It is now that researchers and experts have been able to understand the significance of
communication in the business.
With time, the business environment as well as organizational cultures are also largely changing. Gone
are the days where businesses were highly centralized and communication was minimum. Today
individual stakeholders of the business are involved in the decision making processes and leaders of the
business cheer for transparency of information throughout the organization (Boies, Fiset & Gill, 2015).
Therefore communication forms the very backbone over which the business functions. This is why it is
imperative that the leaders of the business possess excellent communication skills.
Stakeholder management is a critical responsibility of an organization’s leader. Stakeholders include all
the individuals that are associated with the business. Stakeholders can be external or internal to the
environment. For long term sustainability of any business, it is recommended that the stakeholders of
the business are effectively managed (Bolden, 2016). In order to achieve that, communication is very
important. It is effective communication bridges the gap between stakeholders’ needs and the
organization’s management.

Leadership for innovation 2
Communication as an area of leadership fosters creativity and innovation in the business. It also helps
the leader in dealing with uncertainty and addressing existing issues with effectiveness and efficacy
(Headman, 2016). As mentioned before, organizational cultures are changing. With the advent of
organizational communication and transparency, different stakeholders participate in the decision
making process. During this process, it is only effective and competent communication among the
concerned stakeholders that leads to innovation and creativity in the business (Men, 2014).
Communication breeds ground for people to think out of the box, step out of their comfort zone and
experiment. A new idea introduced by any employee in the business is discussed with the team. The
high levels of decentralization has also allowed employees to debate over new ideas, critically analyse
them and then innovatively implement them in the business. Therefore communication is highly
essential for any organization to remain creative. The leaders of the business must definitely be able to
communicate in a manner that encourages employees to be creative and innovate with new ideas
leading to the growth of the business. Such factors also lead to increased risk appetite of the business as
well as an improved organizational culture.
The team dynamics as well as the group culture is largely dependent on the team’s leader. A leader is
bestowed upon with the responsibility of ensuring a positive team culture and an optimistic working
environment for the entire team (Brandt, 2016). In order to achieve this, conflicts and issues must be
addressed hands on and actions must be taken to resolve the same. Communication again, plays a
significant role in addressing team conflicts. Similarly, an organization is often faced with uncertain
scenarios. During such situations too, transparent communication among team members is highly
important. It helps people in working together with effective coordination and facing the uncertain
situation head on in the most productive and profitable manner. A lack of communication in such
situations would allow the issue to take the better of the business and the impact of the same can be
gigantic. Therefore it is very important that employees of the organization as well as other stakeholders
are encouraged to indulge in transparent communicate with each other. This not only improves business
culture but also helps organizations in facing unexpected situations effectively.
The role of communication in any organization is highly critical. This is why I would surely like to work
upon this ability of mine and improve my communication skills so that as a leader I am able to lead my
team in unexpected situation, in the face of conflict and ensure that my team can coordinate efficiently
and accomplish shared goals. This is why my development goal is to improve my communication skills.
This includes both verbal as well as written communication (Mikkelson, York & Arritola, 2015). As a