A Look at Leadership

“Communication is the sister of leadership.” - John Adair

A random search for “leadership wordle” and this comes up. You know which word shows up the most? Communication. 
To any leader; up & coming, current, future, past - we know you see the value and logic in that. 

Leadership is very personal and it means something different to each of us. This is a topic and area that is studied at the highest levels and still has people curious as to the secret sauce that makes great leaders, great. Secret sauce? It’s no secret at all, it’s good communication. 

What does “good communication” mean? We can choose from over 5 billion google “hits”.

How many times have you asked yourself, “what did they mean when they said . . .? “ or “why don’t they listen to me? . . . “ or “I told them and they still didn’t get it . . . “ or “they’re the leader and they can’t even tell us what’s going on . . . “. Sound familiar?

Leadership is about relationships

 and relationships are built on communication 

and communication between people is dialogue

 and skilled dialogue is the key to human connection.

And THAT is what leaders need to inspire, to attract, and to empower.

Relationship building or connection to people is what matters in leadership. The good news is, we can build relationships through skilled communication and emotional fitness. Both are key attributes and skill sets for leaders at all levels.  Dialogue skills like active listening, empathy, asking open ended questions, utilizing non- verbal language (our intent) are powerful competencies that need to be built on, developed, coached and need to be treated as continuous study.  When we view dialogue skills as individual skills (like sports drills) we can get better at them singly, then we can start putting them together in conversation. Just like sports, the more you practice skills separately and eventually in combination, the better you perform when you’re in the game. Then each game starts feeling better and better and you start performing better. The same is true with dialogue skills. These skills serve you in good conversations and then, when you're good at them, they start appearing fluidly within your difficult conversations. 

Emotional fitness is another aspect of Leadership that requires focus and study. Just like physical fitness, emotional fitness needs time, energy and dedication. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a good workout toward this fitness goal. 

EI for Leaders is another opportunity for development. It is not static or innate, it can be learned, coached and refined.  A common misconception about EI is that it just talks about “feelings” or is mistaken as therapy. It is not to be feared or judged as therapy. It is a path to growth, to enhancing skills and growing your aptitude for leading people. 

A serious side effect of the growth of dialogue skills and emotional intelligence is competence and confidence in your Leadership. Most importantly, the people part of your job gets more rewarding and far less exhausting. It’s a good investment in YOU.

Becky