lead workplace communication essay

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How Great Leaders Communicate

• Carmine Gallo

Four strategies to motivate and inspire your team.

Transformational leaders are exceptional communicators. In this piece, the author outlines four communication strategies to help motivate and inspire your team: 1) Use short words to talk about hard things. 2) Choose sticky metaphors to reinforce key concepts. 3) Humanize data to create value. 4). Make mission your mantra to align teams.

In the age of knowledge, ideas are the foundation of success in almost every field. You can have the greatest idea in the world, but if you can’t persuade anyone else to follow your vision, your influence and impact will be greatly diminished. And that’s why communication is no longer considered a “soft skill” among the world’s top business leaders. Leaders who reach the top do not simply pay lip service to the importance of effective communication. Instead, they study the art in all its forms — writing, speaking, presenting — and constantly strive to improve on those skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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Why Is Workplace Communication Important? And How to Improve It

The ability to exchange information and ideas at work is an essential skill in many roles. Learn more about what makes workplace communication so important and how to improve your communication skills.

Workplace communication is the exchange of information between employees in a work environment. This includes face-to-face conversations, emails, chat messages, videoconferencing, phone calls, and other methods used to convey information in the workplace. Nonverbal communication like eye contact, body language, and tone of voice are also important aspects of workplace communication.

Why is communication important in the workplace?

Good communication in the workplace ensures employees have the information they need to perform well, builds a positive work environment, and eliminates inefficiencies. Effective communication should accurately convey information while maintaining or improving human relationships.

Miscommunication has real consequences for a business. A survey conducted by Expert Market found that 28 percent of employees listed poor communication as the reason why they weren’t able to finish projects on time [ 1 ]. Miscommunication costs businesses with at least 100 employees approximately $450,000 or more a year on average [ 2 ].

How has COVID-19 changed what workplace communication looks like?

COVID-19 has made many jobs remote-friendly and accelerated the digitization of communication channels in the workplace. This means there’s more interaction on video conferencing tools like Zoom and messaging channels like Slack or WhatsApp. 

In some cases, this has also meant a shift in communication culture. Some organizations have started to move away from traditional top-down approaches to more lateral communication styles where employees are encouraged to participate in cross-company conversations. 

How to improve communication in the workplace

Workplace communication starts at the individual but doesn’t stop there. Work culture, technology, and protocols can all play into how effective communication is in your workplace.

Here are some ways you can improve workplace communication:

1. Work on individual communication skills.

Communicating effectively with coworkers is key to having a positive experience at work. If you’re trying to bolster your communication skills as an individual, here are a few things to keep in mind as you interact with coworkers:

Pay attention to nonverbal cues. Tone and body language can convey a lot that words don’t. As you’re speaking with somebody, pay attention to your tone and body language and your partner’s. Tone can be harder to discern in text-based communications. If you struggle to understand somebody’s email or chat communication, suggest an alternative method such as video conferencing or meeting in person.

Listen. Communication goes both ways. Practice active listening by internalizing what you hear and paying attention to the intent and emotion behind what you’re being told. 

Provide constructive feedback. Being a part of a team means everybody’s work should be respected. If you’re providing feedback, keep a balance between what’s working and what can be improved.

Participate in meetings. Come to meetings prepared by reviewing the agenda or previous notes to understand what’s being discussed, and start thinking about how you can contribute. Pay attention to what’s being said, take notes if you need to, and ask relevant questions.

If you’re a manager, you might consider a communication skills workshop for your team.

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2. Understand which method to use.

Not every issue deserves its own meeting. When you have something to communicate, consider its importance, urgency, and complexity, and pick the right channel accordingly. Have a simple team reminder? A quick group message or email can get the point across. Need to learn or teach somebody how to use a tool? A face-to-face meeting might be the better method. It can be a good idea to establish team-wide practices about when to use which channel of communication.

If your workplace needs some technological updates, consider approaching your manager to see if the organization is willing to invest in some. Plenty of chat platforms, email providers, and video conferencing tools can significantly improve communication flow.

3. Make meetings efficient.

Research indicates that only 50 percent of time spent in meetings is considered a good use of time by attendees [ 3 ]. The good news? There are probably several ways to improve how meetings are run in your organization.

Here are some best practices to make meetings efficient and effective:

Set an agenda and goals for each meeting. Try to avoid recycling agendas.

Send out the agenda and other materials that will be discussed, such as presentations, to the team ahead of time, so people have the chance to review them.

Only invite people who need to be invited.

Consider if a meeting is the best way to communicate something in the first place.

Cancel a meeting if it doesn’t need to happen.

Make sure technical equipment is functioning ahead of time.

Start and end meetings on time.

Share out meeting notes afterward.

4. Create an open culture.

Creating a trusting environment is key to good communication in a workplace. People should feel comfortable voicing concerns, asking questions, and contributing their ideas. 

Set up bi-weekly or monthly lunch meetings or activities like happy hours or off-sites to give employees a chance to relax and get to know each other as humans. This can help build trust and create a more supportive work environment. 

Offer different ways of participating. Communication styles can differ from person to person. While some aren’t shy about participating in large meetings, others might prefer to ask questions in text-based forums. Mix up how you receive feedback and ideas to make sure you hear from as many voices as possible.

Involve remote workers. Though remote working has become increasingly common, people still need and want personal human interaction. Chat platforms like Slack can allow informal conversations that connect in-person and remote workers. You can also consider starting remote-friendly office activities, such as a book club.

You don't have to be in a leadership position to create changes in work culture. Start by seeking out these opportunities yourself. Suggest grabbing lunch with coworkers, joining a work club—or starting your own.

5. Schedule regular one-to-one and team meetings.

Recurring meetings can give space for employees to bring up concerns they otherwise wouldn’t know when to bring up. If they aren’t already, suggest setting up one-to-one meetings consistently with your direct supervisor (or direct reports). Consistent team meetings can also allow team members to share concerns more widely and solicit input from others.

Though it’s okay to cancel a meeting if there's no agenda, try to refrain from canceling too often. This might erode trust among employees and take away valuable time for employees to surface questions.

Improving communication skills

Communication skills are called skills for a reason—they can be learned and require practice to master. If you’re trying to bring your communication skills to the next level, consider enrolling in a course like Improving Communication Skills from the University of Pennsylvania or Teamwork Skills: Communicating Effectively in Groups from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Article sources

Expert Market. “The Importance of Effective Workplace Communication- Statistics for 2022,  https://www.expertmarket.com/phone-systems/workplace-communication-statistics." Accessed May 23, 2022.

Debra Hamilton.  “ Top 10 Email Blunders That Cost Companies Money,     https://fliphtml5.com/eadm/btcd/basic.” Accessed May 23, 2022.

Forbes. “Half Of All Meetings Are a Waste of Time-Here’s How To Improve Them ,   https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterhigh/2019/11/25/half-of-all-meetings-are-a-waste-of-timeheres-how-to-improve-them/?sh=1f2844ef2ea9." Accessed May 23, 2022.

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8 Essential Leadership Communication Skills

• 14 Nov 2019

If you want to be an effective leader , you need to excel in communication. In fact, the success of your business relies on it.

According to a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit (pdf) , poor communication can lead to low morale, missed performance goals, and even lost sales. A separate study found that inadequate communication can cost large companies an average of $64.2 million per year, while smaller organizations are at risk of losing $420,000 annually.

But effective communication impacts more than just the bottom line. For leaders, it’s what enables them to rally their team around a shared vision, empower employees , build trust, and successfully navigate organizational change .

Why Is Communication Important in Leadership?

A leader is someone who inspires positive, incremental change by empowering those around them to work toward common objectives. A leader’s most powerful tool for doing so is communication.

Effective communication is vital to gain trust, align efforts in the pursuit of goals, and inspire positive change. When communication is lacking, important information can be misinterpreted, causing relationships to suffer and, ultimately, creating barriers that hinder progress.

If you’re interested in enhancing your leadership capabilities, here are eight communication skills you need to be more effective in your role.

Essential Communication Skills for Leaders

1. ability to adapt your communication style.

Different communication styles are the most frequently cited cause of poor communication, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (pdf) , and can lead to more significant issues, such as unclear priorities and increased stress.

It’s essential to identify your leadership style , so that you can better understand how you’re interacting with, and perceived by, employees across the organization. For example, if you’re an authoritative leader , you likely have a clear vision for achieving success and align your team accordingly. While an effective approach for some, it might fall flat for others who seek more autonomy in their role.

Every employee’s motivations are different, so knowing how to tailor your communication is essential to influencing others and reaching organizational goals.

Related: 4 Tips for Developing Your Personal Leadership Style

2. Active Listening

Effective leaders know when they need to talk and, more importantly, when they need to listen. Show that you care by asking for employees’ opinions, ideas, and feedback. And when they do share, actively engage in the conversation—pose questions, invite them to elaborate, and take notes.

It’s important to stay in the moment and avoid interrupting. Keep your focus on the employee and what it is they’re saying. To achieve that, you also need to eliminate any distractions, including constant pings on your cell phone or checking incoming emails.

3. Transparency

In a survey by the American Management Association , more than a third of senior managers, executives, and employees said they “hardly ever” know what’s going on in their organizations. Transparency can go a long way in breaking down that communication barrier.

By speaking openly about the company’s goals, opportunities, and challenges, leaders can build trust amongst their team and foster an environment where employees feel empowered to share their ideas and collaborate. Just acknowledging mistakes can encourage experimentation and create a safe space for active problem-solving.

Every individual should understand the role they play in the company’s success. The more transparent leaders are, the easier it is for employees to make that connection.

When communicating with employees, speak in specifics. Define the desired result of a project or strategic initiative and be clear about what you want to see achieved by the end of each milestone. If goals aren’t being met, try simplifying your message further or ask how you can provide additional clarity or help.

The more clear you are, the less confusion there will be around priorities. Employees will know what they’re working toward and feel more engaged in the process.

5. Ability to Ask Open-Ended Questions

If you want to understand employees’ motivations, thoughts, and goals better, practice asking open-ended questions. Jennifer Currence, president of consulting firm The Currence Group, said to the Society of Human Resource Management to use the acronym TED, which stands for:

• “ T ell me more.”
• “ E xplain what you mean.”
• “ D efine that term or concept for me.”

By leveraging those phrases when speaking with your team, you can elicit more thoughtful, thorough responses and ensure you also have clarity around what they need from you to succeed.

There’s a reason empathy has been ranked the top leadership skill needed for success . The better you get at acknowledging and understanding employees’ feelings and experiences, the more heard and valued they’ll feel.

In a recent survey (pdf) , 96 percent of respondents said it was important for their employers to demonstrate empathy, yet 92 percent claimed it remains undervalued. If you want to improve your communication and build a stronger, more productive culture, practice responding with empathy.

Related: Emotional Intelligence Skills: What They Are & How to Develop Them

7. Open Body Language

Communication isn’t just what you say; it’s how you carry yourself. Ninety-three percent of communication’s impact comes from nonverbal cues, according to executive coach Darlene Price .

To ensure you’re conveying the right message, focus on your body language. If you’re trying to inspire someone, talking with clenched fists and a furrowed brow isn’t going to send the right message. Instead, make eye contact to establish interest and rapport and flash a genuine smile to convey warmth and trust.

8. Receiving and Implementing Feedback

Asking for feedback from your team can not only help you grow as a leader, but build trust among your colleagues. It’s critical, though, that you don’t just listen to the feedback. You also need to act on it.

If you continue to receive feedback from your team, but don’t implement any changes, they’re going to lose faith in your ability to follow through. It’s likely there will be comments you can’t immediately act on—be transparent about that. By letting your employees know they were heard and then apprising them of any progress you can, or do, make, they’ll feel as though you value their perspective and are serious about improving.

Related: How to Give Feedback Effectively

Improving Your Leadership Communication

Communication is at the core of effective leadership. If you want to influence and inspire your team, you need to practice empathy and transparency, and understand how others perceive you, through your verbal and non-verbal cues.

To improve your communication skills and become a better leader, begin by assessing your effectiveness so you can identify areas for improvement. Then, set goals and hold yourself accountable by creating a leadership development plan to guide and track your progress.

Do you want to enhance your leadership skills? Download our free leadership e-book and explore our online course Leadership Principles to discover how you can become a more effective leader and unleash the potential in yourself and others.

(This post was updated on June 16, 2020. It was originally published on November 14, 2019.)

About the Author

The Power of Good Communication in the Workplace

Good communication is an important skill in any environment with human interactions. However, when it comes to communication in the workplace, good communication is an integral element to business success.

In the workplace, good communication isn’t just about mitigating conflict (although that is an important benefit of communicating effectively). Good communication is also an important factor in client relationships, profitability, team effectiveness, and employee engagement .

4 Powerful Benefits of Workplace Communication

1 – good communication mitigates conflict.

One of the times an organization is most likely to seek communication training is when there’s clear tension or conflict in the workplace. Regardless of the conflict, communication is usually an underlying factor.

Conflict typically comes down to:

Misunderstanding/feeling misunderstood. Even when someone feels like they are communicating well, if the person to whom they’re speaking has a different communication pattern then there may be a misunderstanding. With communication tools such as identifying communication patterns and making small communication adjustments, new information can be dispensed in a way that is easy and clear to understand, and the listener can better communicate their understanding.

Not understanding how others communicate. Miscommunication also comes down to communication patterns. When someone hasn’t undergone an individual or team communication program, they default to presenting information using their own communication pattern instead of considering the communication pattern of the receiver.

Someone feeling their emotional needs is not being met or are being disregarded. If an employee feels disrespected, taken advantage of, or disregarded, then it may lead to tension or conflict. A better-communicating team lays the groundwork for expressing and understanding needs, which also increases employee engagement and performance.

Explore Communication Workshops

Explore in-person & virtual workplace communication workshops for teams, individuals, & leaders.

2 – Good Communication Increases Employee Engagement

Communicating is more than just talking. It’s about connecting with people . One of the most powerful benefits of better communication in the workplace is more engaged employees. Employees are more engaged in their work and can better align with company objectives and goals when a culture of good communication is established in a team or workplace.

Communication can improve employee engagement in the following ways:

• Gives you tools to better understand the needs and goals of your employees.
• Allows you to better understand what motivates and fulfills the employee.
• Better understanding of employees’ talents and skills that may otherwise go unnoticed.
• Ability to cultivate talents and skills in a way that develops them in line with company goals.
• Improved connection between co-workers for a more positive and satisfying work environment.
• Better relationship with managers and leaders 

3 – Good Communication Creates Better Client Relationships

This one is a biggie if you have client-facing employees since client interactions are usually the difference between a satisfied customer and a disgruntled one. When your employees are trained to communicate more effectively and to connect with others they can better:

• Mitigate and resolve conflict
• Understand needs
• Help the customer feel understood
• Present new information in a way in which the client will be more receptive

4 – Good Communication Results in a More Productive & Talented Workforce

Employee engagement is a significant factor in the productivity of a workforce. But besides contributing to increased employee engagement, communication skills can also help foster a more productive and talented workforce in many other ways:

Understanding team talents & skills. In a company culture focused on connecting with others, managers better understand the talents and skills of their workforce. Some communication patterns aren’t forthcoming with their talents and skills, or express them in ways a fast-paced or high-level-thinking communicator won’t naturally notice. Mastering the identification of communication patterns empowers a leader to better understand the skills and talents of their team.

Achieving more buy-in. With the right communication tools, a leader can influence initiative buy-in from their team.

Innovation and creative thought. A workplace that communicates more effectively establishes a “safe” place for people to think creatively and express their ideas. It helps employees feel more comfortable taking ownership for challenges and projects, and typically results in more creative brainstorming or problem-solving initiatives.

More strategic team building. Understanding communication patterns gives a leader more information about their employees, and often information they would have otherwise overlooked. This powerful insight lets the leader make more strategic decisions on delegation, employee development, team development, and strategic initiatives to drive business success.

What’s the Bottom Line?

The bottom line is that good communication isn’t just about being able to more accurately and concisely present information and ideas. It’s also not just about mitigating conflict or creating a more positive team environment. Communication is integral to sales, client relationships, team development, company culture, employee engagement and buy-in, and innovative thought.

Get Started

Are you ready to bring good communication to your workplace? Leadership Choice’s award-winning Connecting With People program can help. This business communication training workshop can bring positive communication mindsets and strategies to your company. Elevating the way your employees communicate can not only increase productivity, but also increase profitability and employee engagement.

Learn more about this communication workshop by clicking “learn more” below, or contact us for more information about how our experts can bring the power of good communication to your workplace.

Pat Bosworth

Founder and CEO Patrick effectively coaches leaders at all levels and across a number of industries with a pragmatic, consultative approach. Previously, he was vice president with Right Management and held other senior OD and development positions in manufacturing and the professional services Industries. He holds an M.S. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Lamar University.

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How Communication Affects Leadership Essay

Focus of study, literature review, study proposal.

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This paper sought evidence in support of the theory that communication can make or unmake leaders in organizations. The lines of communication between management and followers in an organization must be open, clear and free from uncertainty, or the risk for the organization to work at cross purposes will be high. Whatever the type of organization – profit or non-profit, business or community-based, public or private, military or civilian – effective communication is considered essential for organizational success.

The leaders must communicate effectively with the people below them in order for the latter to participate efficiently in the pursuit of their organizational goals. However, research shows that communication between leaders and followers is often led astray by sociological and psychological factors that prevent business communication from going around the organization in the sense that it was intended.

For example, employees will likely give less importance to a department head’s message if it is contained in a memo littered with misspellings and grammatical errors. The same effect will be reached if the boss verbally communicates with culturally diverse employees by using words and phrases that are harmless in the culture of one employee but offensive in another. The paper discusses all the reasons and circumstances that make good communication skills an important ingredient in organizational leadership.

This study aims to examine the effects of communication on leadership for the purpose of determining if communication skill is a leadership quality as important as the ability to inspire and motivate followers and to possess a certain charisma, which are the more commonly known attributes of a leader. Along these lines, the paper seeks to resolve the issues on whether one needs to be able to communicate and write clearly to be a good leader, what conditions in an organization prevent leaders from being understood by followers when they communicate a vital work assignment, and how important is effective communication in helping an organization achieve its goals.

Justification

The role played by communication in organizational success is an interesting subject for study because it can negate the popular perception that the ability to lead is only about exceptional people-handling skills. This reflects in the curriculum content of leadership training programs such as MBA, where the focus is more on accounting, marketing and financial skills and less on communication courses. Evidence is gathered for this paper to support the argument that business schools and other leadership training programs should emphasize communication skills for future leaders.

The paper discusses the role of communication in leadership based on a literature review of 10 research materials dealing on the subject, which consist of at least two books and eight journal articles. The books are those expressing the views of Guirdham (1999) and Deetz, et al. (2000), which relate communication to financial performance, business organizations in transition and cultural diversity in corporations.

As for the journal articles, they deal with various types of organizations and include Bacal (2006), Cornelissen, et al. (2006), Juholin (2006), Luss & Nyce (2004), Alsop (2008), Van Acker (1997) and Firgon & Jackson (1996). The paper is structured such that the literature review is followed by details on the study proposal, which identifies the proposed methodology, research procedures and samples, analysis and possible limitations.

Research Review

Communication is an integral part of leadership and should be incorporated in a leader’s range of abilities for him to be effective in his leadership role. This is the thesis of Luss & Nyce (2004), who proceed to list the connections between the financial performance of a business organization and effective communication.

Juholin (2006) agrees, saying leaders are expected to ensure that their followers act in concert and with a single-minded purpose to meet the organization’s objectives. For this reason, the article suggests standards for the making the flow of organizational communication smooth and more effective.

In the collective view of Cornelissen, et al. (2006), corporate communications become more damaging than helpful to organizations if they are taken in a different context or misunderstood by employees. When this happens, the message is prevented from flowing through the different channels in the organization.

According to Patterson, et al. (2006), to be a great leader, one must be a great communicator who can articulate his vision and ideas clearly and effectively. He chooses his words carefully and bases them on the culture of the people he is speaking to. The email and instant message culture also engendered leaders that send written communications in abbreviated and often ungrammatical style. When placed in key leadership roles in organizations, these people with poor communication skills are likely to be more of a liability than an asset.

Alsop (2009) believes that graduate schools should give equal emphasis to technical skills and communication courses. Nothing that few business leaders today write coherent memos or letters, the author argues that effective communication skills are a prerequisite for outstanding business leaders. Leaders are expected to be visionaries who can inspire and motivate people and drive change in an organization.

To do so, they must display such well-known leadership qualities as integrity, honesty, empathy and the willingness to take risks for the good of the organization and its people. In business management schools, future business leaders are also developed by instilling in them strong foundations on such skills as accounting, marketing, strategy and financials. However, management studies find recent MBA graduates wanting in communication skill, which is as important as other business fundamentals.

People in organizations spend over 75 percent of their time in an interpersonal situation, says Van Acker (1997). Thus, it is no surprise to find that at the root of a large number of organizational problems is poor communication. For human communication to be high in quality or effective, it must take into accoun t not only the choice of language but also the movement of vocal cords, the reception of sound and its translation into neural signals, syntactic and phonological processing

Guirdham (1999) believes that everyday communication is seldom perfect because of the presence of “noise” that interferes with the communication process. This noise may come in the form of language or people’s different perceptions of words. There are just no two people who would attribute exactly the same shade and meaning to the same words. For example, a leader who has been in the temperate countries accomplishes nothing if he communicates his thrill and excitement at skiing and romping on the snow to another person who has stayed all his life in the tropics. The other forms of noise are: unreliable and inconsistent message, receiver distortion, power struggles, self-fulfilling assumptions, cultural differences, and interpersonal relations.

As for Deetz, et al. (2000), communication is a challenge for leaders dealing with multi-cultural employees. The Japanese, for example, have the work practice of handling problems among themselves, such that they would discuss the solution to their American counterparts, but not the steps required to implement that solution. Also, the Japanese staff is likely to send the relevant report direct to Japan without showing to their American co-workers. In this work setting, a breakdown in business communication is certainly unavoidable.

Bacal (2006) suggests practical techniques of transmission to improve organizational communication between leaders and followers. The communicator may start by asking open-ended questions or prompting the receiver for specifics by posing close-ended questions. For example, a member of the work team who had done well before now turns in delayed and ill-prepared reports. The communicator, instead of telling the subject right away that he has turned into a liability to the team, may complement him first for the excellent job he has done before and then asks why the change. Another tack is to ask the subject if he has any problem at home or at work that distracts his attention. Throughout the entire process, it is suggested that the communicator encourage dialogue through eye contact and body expressions, state his understanding of what the other is saying, and summarize the key points as the conversation goes along.

On the part of Firgon Sr. & Jackson Jr. (1996), a leader who cannot communicate effectively cannot lead at all. In the leadership process, it is crucial to communicate effectively and frequently with everyone involved early on. This process involves one-on-one discussions, presentations to organizations and groups, and communication by every medium possible. Effective communication is especially critical when leaders need to win over a team, gain followers and overcome any perceived resistance to leadership.

The proposed research is expected to confirm that effective communication is a key knowledge that leaders must possess to secure the involvement and participation of their followers in achieving the goals of the organization. One of the research materials (Van Acker, 1997) reveals that 75 percent of the time that people spend in organizations is spent on interpersonal communication to get the work done. However, it has been found that miscommunication often occurs. It is interesting to see how poor communication actually brings organizational problems.

Research Question

In many of the above-named literature materials, little mention is made of actual organizational leaders who are perceived by their followers as poor communicators. Since it is consistently suggested in the literature that people with poor communication skills cannot be good leaders, are there people lacking in these skills who have acquired leadership positions? This, the research intends to find out.

Method Overview

The research will use the quantitative method of research, which requires a variety of tools to exact a mass of data from an equally large number of subjects. With the qualitative method, the focus is on a limited sample of subjects to generate only secondary data. With the chosen method, we can generate both the primary and secondary data to include not only the attitudes and beliefs of the samples but also the bigger picture related to our research question, which is: is leadership exclusive to people with good communication skills? In the field, face-to-face meetings and interviews will be conducted while questionnaires will be sent to others through email, direct mail, telephones and messenger service.

Participants

The target participants will be divided into two groups: one group is composed of senior and mid-level executives involved in the dissemination of communication in their organizations, and two, the rank-and-file under their command.

The interview sessions will be held separately for the two groups. While the encounters with rank-and-file employees may be held in groups, the same process will not be done with the leaders’ group. The reason is that executives may be guarded in their comments if they are with their peers. In the same manner, employees are not expected to speak freely about the management and communication practices of their bosses if the latter are within earshot.

Data Analysis

All the data gathered from the research will be analyzed through the SPSS process to determine correlations and trends.

Study Limitations

The study may be limited to a few business and non-government organizations that are traditionally accommodating to a research of this kind. NGOs are usually accessible to the public but most businesses are reluctant to give away management information in fear of competitors. This problem is expected to be more pronounced in military or government organizations. Thus, the point of view to be gathered for the study may be limited.

Alsop, R.J. (2008). “Communication and Leadership Skills.” The Wall Street Journal Guide to the Business Schools.

Bacal, R. (2006). “Organizational Conflict – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Webpage design. Web.

Cornelissen, J., Bekkum, T. & Ruler, B. (2006). “Corporate Communications: A Practice-Based Theoretical Conceptualization.” Corporate Reputation Review, Vol. 9, No. 2, Palgrave Macmillan.

Deetz, S., Tracy, S. & Simpson, J. (2000). “Leading Organizations through Transition.” London: Thousand Oaks, Sage.

Firgon Sr., N.L. & Jackson Jr., H.K. (1996). “The Three C’s of Leadership.” American Management Association, New York City.

Guirdham, M. (1999). “Communicating across Cultures.” Macmillan Business, Basingstoke.

Juholin, E (2006). “Searching Paradigms for Communication of Work Organizations.” Working Paper 7-2006, Department of Communication, University of Helshinki.

Luss, R. & Nyce, S. (2004). “Connecting Organizational Communications to Financial Performance.” Watson Wyatt. Web.

Patterson, K., Greany, J., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R. & Switzler, A. (2008). “Influencer: The Power to Change Anything.” Part I, IT Managers Inbox.

Van Acker, V. (1997). “Skills related to Effective Interpersonal Communication.” University of Illinois, Chicago.

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IvyPanda . "How Communication Affects Leadership." March 12, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/how-communication-affects-leadership/.

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