I was listening on the radio yesterday to a discussion on leadership fuelled by the recent public critique of Ed Miliband by one of his ‘supporters’. The two ‘expert’ guests were Michael Vaughan, ex-England cricket captain, and a senior ex-military leader. Both shared some thoughts about leadership generally and then both concluded that the single most important thing for leading effectively, be it on the sports field or the battle field, was being a good communicator.
We could emphasise this point and bring it closer to home by asking the question, ‘How many of the challenges, mistakes, people problems and periods of wasted time that you experience are the result of poor communication?’ If the parties involved had communicated excellently right from the outset, how much time, money, upset, angst, frustration and general loss in productivity would have been saved?
And yet, working in the field of leadership and management development, its incredible to find that many have had no formal training in communicating effectively and have no ongoing plan to improve communication throughout their organisations, despite the obvious benefits of doing so.
How about setting a communication goal at the start of 2012?
Could you identify two or three simple ways to improve communication, and a means to track and measure the results?
Because of the importance of this subject, the LMI programmes are packed with useful lessons and tools on communicating more effectively, should you require any assistance.
Nick Howes 