Because communication is everything (or almost everything)

Picture this scene: the head of a team walks into the office, ready to share a new project with co-workers. He has a plan in mind, some ideas on how to carry it out, and a lot of enthusiasm. Yet, when he starts talking, he notices puzzled or blank stares. Someone huffs, someone else keeps looking at their cell phone. At the end of the meeting, he realizes that almost no one really grasped the meaning of what he wanted to convey. What went wrong?

The answer is quite simple: communication. This element, often taken for granted, is actually one of the fundamental pillars for any leader who wishes to inspire and motivate his or her team. We are not just talking about “passing information,” but about creating an emotional and strategic channel through which people can feel involved, listened to, and, as a result, driven to take purposeful action.

Being a leader, in fact, does not just mean having a nice title on your business card or having a bigger office. It means being able to lead, and leading necessarily means communicating: giving clear direction, nurturing motivation and building trust. If communication fails, everything else falls apart: goals become fuzzy, employees do not feel empowered, and overall performance drops.

In the following pages (and in future insights), we will explore in depth the different aspects of communication for a successful leader. We will see how to cultivate active listening skills, how to create high-impact messages, how to manage the emotional component in teams, and how to turn communication into a real tool for multiplying people’s potential. Because whether you are dealing with a small team or an entire organization, the basic principles remain the same: communication is the engine that ignites the spark of leadership.

Before we delve into practical tips and strategies, it is important to keep two key concepts in mind. The first: communicating is not just talking, but also – and most importantly – knowing how to listen. The second: a leader’s communication is never neutral. It has the power to ignite enthusiasm or to extinguish any passion. To create a sense of belonging or to generate frustration. The good news? We can train, improve and discover that communicating better, after all, also means becoming better people.

The role of communication in leadership: beyond words

When we think of the word “communication,” we often imagine simply the exchange of jokes between two or more people. In reality, communication is much more: it includes nonverbal language (gestures, facial expressions, posture), tone of voice, the ability to listen deeply and interpret what the other person is conveying to us.

For a leader, communication is the bridge between strategic vision and concrete team action. If there is no clarity about where you want to go, who is doing what, and why, employees get lost in a flood of doubts and half-information. And an interesting vision or ambitious goal can remain a dead letter because it lacks translation into understandable and engaging messages.

Think, for example, of a company that wants to launch a new product in record time. The leader has a clear idea in mind, knows that the market is ripe, but does not invest enough time in explaining to the team what steps need to be taken and what strategic role each person plays within the project. The result is a generalized confusion, in which some collaborators proceed by hypothesis, others wait for more precise instructions (which do not come), and still others – just to feel useful – begin to deal with activities that are perhaps useless or even counterproductive to the success of the launch. All this results in slowdowns, frustrations and, inevitably, in a product that comes out late or with features that do not meet market needs.

In contrast, a leader who knows how to communicate effectively organizes a brief initial meeting in which he or she explains, in clear words and a passionate tone, the ultimate goal (“We want to gain 10 percent market share in six months!”), the motivation (“The market is ready and we can really stand out with our skills!”) , and the concrete actions (“Luca will take care of the user research part, Marta will manage the product design, Marco will take care of the contacts with the first pilot customers…”). This clear communication shapes an overall picture in which everyone feels important and oriented toward the same goal.

Let us also not forget that a leader’s communication must have an emotional element. People are motivated not just because “it’s right to do it” or because “someone decided it,” but because they feel involved and are able to connect their individual aspirations with a common goal. A good communicator knows how to strike deep chords, appealing to values, personal challenges and the desire to grow. And in a business context, this can make the difference between a team that works “because it has to” and a team that works “because it believes.”

 

Anna Tagliapietra holds a degree in International Communication from the University for Foreigners in Perugia, Italy, and a Master’s degree in Marketing and Business Communication.

To date, he is a Lean Six Sigma consultant and is involved in consulting and training in marketing and strategic communication at large industrial entities as well as for SMEs. She specializes in Lean Office for business process improvement and the application of Lean Six Sigma methodology to transactional processes. He also teaches learning techniques, speed reading, body language, sales techniques and public speaking.

To find out more about upcoming courses taught by the lecturer go here!