The World's Best Managers and Leaders Are the Best Communicators - Essay Example

The world’s best managers and leaders are the world’s best communicators.’ Is this true? Communication is a significant aspect of everyday life. Communication in organisations is extremely vital for success since it is the chief tool that organisations use to achieve coordination (Turne 2003). Organisational communication is achieved by downward, upward and sideways (lateral) communication. Communication is a transaction, which is two way process of reaching mutual understanding. Participants in the communication process exchange information (encoding and decoding), news, feelings and ideas and the share the meaning of that information (Thompson and Frank 2010). Communication is a chief function of management at all levels ranging from the top levels to the lowest management levels. President John Kennedy There is so much power in communication. For instance, in the speech given by President John Kennedy in Berlin in 1963, Kennedy said “today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is bin ein Berliner”. The speech was in a rejoinder to the soviet threat during the cold war era. The words were what the people wanted to hear, and they were swept by a flow of pride and warmth. The speech moved the massive audience as it was made during a desperate context in history. In addition, this communication had an impact since it was given by a great orator, which is a spectacular example of how communication made President Kennedy a renowned leader. Leadership can also be exhibited through communication in less dramatic circumstance, particularly in organizations (Jayarāman 2009). Richard Branson An effective leader in any organization is able to communicate well with employees, customers, suppliers, other companies and stakeholders (Turne 2003). In the context of organisational leadership, Richard Branson of the virgin group is renowned leader in business. Branson is an unquestionable legend in his lifetime. Branson and his name are associated with all virgin businesses, and his leadership has exhibited a unique capability to apply communication skills in management. Richard has been successful in his business career, regardless of the occasional hiccups. Branson is a living proof that leadership and communication are two inseparable things. His success comes from his ability to gain trust and support of partners, bankers, customers and other stakeholders. He demonstrates a democratic leadership style that entails listening to other s and empowering them as well. Branson management does not follow recipes highlighted in text books in his leadership. Although he never graduated from university, Branson leadership leaves a lot to be desired. There is no preset recipe for management according to Branson. One of the management philosophies employed by Branson is communication. He believes that communication is a key tool for motivating workers. In his work schedule, the first thing in the morning is reading emails from various people, and responding top complaints. Richard also sends success stories that he has read to his employees as he believes it as a way of sharing success to others. He believes in commucation throughout all levels of an organisation. He interacts with his staff even in out of office situations. He believes that business should be viewed as fun, and fun entails listening to people. Branson is popularly known for his communication with his employees and customers, as well as his ability to mix with populace of all status. This sets apart from other business leaders. In addition, Branson has a special gift in public relations. He does not feel to make his voice known to the media, and he has always gets away with the media to attract attention and has an instinctive comprehension of what appeals to them. Moreover, he does not fear being interviewed by journalists, which is not common among business leaders. Branson communication skills may be traced when he was fifteen years of age. He launched a student’s magazine as his first business venture upon realization that he was not good in school. He thought there was a niche for a magazine that would air the political views of the learner population in Britain. In order to make the student magazine work, Branson had to sell ad space to finance the venture. In the initial stages, he had to sell advertisement space for a magazine that actually did not exist. Branson currently manages a multibillionaire business empire. However, this did not happen overnight, and a look at his solid skills in communication skills have made it happen. In order to make his vision a reality, he needed to sell advertisement space in a nonexistent magazine. He picked up the phone and began calling every business in town. This calls for courage to do such an action, and an excellent level of communication, persuasion, influence and negotiation skills. Using such communication skills, Branson was able to convey a vision and build on its reality. Nelson Mandela Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, is globally renowned as an influential and powerful communicator. Mandela was able to negotiate drastic and long term reconciliatory changes in the country during an era of brutal political repression (McCosker 2012). Mandela style of leadership reflects situational, democratic and transformational theories in books. Mandela would use different styles of leadership for diverse situations to influence others through communication most appropriate for the circumstance. Mandela utilized participative leadership style, enabling him to oversee reconciliatory communication between South Africa’s numerous social groups and influence a dramatic influence progress in the country’s political situation. Nelson Mandela was transformational when he actively engaged himself in open and multiracial negotiations. He was directive and transactional when he assured better housing for Blacks in exchange for their votes and participative when he reached mutual agreements on power sharing with the white minority (McCosker 2012). Both Nelson Mandela and Branson exhibit transformational and democratic leadership. Trump Donald Trump Donald is another business leader who is an excellent persuasive communicator. Trump has made his fortune from purchasing distressed assets and turning them into luxury buildings with the name Trump on them. Trump had little money and no track record of his won. The first development deal was the commodore hotel in the city of New York. He wanted to renovate the old hotel into a luxurious property at the height of financial crisis in the city in 1974 and having no record of success. In order to attain this, Trump utilized his persuasion and communication skills to obtain $45 million in loans (Howard 2005). Additionally, his persuasion skills helped him convince the New York City to offer him a massive tax break and basically become partners in the project by giving up their taxes. He also convinced Hyatt Hotels to collaborate with him in order to congregate the entire deal. He convinced the people around him that his dream was worth investing in and would be beneficial to everyone involved. Successfully, Trump went on to make a fortune as did his partners (Howard 2005). Barrack Obama Effective Communication not only makes good business leaders but also political leaders (Turne 2003). In this regard, charismatic theory of leadership comes into play. Max Weber put forward the aspect of charisma, where he said that charismatic leaders have a special attribute that makes followers identify with such leaders. Charismatic leaders are able to articulate their vision efficiently, which increases their following. Following president barrack Obama’s winning of the 2008 historic elections in the Unites States, the aspect of charismatic leadership has attracted fresh interests. Obama was described as a great orator, and that his message of optimism and transformation was inspirational. One of his earliest campaign slogans “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” His critics labeled such slogan as too ethereal, but how it seems prophetic. His opponent john McCain was endorsed as a speaker who is not inspiring. Charismatic leadership is well understood as a connection between leaders and followers, which highlights the significance of symbolic behaviors, emotional appeals and meaningful for followers (Bass and Riggio 2012). Following the wider social distance between voters and the presidential candidates, communication skills, content and delivery are some of the essential qualities that voters use to evaluate prospective leadership skills of every contender. As such, Obama’s success is linked to characteristics of delivery like timing, intonation, and gesture. This communication attributes increase audience receptivity to political messages, implying that the way a political message is delivered compliments and reinforces the message and how it is received. Experiential studies have established the significant correlation of message delivery to charismatic features, and that charismatic delivery style is connected to perception of likely effectiveness in office. One of the U.S voters described Obama’s cadence as making him a good speaker. His words and delivery have a rhythm that is pleasant to the ear. Charismatic leaders also have to articulate their vision in a sound manner for them to be effective. They should also be able to distill intricate future ideals into simple and clear messages with extensive poignant appeal. In the case of Obama, the vision of “yes we can”, and the “change we believe in” represent this distillation. Charismatic leaders also use colorful and vivid images in shared values to communicate their simple yet intricate ideals (Felber 2002). A voter described Obama as coming down to the voter level in his speeches, making himself seem as common as the general public. Obama’s vision of “together we can” and the “hope you believe in” did attract different types of followers seeking various types of change. Effective communication delivery, symbolic appeal, and the charismatic rhetoric explain the reason behind Obama being a great leader. Probably, this led to his re-election in 2012 (Ahlstrom and Garry 2009). Winston Churchill Best communicators also make produce the best military leaders. A well communication planned communication is critical to any organization before, during and after a crisis situation. During the Second World War, Winston Churchill was able to maintain and boost the morale of the British citizens mostly through his oratory skills. Churchill’s message of hope, distinctive voice and spirit of defiance became the rallying point in Britain’s fight against the German Nazism. His communicating met an immense emotional need and appeal among the Britons who sought to know how things were going on in spite of how bad the situation looked. Martin Luther King Martin Luther charismatic leadership is seen on his depiction in the mass media, which sybolises acumen of his leadership traits. His communication traits are widely known by the way he expressed his views especially when challenging authority over civil rights. In fact, King is known for his provocative public speeches. Although much of his advocacy concentrated on civil rights, it is evident that much of his ideas revolved around political ideas. In addition, his preaching practice reflected his philosophical interests. King was at many times able to mobilise black communities. Political leadership is noted by such capabilities (Ahlstrom and Garry 2009). He managed to pull out many strong leaders in his movement. In most of his speeches, Kind inspired blacks by enlightening them that they were fortunate to possess such a great spokesperson like him. In this regard, it can be argued that it took King some communication strategies in order to command a big following of blacks and some whites. Though his movements revolved around civil rights, it is apparent that, at some points, this turned out to be a political shift of the blacks. Conclusion It can be argued that although political leaders seem to be a career, it is apparent that one has to have good communication traits in order to have a command of many followers. It calls for one to learn on how to address his followers by addressing most of the pressing matters. Notably, most political leaders use slogans and other philosophical sayings that emotions people. Bibliography: Ahlstrom, D., Garry, D. B., 2009. International Management: Strategy and Culture in the Emerging World. Connecticut: Cengage Learning, 2009. Bass, B. and Riggio, R., 2012 .Transformational Leadership. London: Routledge. Felber, T., 2002. Am I making myself clear? secrets of the world's greatest communicators. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. Howard, C., 2005. Turning Passions Into Profits: Three Steps to Wealth and Power. NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Jayarāman, P., 2009. Management Icons. New Dlhi: excel books india. McCosker, L., 2012. Communication in Leadership – The Democratic Leadership of Nelson Mandela. Accessed on 15 march2013 from: http://expertscolumn.com/content/communication-leadership-democratic-leadership- nelson-mandela. Thompson, J. and Frank, M. (2010). Strategic Management: Awareness & Change. UK: Cengage Learning EMEA. Turne, P., 2003. Organisational Communication: The Role of the HR Professional. London: CIPD Publishing. Read More