In business, success often comes down to who you know rather than what you know. That’s why effective business communication is more than a skill that needs to be checked off. How you as a leader communicate with your workforce and vice versa, is also a great predictor of the success of your organization. Here, we break down how mastering business communication is a non-negotiable for effective leadership, which equips them to build stronger, cohesive, and hyper-functional teams.
The Connection between Leadership and Business Communication
Let’s start with the vision of your business. When you are closer to the top of the ladder, it’s easy to see how your work impacts the consumer and the world, but that may not be the case for those under you. This loss of vision can often lead to a lack of commitment and therefore lack of alignment. Without you as a leader, showing the way with effective communication methods, you are inviting confusion and misunderstandings. Which also affects how employees communicate with each other.
As a leader, you are also a spokesperson for your brand or company. You must know how to represent the organization’s values and objectives to clients, stakeholders, and even the general public. With the rise in personal brands and referral-based hiring, good external communication is a desirable trait that many public-facing companies look for.
Key Types of Business Communication to Keep in Mind
A term like business communication is very broad, and to some, it may even be nondescriptive. That’s why there are 2 simple forms of communication to keep in mind, internal and external business communication. Let’s take a closer look at both.
Internal Business Communication
Internal business communication is the communication that takes place within the organization. This type of communication has 3 types. Upward or bottom-up communication, downward or top-down communication, and lastly, lateral communication. Analyzing and mastering these communication types makes the working environment more efficient and open for collaboration. Let’s unravel each of these.
Top-Down Communication: The Company Compass
Top-down communication is when the information flows from the C-Suite down to the lower levels. This is important for setting direction, implementing policies, and ensuring alignment with company goals. As a leader, you have the responsibility of ensuring that your employees understand these aspects within the organization. This primarily utilizes written communication so that nothing gets lost in translation. This would be an email or an office-wide memo that details the changes made. Visual communication tools like PowerPoint and demos can also come in handy when explaining a complicated topic. This would require additional time to assemble and brief employees about the same.
A simple way to think about downward communication is to think about empowering the person one step under you. If you provide them with the right knowledge and tools to further deliver the message, you’ve done your job. Even then you should avoid being authoritative. Always open dialogue in response to top-down directives and give room to questions and concerns. This ensures that communication is effective and well-received.
Bottom-Up Communication: Encouraging Feedback
Bottom-up or upward communication is a result of encouragement by leadership as well. Your employees have an opinion about their work too, and some of those opinions need to be heard. We are all aware of the “bring me solutions, not problems” mentality. And for most professional issues, that is how it should be.
Face-to-face conversations with your employees are also key. Interacting with them during their workdays can point out issues that couldn’t be anticipated before. This keeps you apprised of the daily ins and outs of the work done, and what changes can be made to make the process more efficient. While in-person meetings are great, understand that some issues are more personal, and people would not want to come forward with them. In such a case, conduct anonymous employee surveys to assess their job satisfaction, and uproot any systemic issues that are preventing your employees from being their best.
When you practice active listening, and keep your ear to the ground, you build trust with your employees. As a result, they also feel valued while being engaged in their work.
Lateral Communication: Promoting Collaboration
Lateral or horizontal communication is the flow of information between peers and colleagues at the same level within the organization. This can be within the department or outside. Without effective lateral communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing is impossible. You need effective lateral communication for departments to work with each other. Being in a leadership role, you have likely made some of these collaborations happen.
As a leader, you can take the first step and make introductions, which will open a line of communication between the 2 employees. Additionally, company events like retreats and mixers are also a great way to help employees break the ice with each other. In a remote setting, connections over phone calls, instant messaging or project management platforms can do the trick. Amazon is famous for its cross-functional collaboration on new initiatives, this can only be enabled by strong lateral relationships within the organization.
Remember, make the introductions and step away. Empower your employees to reach out to their peers and collaborate. Do not micromanage, as that shows a lack of confidence in the employee’s ability to do their job. Let your employees know that you trust them to get the job done.
External Communication
External communication is arguably the most important out of all communication processes. This is when you talk to clients, stakeholders, media, and the general public. This means that you can share the company’s brand values, goals, and messaging; clearly and consistently. An effective external communication strategy is crucial to your company’s long-term success.
The primary component of good external communication is brand messaging. Leaders must ensure that outward comms like press releases, social media, marketing materials or statements, align with the brand’s core values and mission. This reinforces the brand identity and helps maintain a strong and recognizable image. Thankfully, you can find consultants for some of these communications to help you hit the nail on its head.
Crisis communication is another key element. You can have a crisis of all magnitudes. It may be a significant loss of business or even a threat to your entire company’s reputation. These are still high stakes, and you must be adept at managing them. Quick, transparent, and honest responses are vital to manage perception and maintain trust. An example of a manageable crisis would be product issues or outages. In this case, openly address the problem, provide clear updates, and outline corrective actions. When you lead the communication on your pitfalls, you can potentially turn PR disasters into an integrity showcase.
With effective external communication, you build long-term relationships with clients, stakeholders, and users. This directly feeds into the bottom line of your business.
Developing Effective Communication Skills as a Leader
By now, we have established that leaders play an important role in how business communications take place within the organization. Leaders who know how to communicate their ideas clearly and create an environment for active listening, ultimately create a better workplace. Here are some non-negotiable communication skills that you as a leader should have.
- Active Listening: Speech is silver, but silence is gold. As a leader, you must truly understand what your team members are saying, rather than just waiting for your turn to speak. This makes employees feel that their opinions are valued. From thereon, do what you can to address their concerns.
- Clarity and Conciseness: You are your team’s window into the organization’s goals and growth. What you say and how you say, helps them see the contributions of their work while also setting the stage for future projects. Making meeting notes, summary emails and checklists helps them stay on track without any misunderstandings. You should aim to simplify complex tasks so that the employee knows what needs to be done, when and how they must do it.
- Non-Verbal Communication: Body language, eye contact, and tone of voice; all play a major role in how messages are received. If you dismiss something as trivial, so will your employees. Professionally conducting yourself ensures that what you say sticks with the attendees while also sounding sincere.
- Adaptability: Be flexible when you are talking to employees in a large group, a small meeting, or one-on-one. Even then, not everyone responds to your words the same way. Some are accepting while others may be dismissive. In management, there’s a technique called “different strokes for different folks”. Being a leader means that you will have to be soft but stern. This is a tricky balance to strike but with some practice, you’ll get the gist of it.
Emotional Intelligence as a Superpower
Emotional Intelligence(EI) is a vital skill that differentiates you as a leader. Of course, EI skills are great for management but they are also highly sought out roles when a company is looking to hire.
EI primarily means that you can understand, manage, and effectively express your emotions in a professional setting. You should also be able to recognize and influence the emotions of others. This helps you create a more productive and empathetic work environment that leads to increased morale.
One key aspect is self-awareness. When you understand your emotional triggers and reactions, you can respond to situations in a thoughtful and calculated manner. This can prevent conflicts and misunderstandings. If you can understand and articulate your emotions effectively, then you can build trust with your employees.
Empathy is another big one. The ability to understand and share the feelings of others. Empathetic leaders are better at addressing concerns, providing support, and building strong connections with their team. This can be a key reason for employees to stick with their organization.
Social Skills are important. These are important for both external and internal communication so that you can manage relationships, inspire team members, and handle difficult situations swiftly. Leaders who have strong emotional excellence understand complex dynamics between people and can resolve conflicts peacefully.
A leader with good emotional intelligence can navigate the complex aspects of management with ease, making them irreplaceable in their roles.
A Call to Action
So why is effective business communication important for leaders? It is because it is a tool that can transform your organization and how it handles business; both within and outside the office. From the top-down standpoint, it helps set a clear vision and acts as a roadmap for the employees. From the employee standpoint, it encourages feedback and fosters collaboration. Mastering these is a non-negotiable for leaders within any organization. Take a moment and assess your communication style, and you will find areas for improvement. Engage with your team, seek feedback, and be willing to change. This way, you can create a positive work environment with its foundation in trust, innovation, and excellence!
