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Winston Churchill—The Lion who ROared for His People

Winston Churchill wrote this about becoming prime minister in May 1940 during what some have called Britain’s darkest hour:

As I went to bed at about 3 a.m., I was conscious of a profound sense of relief. At last I had the authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation of this hour and for this trial. . . . I thought I knew a good deal about it all, and I was sure I should not fail.^[2]

Soon enough, Churchill would refer to this period, in which Britain, her skies defended by men in their twenties and her people bloodied, battered, and bruised by nightly bombardments, stood alone against Nazi Germany, as her “finest hour.” It was a phrase that historians would later use to describe his performance as leader.

How did he do it? His own words just cited give a good indication. He knew a “good deal”: His two stints as First Lord of the Admiralty, plus his time as minister, had given him insight into how the military and government must coordinate their efforts. He had the “authority to give directions”: He had led men in battle, in government service, and in Parliament. He was one with “destiny”: As a historian and an avid reader, he measured himself against the legacies of great leaders in wartime. He was confident: “I was sure I should not fail.” As historian Geoffrey Best amply illustrates in his one-volume meta-biography, Churchill had been preparing for this challenge for his entire life: as soldier, parliamentarian, minister, historian, and journalist.

Taken From : Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

Reiterating Leadership

Communicating the leadership message over and over again in many different circumstances lets employees come to a better understanding of what the leader wants, what the organization needs, and how they fit into the picture. In time, leader and followers form a solidarity that is rooted in mutual respect. When that occurs, leader and followers can pursue organizational goals united in purpose and bonded in mutual trust.

The chief aim of organizational communications is to ensure that everyone understands both the external and internal issues facing the organization and what individuals must do to contribute to the organization’s success. Communications belongs to everyone in the organization; it is not a functional responsibility limited to marketing, public relations, or human resources. Communications must become a core competency-the responsibility of everyone within the organization. Toward this end, management must establish a climate that ensures that employees feel free to express their ideas and concerns. At the same time, management must be clear in its expectations for individuals, teams, and the organization. Management must also structure its communications in ways that are meaningful and in keeping with the culture of the organization. Read more »

Enabling Listening

Communications, as Peter Drucker has written, is less about information than it is about facilitating kinship within the culture.^[1] Employees must feel that they have a stake in the organization and its outcome. The ownership stake is initiated, nurtured, augmented, tested, and fulfilled through leadership communications. It is absolutely critical for the leader to facilitate two-way communications, specifically allowing feedback in the form of ideas, suggestions, and even dissent. Too often communications within organizations is interpreted as being one-way from the top, that is, information is disseminated in neat packages like commercial messages. In fact, leaders would do well to emulate one aspect of the advertising process, and that is the relentless search for information in the form of consumer research. Advertisers want to know what you think of the message. Leaders can do the same. It’s called listening.

Taken From : Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

Examples of Leadership Messages

The style of leadership messages varies according to their purpose. Here are some examples:

Vision

Our challenge is to complete this project by year’s end. When the project is complete, we will have the exciting new product our customers have been asking for. This product will enable them to work more efficiently, and it will enable us to grow our business profitably.

Transformation

The challenges in the market dictate that we do things differently-internally in the way we operate and externally in the way we serve our customers. The changes we are calling for will not be easy, but they will be necessary. Yet we must learn to embrace change. Instead of viewing change as something to be feared, we must leverage its power and capitalize on the new opportunities it will bring us. Read more »

Purpose of Leadership Communications

There are many types of leadership communications. Each of them emerges from a leadership action that is communicated from the point of view of the leader-i.e., doing what is beneficial for the organization and the people in it. Leadership communications are designed to engage the listener, gain commitment, and ultimately create a bond of trust between leader and follower. They also do something more: They drive results, enabling leader and follower to work together more efficiently because they understand the issues and know what has to be done to accomplish their goals. Read more »

What Is Leadership Communications?

Leadership communications consists of those messages from a leader that are rooted in the values and culture of an organization and are of significant importance to key stakeholders, e.g., employees, customers, strategic partners, shareholders, and the media. These messages affect the vision, mission, and transformation of an organization. The chief intention of a leadership message is to build trust between the leader and her or his constituency. Traits of leadership communications (shown in Figure 1-1) reflect:

• Significance. Messages are about big issues that reflect the present and future of the organization (e.g., people, performance, products, and services).
• Values. Messages reflect vision, mission, and culture.
• Consistency. Messages exemplify stated values and behaviors.
• Cadence. Messages occur with regularity and frequency.

In its simplest form, leadership communication is communication that flows from the leadership perspective. It is grounded in the character of the leader as well as the values of the organization. It is an expression of culture as well as an indicator of the climate, e.g., openness, integrity, and honesty.

Figure 1-1: Leadership Communications Model

Taken From : Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

Chapter 1: What Is Leadership Communications?

Overview

Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory.

Winston Churchill
Steven F. Hayward, Churchill on Leadership: Executive Success in the Face of Adversity [Rocklin, Calif.: Forum (Prima Publishing), 1997, 1998], p. 97.

The company is a bona fide success. Its stock price is climbing. Market analysts are praising the management team. Morale is high. For a brief, shining moment, it seems that the company can do no wrong.

Then it all comes apart. Perhaps it’s a new product failure, a defection of a senior leader to a competitor, or a market reversal, but suddenly the only people calling on the company are members of the media looking to find out what went wrong.

When this happens, and it seems to happen in the cycle of any successful enterprise, the company’s leaders have two choices when it comes to communications: They can say nothing and hope the story just goes away, or they can speak out and work out their issues with input from key stakeholders.

Invariably companies make the wrong choice-in the face of bad news, they hibernate rather than proclaim. Worse, senior managers huddle quietly among themselves rather than speak even to employees. When this happens, communication does continue. Communication, like nature, abhors a vacuum. In the absence of word from the leader, people will create their own messages, typically in the form of rumor, innuendo, and gossip. The net result is a compounding of difficulties: Employees who could be part of the solution instead become part of the problem. Why? Because they are uninformed-worse, they are ill informed. The leader needs to get out front and tell the truth, instead of letting people draw their own conclusions. When you leave employees to draw their own conclusions without providing the proper message, they will draw the opposite conclusion from the one you want them to draw. They will automatically assume the worst, when perhaps the problem is not so grave, if it is addressed in time. Read more »

Part I: Developing the Leadership Message

Part Overview

Communication is the glue that holds organizations together; it is the chief means by which people relate to one another. The aim of organizational communications is to ensure that everyone understands both the external and internal issues facing the organization and what individuals must do to contribute to the organization’s success.

Communications belongs to everyone in the organization; it is not a functional responsibility limited to marketing, public relations, or human resources. Communications must become a core competency-the responsibility of everyone within the organization.

A key element of organizational communications is the messages from the leader that we call leadership communications. The chapters in Part I will show you how to develop your own leadership point of view, which you can develop into your leadership message.

At the end of each chapter are vignettes of exemplary leadership communicators. Frequently they focus on a specific moment in time when the leader used his or her communications skills to convey a leadership message in a manner that affected the vision or mission of an organization and resulted in a positive outcome. Read more »

No Mystery, Just Practice

Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders takes the mystery out of communications. These four sections give the leader a complete picture of what it takes to develop, deliver, and sustain a leadership message. The secret is to adopt a leadership perspective, to learn how to craft the message and how to deliver it convincingly so that the message sticks. The ultimate goal of communications is to address immediate concerns and issues, and to open the door to future dialogue, discovery, and engagement. Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders can help you push that door open so that your ideas and those of others can flow freely back and forth.

Good luck and best wishes.

The Importance of Leadership Communications

Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders shows how to develop and deliver the leadership message: how to develop it for organizationwide communications, create strong e-communications, and connect with the winning presentation. The book features a multipart communications planner, complete with illustrations, that provides advice and examples on how to craft a powerful presentation, deliver it with style, and create a lasting relationship. This book contains four sections:

• Part I deals with developing the leadership message, which is defined as a communication from the leader that covers a key organizational or business issue and is rooted in the cultural values of the organization. Examples of leadership messages include vision and mission statements, calls for transformational change, and calls to action. The main purpose of a leadership message is to build trust. The effectiveness of the leadership communication depends upon how it is communicated and in what manner it is disseminated-all-employee meetings, face-to-face, video, or email. Developing the message includes planning and proper selection of communication channels. Part I also traces the development of the message by tracking the evolution of a topic from its inception through the stages of an outline, draft, revision, and visualization. Read more »
  
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