In this blog I want to share a quote by Gilbert Amelio, President and CEO of National Semiconductor Corp., which I surfaced in John C. Maxwell’s book, The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. The quote is about communication and is as follows, “Developing excellent communication skills is absolutely essential to effective leadership. The leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others. If a leader can’t get a message across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn’t even matter.” In this blog, I want to focus just on spoken communication.
I have known leaders who were great communicators and those who were not so great, but in every instance those who were most effective were those who communicated exceptionally well. And this is not just about the words spoken, which are very important to be sure, but also about the way in which the words are spoken. The most effective leaders I have witnessed are those who speak with genuine passion. Many can speak the word, but effective leaders live the words they speak. Their words are convincing because these individuals believe in what they say, which comes across in the strength of their delivery … from passionate emphasis to pregnant pause. These orators make you want to listen to their words. Their words tether you to them … make you want to hear more … make you want to be a part of what drives them … and make you want to follow their lead.
Very few of us seem to have this commanding ability to rally others through our spoken word, which every great leader seems to be able to unleash with ease. However, every leader has the capacity to grow their effectiveness as a speaker, which should be a primary goal of everyone aspiring to lead. I am a keen believer in writing a speech down to the individual word and then practicing it again and again. This approach works for some, but for others the presentation is simply outlined and then spoken from the heart. It makes no difference which approach is utilized, as long as the end result is a presentation that is listened to and that has the desired impact. Great communicators speak clearly and distinctly to the point. They say what needs to be heard. And, they speak genuinely from the heart.
To be effective in leading others, growing one’s communication skills is absolutely essential. And the more one utilizes those skills the greater the opportunity to perfect those skills … as long as the door remains open to such. And that brings about a significant charge for us all … each of us needs to embrace the reality that our communication skills will never attain perfection and that we need to work tirelessly to bring about improvement.
Author Cross-references:
Gilbert Amelio: None
John C. Maxwell: Also see posts 12/8/08, 6/5/09, 6/26/09, 11/20/09, 3/29/10
Key Word Cross-references:
Communication/Effective Speaking: Also see posts 12/12/08, 3/4/09, 5/17/09, 7/7/09, 9/9/09, 11/20/09, 12/5/09, 1/4/10, 1/29/10, 2/24/10
Inspiration/Motivation: Also see posts 1/16/09, 2/3/09, 2/18/09, 2/25/09, 5/17/09, 6/5/09, 9/9/09, 2/18/10, 2/24/10, 4/19/10
Passion: Also see posts 9/26/09, 12/5/09, 2/24/10
Tags: Leadership
on Leadership ... by Steven Davis, CAE 
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