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About being a leader, leadership and having communication skills


Leadership and communication skills are essential for the business to function well. There are several points of view about what differentiate a leader from a manager.  Many theorists suggest that a manager is more focused on systems in the business, while a leader is more focused on the workers. The ideal is that a manager should also be a good leader.

There is also a difference between a leader and leadership. A leader in a business usually controls the behaviour of workers keeping in mind the mission and vision of the business.  To effectively control a business, a leader demonstrates encouraging behaviour associated with good communication skills.

Leadership on the other hand implies encouraging behaviour that managers and even workers demonstrate to help workers achieve their goals and objectives. Persuading workers to do their work, giving directions and coordinating messages and actions all require excellent communication skills. Workers in senior positions have to coordinate the work of workers in their sections, for example, where good leadership is important.  Even junior workers can demonstrate leadership when they propose a solution for a problem in the business.

Good communication skills are also necessary for reliable decision making in the business.  Having good communication skills, however, does not necessarily make somebody a good leader.  There are various other requirements for a good leader as well.  A good leader will never make decisions in isolation, but will always consider workers in both the issue at hand and the result of the decision. Decision making is always a complex process where all alternatives need to be considered.  Not only do the issues that have to be decided upon be formulated well, but also the consequences for the business should be carefully considered.

A leader has good communication skills when he or she can:

·         constructively encourage and manage workers
·         trust workers to do their work
·         differ from workers in a positive way and suggest alternatives to be discussed
·         adhere to the core values of the business when dealing with workers
·         be  a role model for good communication by also helping workers to develop their own communication skills
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