The Transparent Leader: A Business Fable of Clear and Effective Leadership Communication

Chapter 17

Leadership Communication

Today, many CEOs want their leaders to acquire what they sometimes call “soft skills,” almost as if they see these skills as minor complements to more important hard skills. Certainly, for some people, math and science are indeed hard skills—especially people who aren’t particularly good at those skills. However, the reverse is also true. Often, technically oriented professionals, who find accounting, law, math, medicine, and science easy, sometimes find interpersonal communication very “hard.” So, never minimize the importance of communication skills, especially the leadership communication skills required by successful leaders. Such so-called “soft skills” have some very hard consequences when leaders don’t ...