Why Should Anyone Be Led by You? With a New Preface by the Authors

SEVEN

Communicate—with Care

IT HAS BECOME COMMONPLACE to read in the leadership literature that effective leaders are good communicators. They are, but there is more to it. Skillful leaders ensure that they use the right mode of communication. This requires a fine appreciation of the message, the context, the people you wish to communicate with, as well as your own personal strengths and weaknesses. In effect, thinking carefully about your mode of communication is a miniature case study in how you can effectively be yourself, in context, with skill.¹

Leaders need to consider, for example, whether their strength lies in one-to-one meetings, a small group, or a large-scale speech. Each context requires quite distinctive presentational skills. ...