COMMUNICATION AND LEADERSHIP: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AN ORGANIZATION

      Communication and Leadership: The effectiveness of an organization.

      Communication is defined as a two-way process of reaching mutual understanding, in which participants no only exchange information but also create and share meaning. (Webfinance, Inc., 2011).

      In business the communication is one of the most important topics of organization behavior, Narayana Rao point that the effective communication is a prerequisite for implementing organizational strategies as well as for managing day to day activities through the people. (Rao, 2011).

      Managing expectations is a key driver for effective project communications, according Michael Campbell, which emphasizes on the importance of communication in the business work, based on a study in his own company, which reflected the number one success factor identified by this study was communications, he expresed that they learned that when the communication were strong among the project team member and between the project team and the customers within the company, the projects were nearly always successful, in the other hand, if the projects faild, poor communications was always identified as a critical factor in pinpointing what went wrong. (Campbell, 2009).

      Leader and employees need to be in synch throughout tha decition making and implamentation process, understand one another, be able to exchange ideas in an open and honest way, these things can occur only through communication like John Baldoni (2003) explained us.

      A leader is interpreted as someone who sets direction in an effort and influences people to follow that direction  (McNamara, 2011), the people can be oneself, another individual, a group, and organitacion or a community.

           All leader, must be able to describe where they are going, persuade people to come along with them, connect on a personal level, and demostratte credibility; they need to disclose the option facing an organization and make tough decisions about those options;  hence the high degree in communication skill is one of the best key for leadership effectiveness. (Baldoni, 2003). View Leadership as a process, places emphasis on social interaction and relationship as Wolisnki (2010) state, who express that this is the idea that leadership is a type of relationship, which includes influence others in a certain direction. (Wolinski, 2010)      

      The communication in organizations is definitely very important at all levels of operation, it becomes a strategic tool to be fairly indirect responsibility on messages and media used by company executives to express decisions, give directions, among others. The primary purpose of communication is to inform, that is, spread the word, entertain or motivate action. Whatever its purpose, attitude, clarity and accuracy with which the leader convey the message will affect the action of the listener, whatever the channel used for this purpose.

      As Baldoni (2003) emphasizes “Communication is the glue that holds organizations together” and “the effective leadership, both persnal and corporate, is effective communications”.

References:

Baldoni, J. (2003). Great communication secrets of great leaders. USA: McGraw Hill.

Campbell, M. (2009). Communication Skill for project managers. New York: AMACOM.

McNamara, C. (2011, November 26). managementhelp.org. Retrieved from All about leadership: http://managementhelp.org/leadership/index.htm#anchor293932

Rao, N. (2011). Knol.googel.com. Retrieved from Organizational Behavior Revision Article series: http://www.knol.google.com/k/communication-importance-and-definition

Webfinance, Inc. (2011, november 26). businessdictionary.com. Retrieved from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/communication.html

Wolinski, S. (2010, April 6). managementhelp.org. Retrieved from Leadership defined: http://managementhelp.org/blogs/leadership/2010/04/06/leadership-defined/