Leadership
Communicative leadership – a success factor for both organisation and individual
”One of the keys to getting people to feel good, enjoy work and achieve their full potential is communicative leadership.”
Lagottos CEO Ulrika Kjellberg has long and extensive experience of various managerial roles and during recent years has worked in roles such as Communication Manager, Marketing Manager and Competence Development Manager. In this article she shares some of her thoughts on communicative leadership.
Good communication skills are one of the most important capabilities in a leader. That is in any case the view of Lagottos CEO Ulrika Kjellberg. Most leaders spend a large amount of their time communicating – in everything from salary discussions to development talks, reporting, meetings, or informal chats by the coffee machine. But it is far from all leaders who reflect over their communicative leadership.
– All leaders communicate, but that doesn’t mean that they are all good at communication. Communication and especially communicative leadership include so much more and obviously this needs to be improved by training and practice, says Ulrika Kjellberg.
Inclusion is fundamental
Inclusion is one of the most important factors in communicative leadership. Ulrika means that there needs to be a dialogue, a two-way communication between the individual and the leader, where the leader’s task is to motivate and invite the individual to participate in the dialogue.
– A key is to give, and look for, feedback as well as trying to be available and present in the moment, says Ulrika Kjellberg.
Communicative leadership in practice
In order to apply communicative leadership in practice you need to be aware of the way you communicate and make conscious choices. Ulrika gives an example of this – ground rules for a meeting.
– Before you go into a meeting think about what the set-up for the meeting looks like. Are you going to give each person an equal say or will you as leader conduct the meeting? What do you want to achieve? How will you relate to each other in the meeting? Is it a working meeting or a decision-making meeting? It is important to have a clear communication, agenda and follow-up. It is a joint responsibility to have good meetings, says Ulrika Kjellberg.
If you work with communicative leadership it gives results – both for the organisation and for the individual. Research shows that a communicative leadership can be linked to increased feelings of security, the ability to change and more motivated staff, as well as productivity and effectiveness in organisations.
A communicative leadership requires transparency and that the manager is honest. The aim is to achieve a continuous dialogue with your staff and colleagues.
The ability to communicate is necessary in all management roles
Ulrika’s background in various managerial roles especially in communication, has led her to think about how important communication is as a part of leadership. She sees that questions around communicative leadership are not always obvious but that all leaders need to know how they communicate – regardless of the role they have.
– Good communication capability and a communicative leadership are in my view a key competence that will be in even greater demand in the future among all leaders says, Ulrika Kjellberg.
Ulrika’s best tips for how to work with communicative leadership
1. How, where and when. Think about how, where and when you want to communicate with your colleagues and staff – and on which issues.
2. Strategic communication. Review your organisations strategic communication and make conscious choices.
3. Ear to the rails. Listen to your staff and involve them in operations.
4. Evaluate. Evaluate and learn from what has happened. Continue to improve and develop and stop doing what doesn’t work. It’s important to reflect on your leadership!
5. Informal coffee round. Start the morning with an informal coffee round out among the staff. That way you can have spontaneous conversations and catch current issues – this may even reduce the number of booked meetings. Or why not change workplace for an hour a day? Take your computer and sit in the kitchen, lounge or wherever it suits you best to work. That way you are both visible and available.
Would you like to develop your leadership? Lagotto has long experience in the area and through coaching we help leaders and specialists to develop their competence. Contact our CEO Ulrika Kjellberg if you would like to know more.