Communication: A New Leadership Skill?

This week's Workspan Weekly e-newlsetter published by the Corporate Compensation professionals' association, World At Work  flashed the headline "Survey Reveals Need for New Leadership Skills". 

Wow, I thought, a new leadership skill. I wonder what it could be.

Turns out, a survey conducted by the highly-regarded Center for Creative Leadership found that 70% of the executive respondents indicated that communication, specifically skills required for virtual leadership, is the new leadership skill. Two factors, frequency and clarity of communication, were cited as of particular importance.

As anyone who has had the pleasure of working for someone who feels the need to follow up every hour (or the polar opposite, the boss with an open door but  is never in the office or available to talk), frequency of communication is a big deal in the physical world as well.

Similarly, we all know how difficult it is to achieve real clarity. How many times did you ask someone to do something "as soon as possible," (meaning this minute), which they interpret to mean "when I can get to it"?  (Do any of you have kids?)

Which, I guess, brings us to "active listening," a technique whereby the listener repeats, summarizes or paraphrases what the speaker has said to check for agreement of understanding. A great idea, but not always practical in every interaction. (Have you ever had the experience of explaining what you want a system to do and get pages and pages of uninterpretable "specs" come back to you for concurrence?) 

"The modern executive must learn an entirely new set of skills to direct and motivate people worldwide in the age of e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging, telecommuting, and computer conferencing," according to survey results.

Overlay the challenges of crossing the chasm introduced by globalization,
multiculturalism, complexity, distances of time and space - let alone the multi-media nature of communication - and this becomes no small feat for mere mortals.

Communication continues to be as challenging today as it  has since time eternal, not just for leaders but for all of us. The bigger challenge for leaders of the modern workplace is accepting that the web changes the very character of these communications: they are more casual in tone, more boldly put forth, more interactive. 

Leaders have long espoused "two way communication" - but you wouldn't always know it based on the reactions that come back down.

It can never hurt to become a better communicator, in any medium.

It may prove a lot harder on the ego to carve out a relevant and meaningful role for leaders when "direction and motivation" come from the group and not from the leader.

Please share your thoughts.