Strategic Communication- Leadership Through Vision, Culture, and Communication

Leadership is about others. This statement largely exemplifies the ideas about leadership that are garnering attention today. In the opening of his Google talk, Jerry Porras stated that there was an overabundance of literature on leadership today. Yet, we still study it and read about it and talk about it. For as much as we study leadership, we are still learning. We are finding that there are commonalities among our most effective leaders and we try to replicate or at least focus on those leaders. This leads to the question, “what do all those leaders have in common?” There are certain things those leaders do but, according to Benjamin Zander in his TED talk, “the one characteristic of a leader is that there is no doubt in his mind the capacity of the people he is leading to realize his vision.” This is just a mirror of my first statement that leadership is about others. Real leaders and good leaders look to their followers and feel that they have the responsibility of helping them to realize their potential. Doug Fields, one of the foremost authorities on church youth leadership called it “Spotlight Leadership.” It was leadership where the leader was not threatened when his/her followers did well but celebrated their accomplishments. In a paper written for the United States Army about strategic communication and leadership author Rebecca Wriggle focuses on three areas of leadership. These areas are vision, culture, and communication.

Benjamin Zander's TED talk

Vision

Zander also said that, “to get to the end we cannot think about each individual note, we must think about the whole piece.” This makes reference to the fact that the leaders must have long term vision. In several articles about leadership and vision one of the most repeated things was the statement that leaders with vision start something with the end in mind. With respect to Mr. Zander’s statements it is important that there be some boundaries given in a vision so that the followers know the ultimate goal. In a Forbes article, John Ryan wrote that:

 “Great leaders give real thought to the values, ideas and activities they’re most passionate about–and those are the things they pursue, rather than money or prestige or options forced on them by someone else. The visions these leaders have can be–and, in fact, should be–challenging to put into action. They realize them only by setting realistic, demanding goals and then going after them relentlessly, with the help of other talented men and women who are equally committed and engaged.”

 This indicates that leaders should set the vision but set it high. Not only should they set the vision high but they should set the vision somewhere where their followers want to go. Zander also stated in his talk that “we all know where home is.” A leader’s responsibility is to help get their followers to what feels like “home.” By this I do not mean that the follower has total control over where an organization goes, as stated above, vision does come from the leader and sometimes that means taking hard stances. But, at the end of whatever journey a leader and follower go on together they must, at the end, find themselves in a place of comfort and growth. This is what I refer to as home. The vision starts at the beginning of the journey and is realized throughout the process of traveling.

Culture

The second area that Wriggle focused on in her paper is creating a culture that enables the vision to become reality. The culture is what allows for the final destination of any organization to be reached. This is something that Zander referred to in his talk. He stated that “the conductor’s power depends upon the power to make other people powerful.” In essence it is a leader’s job to enable their followers to do the work that they need to do. A leader must help the followers do that work in the strongest way possible. This helps to create a culture that will buy into the vision of a leader.

Further, Zander stated that leaders should ask the question, “Who am I being that my children’s eyes are not shining?” This leads to the second aspect of a leader that helps create the culture needed to fulfill the vision. This aspect of a leader is that the leader must be willing to give up their own wants in order to bring out the possibilities of their followers. I was at the Orange Conference which is a conference for church leadership and Pastor Andy Stanley put it this way, he said that, “I am willing to be wrong if it means that someone else is made to feel important.” From a strategic communication standpoint it goes back to the idea that leaders of organization must be willing to lose a little control if it means that the ultimate goal is met. This happens when a leader allows their followers to help define the vision of their organization. In an article for the Harvard Business Review authors, James Kouzes and Barry Posner state that “constituents want visions of the future that reflect their own aspirations. They want to hear how their dreams will come true and their hopes will be fulfilled.” This idea goes back to the idea of the Golden Circle that I mentioned in my blog on Opinion Leadership. The one thing that all opinion leaders did was communicate in a way that answered the question Why? for people. It was a focus on values and interests that lead the way with communication and this focus will help to create the culture needed to accomplish the long term goals set forth in an organization.

Communication

Communication is the final aspect that all true leaders share. It is not just regular communication though; leaders with a vision and that have created a culture for that vision to flourish must communicat strategically. Strategic communication is defined as a “strategy for communicating. It recognizes that information can transform attitudes, beliefs and behaviors, and is a potent force for achieving strategic ends(Wriggle, 2006).” Strategic communication is further defined as “effects-based and begins with the end in mind (Wriggle, 2006).” This means that any communication that a leader gives must mention the goal. A leader should also include the fact that it is a goal that is shared by the people of the organization because it was a goal that was made by those very same people. Every communication sent out to anyone who has an interest in the company should make mention of the vision and the culture. This helps both outsiders and insiders know what the company is about and where it stands as it pertains to the goal. If a leader has implemented the first two aspects of vision and culture then it becomes much easier to communicate because the leader knows what needs to be done to accomplish the vision. A leader must also remember that communication is a two way process and should allow for feedback. This, again, will be made easier if the leader has focused on creating a culture that enables the vision to be accomplished because the lines of communication necessary to create that culture are the very ones that should be open for feedback.

All of these considerations shows that being an effective leader requires the leader to focus on the followers first.

Forbes Article
http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/29/personal-success-vision-leadership-managing-ccl.html

Harvard Business Review
http://hbr.org/2009/01/to-lead-create-a-shared-vision/ar/1

Wriggle, R. (2006) STRATEGIC LEADER AS STRATEGIC COMMUNICATOR. U.S. Army War College,Carlisle Barracks,Carlisle,PA,17013-5050.