LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION

Question 1
“Without effective communication, a leader is not a leader.” Do you agree with this
statement? Explain your argument by describing the relationship between leadership
and communication. Describe types of power that a leader can derive as source of
persuasion in communication. Using example is a good way to show your group
understanding.
Answer :
Communication is the delivery of meaning from one person to another or many
people, both verbally and nonverbally. Communication can occur in a complex and
interactive setting, with the possibility of many different messages and interpretations
obtained by the parties. This happens when something is disturbing when there is a message
to be conveyed, whether triggered by the background, the media, the sender of the message,
or the recipient of the message itself. The context of the information sent, the presence of
obstacles, the choice of delivery media, the words used in the message, and the speaker's
picture can influence the meaning when communication occurs from one person to another.
So, delivering communication effectively will greatly help the recipient of the message
understand the content or context so that they get the same thing as the sender of the message.
As a leader, we are required to be able to communicate efficiently. When asked to
describe leadership, many of the experts used the terms 'influence', 'inspire,' and 'transform,'
essentially relying on verbal and non-verbal communication where their words and actions
could direct. There are two kinds of leadership that we know, first, traditional leaders. This
type of leader concentrates on the characteristics of relationships that individuals have with
others that shape their leadership status. The second type is transformational leaders. This
type of leader has a positive ethos (authority and credibility), inspires a sense of trust and
respect, communicates with others individually and in the community, articulates a strong
and inspiring vision, and skillfully motivates and directs others to action. Transformational
leaders have four main behavioral characteristics: having ideal influence, motivating and
inspiring, having a sufficient intellectual level, and having good individual judgment.
Transformational leaders have good communication skills, such as listening, being reliable in
persuading, and articulating their ideas effectively. Through communication skills and
resources, transformational leaders can communicate positively with their audiences,
eliminate obstacles that exist in the delivery of information, and convey messages that can
guide, direct, empower, or encourage others or listeners. So, leadership communication is the
delivery of organized and purposeful information through individuals who can influence
other people, groups, organizations, or the wider community. As a reference from other book
sources, such as Kinicki and Fugate, it is stated that leadership is a social control mechanism
in which leaders seek voluntary cooperation from subordinates to achieve organizational
goals. In their book, Kinicki and Fugate also mentioned that leaders must have intelligence,
dominance, self-confidence, energy and activity levels, and task-relevant knowledge.
Communication is also influenced by the types of power that leaders have. The power
referred to here is translated as the level of power of one person over another, but rather the
ability of that person to influence others. According to Barret, the first type of power is the
Power of Coercive. This type of power can be scary for some people. This power makes us
fearful of being punished for poor results and makes us arrive early and afraid to be late for
work. People who use this power can influence others' actions through their ability to
intimidate and punish others. These actions include the possibility of demotion, dismissal,
and reprimands, and so on. The level of strength of this power needs to be controlled to make
other people stay in line with leaders.
Second, the Power of Reward, which is a prospective benefit or reward. This power
includes the return of salary increases and incentives, praise given, recognition, and
promotion. This power, if used equally and equally, will be very motivating. The people who
get this return will do more and better things by pursuing that incentive. However, if
incentives are offered unfairly and favoritism, they will become discouraged and
discouraged. Also, if the reward is given unfairly, favoritism can reduce their motivation.
Third, the Power of Legitimate. A power that is given to someone based on their status or
function. Often this is found in the hierarchy of an organization, for example, where junior
managers report to senior managers and senior managers report to directors. As part of the
reciprocity, the only way is by giving promotions. This is done to get more influence.
Fourth, the Power of Referent is a personal attraction or charisma. This power is the
ability to influence others because they respect, admire, or like someone. There are several
ways to get this power, for example, building social capital by saying "yes" when other
people ask to do something for them. Fifth, the Power of Expert. This type of power is
another way of gaining recognition and authority outside the existing hierarchy. With this,
everyone can influence others based on their abilities, skills, and experiences. To get it, one
must know and ascertain what one needs to know to do a job well and build on his skills.
Sixth, Power of Information. This power is short term and does not inherently influence or
create legitimacy. For example, the project manager will have all the information for a
particular project. That will give him "information control" to control the parties involved to
support his plan. This short term means that some information will eventually be published.
The last type of power is the Power of Connection, which is an interpersonal relationship and
relationship. This power generates proxy leverage and a one-person connection to another.
Everyone can acquire this power by becoming a source of knowledge for those with whom he
communicates.
Example
We try to provide some examples to explain better what has been discussed above.
For first example, Josh Lewis is a recent graduate who works at one of the top three
multimedia production and distribution houses in the world, called Rising Entertainment. As
someone who has just finished his studies and belongs to Gen Y, Josh expects plenty of

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excitement and opportunity to work at Rising Entertainment. Whereas in fact, he should face
a generational gap that causes a serious conflict with his own boss, Sarah, classified as Gen
X. The generational differences between Sarah and Josh contribute to the miscommunication
they’re experiencing. Both of them have failed to convey what they expect from one another
clearly, and Sarah hasn’t given Josh the feedback that he, like many Generation Y employees,
needs to stay engaged and perform effectively. Here is right where effective leadership
communication is supposed to be performed by Sarah. As the leader, she should influence her
team as a single person or a group by using the full range of their communication abilities
and resources to connect positively with her team/ subordinates, overcome interferences, and
create and deliver messages that guide, direct, motivate, or inspire others to action in
achieving company’s objectives.
The other example is in this difficult period of PSBB, several companies made salary
cuts or even layoffs of employees. In this case, the leader of a company or even a particular
department leader has an important role in motivating employees. With several approaches
such as Information, Legitimate connection, of course, leaders who have good relationships
must be able to communicate this information on how the background & transparency of the
company carried out the cutting policy during the PSBB period, and still provide direction
and convince subordinates that the policy is only temporary, the leader must provide
company objectives at a certain time will return to normal. There will be no more cuts if
employees can work in a certain job capacity to achieve organizational goals. In this case,
Reward and Coercive can also be done. The Leader motivates his subordinates to do their job
well and get a reward within the predetermined timeline target. On the other hand, if
employees cannot do their work proportion properly, they can experience bankruptcy, which
led to employee layoffs. So in this approach, of course, the Leader must be able to explain
well related to difficult times so that employees can have a positive perception and have a
sense of empathy for the state of the organization. With these approaches, the leader will
have effective communication to encourage employees/ subordinates to achieve their best
performance and achieve organizational goals.
In conclusion, after recognizing the above leadership and communication factors and
sources of influence, we partially agree with the arguments that ‘without effective
communication, a leader is not a leader.’ If we see the type of power in a legitimate aspect,
they are still a leader who has power, because leaders are not the only people who
communicate their message well but also people with certain positions, people with higher
responsibility, or even every one of us can become leaders. But influential leaders
communicate effectively. Mastering leadership communication becomes a priority for
individuals who want to lead others and want their groups, organizations, or the broader
community to follow them, trust them, and consider them leaders.

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 example, we are presenting right after lunch, we may find it more difficult for our
audience to engage. If we're the first in the morning, we may need to deal with being late. If
it's the end of the day, the audience's attention will probably stop working for the day. For
this reason, in delivering materials such as the examples we provide, we think that morning is
the right time. We recommend a time that is not too early, which is 10 a.m. to 12 p.m or
before lunch break.

Feedback
Where possible, we should think about ways to get feedback to measure our success
in reaching our audience with our message and make adjustments in our choice of media,
presentation style, or content if necessary. Therefore, we will do a final survey regarding
measuring the delivery satisfaction level from the material we convey. If we come face to
face with our audience, we should know from their reactions how they received our message,
but getting more structured input may be important.

Tips for Giving Effective Presentations

When it comes time to present, we need to concentrate on our delivery style, focusing
primarily on our eye contact, direct if attitude and body posture, articulation, and overall
appearance. This can be a concern if you want to appear comfortable, confident, enthusiastic,
and professional. Since our presentation's success will largely be determined by how our
audience perceives us from the start, we must be prepared to build our expertise and value to
our audience immediately and maintain that positive ethos as a whole. Here are some tips for
giving an effective presentation:

Control Our Nervousness

Public speaking is often cited as one of humanity's greatest fears, and everyone has
advice on how to deal with nervousness when making presentations, from practicing some
deep breathing yoga exercises to pretending that everyone in the room isn't there. The advice
that is often given to professional athletes before they perform is to visualize their success.
We all have to find what is best for us. The most important method of dealing with our
nervousness is to be well prepared. If we know our subjects, tell our stories, and are prepared
to face whatever situations that might happen to us, we won't be nervous. Sometimes it helps
to take deep breaths and think of something nice. We need to be able to appear naturally

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ourselves, to be ourselves. Most importantly, we need to focus on the audience and not on
ourselves.

Making Eye Contact

When effective leaders deliver live presentations, they connect with everyone present.
If we are in the same room with them, we feel like they are personally talking. They do this
by looking at a different person in the audience for a few seconds and actually making eye
contact with the audience. However, we need to be sensitive to cultural differences since
some cultures consider looking someone directly in the eye to be impolite or offensive. Our
eye contact may be glancing and indirect.

Pay Attention to Posture and Gestures

Our posture reflects our attitude towards our subject and audience and expresses our
confidence. A person lowering their head with their shoulders slumped would seem unsure of
what they were carrying. To project confidence and build a positive ethos, presenters must
stand tall and pay attention to their audience. Usually, live presenters want to take an open
position with their feet shoulder-width apart. It aims to maintain a comfortable and relaxed
attitude. Also, try to position your hands as you would in a casual conversation, although if
we tend to move them too much, we may need to hold back more when giving presentations.
Usually, people look and feel most naturally when they bend their arms, keeping their elbows
at their sides when standing and while sitting, although they usually want to rest their hands
on the table in front of them. We should avoid pointing or gesturing at the projected slide.
Instead, we should use the PowerPoint features to highlight the areas of the slide we want our
audience to focus on. If we find ourselves in a situation that requires a screenshot, we must be
careful not to look away. Instead, we should step back even with the screen, face the
audience, and beckon our side. If delivering a stand-up presentation in person, where possible
and appropriate, it is best to get out from behind the podium, table, or desk. This creates a
barrier between us and our audience, and building a good relationship with them will be
easier if we remove that barrier. Usually, we don't need to stand in one place unless the
room's space is limited, or our movement can make the audience uncomfortable. If the
presentation is taking place in a large room, we may need to walk toward the audience and
perhaps even from one side of the room to the other to connect with the entire audience.
Some gestures to avoid:

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 1. Bending down or engaging in a similar informal posture.
2. Lean to one side, on the arm of our chair, for example, or if you stand, tilt your body
to one side.
3. Too pacing or walking around the room.
4. Grasping hands in front or behind.
5. Stand with your hands on your hips.
6. Grasping the podium or table until our knuckles turn white.
7. Gesturing too much or when it is inappropriate or natural.
8. Fidget with keys, pens, pointers, ties, and the like.
9. Shake or shift in our seats or when standing.
10. Lean on the podium or sit on a table in a live presentation.

Voice and Speech Patterns

The key to changing our speech patterns is knowing what we are doing now, and
recording it ahead of time is the best way to find out. Effective leaders speak clearly so that
their audience can understand them. They control and vary the volume. They pause between
sentences and use little, if any, filler. They sound confident, which comes from making
statements and avoiding "blunt talk," an inflection that occurs when we emphasize the last
word of a sentence, as we do when asking a question. The following are tips for maintaining
the quality of sound and speech patterns in the delivery of our presentations:

1. In person, speak to the last line in the audience, but naturally, turn up the volume. If
we have to strain to be heard, then we need to use a microphone.
2. Articulate clearly, making sure to pronounce very important syllables, especially the
last one.
3. Don't talk too fast. Build breaks between main ideas and be careful not to carry on
ideas together.
4. Vary rhythm and pitch appropriately to avoid sounding monotonous. Our voice
should reflect the enthusiasm we feel for the topic and the energy it generates.
Relaxing facial muscles and smiling will often help.
5. Avoid words that tend to cause pronunciation problems or practice them until you can
pronounce them perfectly 10 times in a row.

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Tips for Delivering Presentations Effectively with Visual Assistance:

1. Maintain eye contact: We should look at our audience or the camera, not at our tablet
or laptop or the projection screen. In most presentations, our delivery should continue
as if nothing was projected beside us, behind us, or in front of us.
2. Sound: We must be careful to maintain the volume. Presenters tend to let their voices
fade as they move to change slides. We have to finish our thinking on this slide and
finish our introduction on the next slide; then, pause talking for a bit and move on to
the slide we just introduced.
3. Transitions: The presenter wants to make the transition from slide to slide as smooth
as possible. One technique is to introduce each slide before presenting it. Most
presenters wait for a slide to appear and then start talking about it as if they didn't
know what was coming until they saw it. We should introduce the topic for a much
more effective transition, which should be "so what?" or the next slide's main message
before it appears.
4. Timing: We have to practice with our slides to ensure we don't have too much for our
allotted time. The rule of thumb is to allow at least two to three minutes per slide. We
must be careful to give our audience time to absorb complex graphic information and
be prepared to guide our audience through that information if necessary.
5. Technology: If possible, we should always check the technology first and make sure
we know how to use it and that everything is working properly.

Handling Q&A
It's not uncommon for presenters to spend more time preparing for the Q&A session
than on the presentation itself. Effective Q&A handling requires careful preparation, careful
listening, and the humility of saying, "I don't know, but I'll find it for you." Leaders organize
Q&A sessions prepared, even too prepared, especially for difficult questions. They anticipate
all questions and prepare answers just in case. They also practice controlling the topic and
themselves. During the team presentation, all participants have to make a plan, determining
who will answer what types of questions. If it is a formal presentation, team members should
position themselves at the end of the presentation to indicate which members are ready to
answer. During the question and answer session, the following tips will help you manage
your audience:

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 1. Determine and announce the timing of the questions before starting the presentation.
If giving a virtual presentation, consider having the moderator collect questions
during the presentation, and use those questions to start a Q&A session.
2. Listen to the questions carefully.
3. Repeat the question or paraphrase to make sure you understand it so your audience
can hear it. This technique also takes time to formulate answers.
4. Keep answers short and simple: Answer specific questions; then stopped. Avoid
talking for too long or intersecting.
5. Don't try to trick your way through an answer. Better to say politely, "I'm not sure I
have an answer to that question at this time, but I'll find out for you."
6. When you're face to face, move away from the questioner who is trying to isolate you
in a two-way conversation, so you break eye contact with him and reconnect with the
rest of the room.
7. Address difficult or multilayer questions by answering them as completely as possible
and in question order, but be prepared to say, "I would love to go into this question in
more detail after the presentation."
8. Remember to repeat the main message after the Q&A so you can control how it ends.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barrett, D.J. (2014). Leadership Communication, 4th Edition. McGraw Hill International
Edition.
Munter, Mary. Guide to Managerial Communication, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall,
Inc.