When it comes to being an effective, successful leader, there is one skill you cannot do without – being a great communicator – but leaders don’t always realise that’s the crux of their problems.

Some challenges you might notice instead are: feeling frustrated that people don’t take more initiative and keep checking back for clarity. Or that tasks and projects aren’t getting executed to expectation or fast enough. Or that you struggle to get your message across and gain buy-in from your team or peers. Or that when crunch times come, you don’t feel like you can rely on people to help ‘get the job done’.

These are common leadership challenges we hear all the time, and because communication skills can often be a blindspot, leaders don’t realise that the problem isn’t their team not ‘doing their job’ but in fact unclear communication.

In a recent report by FlexOS, 30% of employees said they’re frustrated by unclear communication from their managers. And as more and more employees are working remotely or in hybrid work environments, the need for effective communication has become even stronger.

Not sure if this is an area of development for you?

Here are 5 simple warning signs that your communication style might be interfering with your leadership capabilities:

• Writing emails or starting a conversation with no greeting
• Calling someone on Teams without warning and expecting them to be available asking if they’ve got time to talk
• Having short, sharp transactional interactions with no attempt to have meaningful conversations
• Being direct in your communications, to the point where you’re considered blunt or rude
• Not having one-on-ones with your team or being unavailable for conversations

If you’ve recognised yourself or someone you manage in any of the above, know that communication challenges are common and often stem from how we were taught to communicate. But you don’t need to stay stuck here and can fix your comms style pronto.

Here are 4 steps you can take right now:

1. Learn your communication style and how you come across

The 4 common styles are passive, passive aggressive, aggressive, and assertive. The best leaders have an assertive style, which isn’t about being rude but clear and direct, and showing care, consideration and empathy in your communication. (If you want to find out what your communication style is, we’ve got a free resource that can help. Drop us an email at enquiries@tactician.net.au and we’ll send it over.)

2. Build Your Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is about 3 things: self-awareness, self-regulation, self-compassion. In our communication we need to be self-aware enough to know and understand the impact our communication has on others.  And the key to that is seeking informal or formal feedback. (Our 360 Survey tools can help with that, reach out if you want to know more).

3. Be Aware of Your Body Signals

It’s not just the words you say, but how you say them. Think about your pace, and slowing down if you need to so that everything you say is understood. Ensure you match your tone to the people you are working with. And use body language that is open and doesn’t discourage people from sharing their thoughts.

4. Practice the 7 Cs of Effective Communication

When it comes to the words you use, you want them to be clear, concise, concrete, correct, coherent, complete and courteous. It can take time to practice, but it is effort well spent on your rise to greater leadership.

In our experience at Tactician, core leadership challenges come down to just one thing – communication difficulties. And in this day and age of asynchronous working, clear, direct and timely communication is essential.

When you get it right, assertive communication has an incredible flow on effect to your capability and effectiveness as a leader. You become more influential, can gain buy-in, make decisions faster, build trust as a concise clear communicator, and can work at pace.

If you’re a senior leader who has self-identified you need help with this, we have expert coaches available for one-on-one guidance to help you quickly deal with current or ongoing challenges you are experiencing.

Or, if you work in an organisation or business where engagement surveys consistently show communication as an issue, then we can work with your leaders to improve their communication through our influencing and communication half or full-day workshops.