Communication is one of the most important aspects of organizational leadership as it determines the effectiveness of activities carried out within and out. In this paper, the major functions of communication are discussed and how they relate to leadership. Also, the characteristics of a good leader as elaborated. The conclusion shows that leadership characteristics such as emotional intelligence, assertiveness, accountability, and empathy can only be realized if the leader communicates effectively. By helping all stakeholders to understand the internal and external factors affecting an organization, Communication is the glue that ensures the strength of a firm. As a vital function of an organization, communication is core to leadership. The effectiveness of a leader is mainly measured by the ability to effectively communicate and motivate every member of an organization toward the achievement of desired goals. Leaders not only need to use effective communication skills at the organizational level but also outside internal structures into the community. While running a day camp during one of my holidays, I learned the importance of the application of communication skills as a leader. To have excellent performance, there is need for effective and purposeful communication from leaders and employees (Robbins & Judge, 2013). Despite the level and direction, communication is key and must adhere to most stringent factors. Not only does communication affect the internal working of an organization but also affects the external business elements and the environment in its working. In the camp, four main functions of communication were vital to the stability and success of everyday activity. The first function is information of members of an organization. Informing involves the provision of data and information to members of an organization in order to ensure effective running ( Bolino et al., 2013) . Typical form of information is down a hierarchy with managers informing employees on roles and duties. To be effective leaders, managers must ensure clarity and timeliness in informing employees. However, while managing the day camp I realised that upward communication when employees communicate to managers is also neccesary. In this case, I engaged active listening skills to try and understand the information that came up from employees to ensure smooth flow of activities. The second function of communication in an organization is motivation. Bolino et al., (2013) defines motivation as the process of stimulating a person to act towards the accomplishment of a goal. The creation of willingness to achieve among employees is a vital part of management. A great leader must hence motivate employees to perform through proper presentation of goals and vision. At the day camp, the daily goals were accompanied by feedback and reward for good behavior among subordinates. The activities that required motivation of employees towards the achievement of desired goals had to be done through proper communication from me as the leader. Control is a third function of communication control of members of a group including their behavior (Robbins & Judge, 2013). With authority hierarchies in an organization, it is necessary to have formal guidelines for following its working. Through communication, leaders give orders and directives to followers and make them follow a certain direction ( Bolino et al., 2013). Therefore, an effective leader must possess skills that will enable him/her to give orders that are not only understandable but also in acceptable way to employees. The other function of communication in an organization is the facilitation of decision-making. By providing information needed for decision-making, communication allow leaders to come to conclusions. Also, decision-making involves other activities such as brainstorming when multiple ideas are generated ( Bolino et al., 2013). At the camp, I engaged my subordinates daily to brainstorm and understand the daily activities. As a leader I needed the ability to derive information from members of a team in order to make effective decisions that will allow for the prosperity of the camp. Leadership is defined as the capability to influence a group towards the attainment of set goals and a vision. The need for good leadership in an organization cannot be overemphasized. Consequently, while such responsibilities as management gives an opportunity for an individual to lead, not all manager have the capacity to become goo leader (Robbins & Judge, 2013) . Certain characteristics, led by ability to influence people, are the prerequisite to good leadership. As the camp leader, I applied some of these traits in order to ensure the smooth flow of activities therein. According to (Robbins & Judge, 2013) extraversion is the most important trait of an effective leader as it determines how the individual emerge. As a major personality trait in the theory of personality, extraversion indicates the ability of a person to form and maintain relationships ( Walumbwa, Hartnell & Oke, 2010) . As a person who scores high on the extraversion scale, I am outgoing, participative and energetic. Assertiveness which comes from the ability to effectively present oneself in a situation makes up a good leader. As an assertive leader I was able to stay around people and assert myself into the group through proper presentation and communication. Consequently, communication was key to my assertiveness as a leader who shows extraversion. Another vital leadership trait that is common among most effective leaders is that I used as a leader is emotional intelligence. Simply put, emotional intelligence refers to the ability to understand and manage emotions ( Walumbwa et al., 2010) . An emotionally intelligent person is not only able to manage their own but also the emotions of others. Emotional intelligence require that an individual possesses several skills including empathy, self-awareness, motivation and most importantly social skills. As the most important part of emotional intelligence, social skills ate the tools that allow an individual to communicate and develop healthy relationships with other people. Consequently, to understand other people’s emotions, one need effectively communicate, asking questions and behaving inappropriate way to be able to help. In applying emotional intelligence, I have to utilize some of my communication skills such as active listening and social skills. Another trait of a good leader that is related to emotional intelligence is empathy. Empathy refers to the ability to experience other person’s emotions as if they were their own. As an empathetic leader, I was approachable and easy to express issues including grievances and ideas. My ability to listen attentively and actively and respond to issues affecting other members of my team was important in expressing empathy. Accountability is another important trait of a good leader that contributes to the success of an organization, a team or any group. Accountability not only involves ensuring that subordinates are accountable by also keeping oneself in check ( Walumbwa et al., 2010). It requires the tact and being able to highlight mistakes in subordinates in a way that does not demean their status or cause resentment. I used my excellent interpersonal communication skills to communicate members of the plans and activities and deliver quality results while being accountable. According to Fred Fielder, there are two basic leadership styles where leaders can be performance or relationship oriented. The leader-member relations that define the extent to which there is confidence in the leader is a vital indicator of the level of success that a leader will experience (Robbins & Judge, 2013). The camp was mainly a relationship-oriented function where people cared less of results. As a relationship-oriented leader, I focus on the general well-being of members including their satisfaction and motivation. The relationship-oriented leadership holds that a positive environment drives productivity in an organization. Using my strong communication skills such as interpersonal skills empathy and active listening, I encouraged partnership and solidarity with a strong emphasis on good communication. To maintain the characteristics of good leadership, communication playing a key role and ensured the effectiveness and smooth running of activities at the camp. I learnt that the functions of communication in an organization including motivation, expression control, and provision of information are mainly pegged on the leaders. This means that the success of an organization is dependent on the effectiveness and skills of the leadership in the area of communication.
References
Bolino, M. C., Klotz, A. C., Turnley, W. H., & Harvey, J. (2013). Exploring the dark side of organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34 (4), 542-559.
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Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A., (2013). Organizational Behaviour. Pearson
Walumbwa, F. O., Hartnell, C. A., & Oke, A. (2010). Servant leadership, procedural justice climate, service climate, employee attitudes, and organizational citizenship behavior: a cross-level investigation. Journal of applied psychology, 95 (3), 517.
