L02: Leadership Communication Purpose, Strategy, and Structure

In the communication process, leaders need to determine two things to successfully reach the audiences: (1) determining the purpose, goals, or vision of what we want to achieve and (2) developing how best to achieve the purpose, goals or vision. In this chapter, we will learn the importance of having a clear communication purpose, why leader needs to develop a strategic leadership communication plan, how to analyze the audiences and how the leader could ensure that the messages are logically and appropriately organized for different audiences.

The first important step of leadership communication is a clear communication purpose. In each communication activity, leader needs to have a specific purpose of communication that wants audiences to respond: to inform, to persuade, to instruct, or to engage audiences.

Once specific purposes are developed, leaders may need to make sure that ideas are complete and they have enough information or thoughts about the subject. Tools that will help leaders gather ideas and information about the particular subjects are brainstorming, idea mapping or also called mind mapping, the journalists’ questions or tool of getting ideas for a story: Who? What? Why? When? Where?, and the decision tree. 

As defining the communication purpose, leader needs to determine how to achieve our communication objectives within the context surrounding the communication. Leaders have to know what is going on around them and consider the context of the messages they send, which is important to help them ensure that they create and develop the messages, so that audiences listen to and accept them as they intend.

The Communication Strategy Framework is an approach to developing a communication strategy that will ensure that leaders consider and anticipate issues that might interfere with communicating the message. Leaders need to consider each of the components in the framework: the purpose, messages, media/forum, timing, and communicator. Leaders can use the strategy framework to guide the analysis and frame the strategy. Leaders then develop an action plan and communicate to the audiences.

Since the characteristics of audiences will determine the approach and shape the targeted messages, leaders have to analyze the audiences in every communication situation and should approach each audience differently. Four approaches that leaders can use to analyze an audience are by expertise, by decision-making style, by medium, and by organizational context.

To summarize, leaders will accomplish the purpose of communication and result in the desire action if leaders can concentrate on clarifying messages, developing a communication strategy, knowing how to generate and organize ideas, and understanding the audiences so that they will reach different audiences. Effective communication strategy allows leaders to anticipate and more likely avoid the barriers and, therefore, eliminate the interferences that could prevent their messages from reaching their target audiences.