Five Critical Messages Leaders Must Manage

You will quickly note that this course is not designed to discuss communication in terms of proper emails and PowerPoint templates, although delivery of your messages will certainly be addressed. Rather, the purpose of this course is to enhance your understanding of leadership communication on a broader organizational level and in a change context. To set the stage for this discussion, fundamental messages (essential communication topics) must be addressed.

At the point when alignment of audience, message, and communicator is achieved, five fundamental messages must be sustained in order to keep organizational communication on track. If leaders assume that the organization is entirely in sync on these topics, disregarding the audience's level of knowledge about them, the train can easily go off the tracks, sometimes crashing completely! Keep in mind that the way an organization communicates is set in place by its leader.

When leaders communicate clearly on issues surrounding the foundational messages—with an appreciation and awareness of the audience's knowledge base, experiences, and assumptions—amazing potential is unleashed. When they convey clear explanations of these critical messages through accurate and personalized communication, improvements in relationships, feedback, deliberate strategy, and performance are quickly evident.

The Five Messages

Although organizational leaders are responsible for communication in many respects, our discussion will focus on the five critical messages that leaders are tasked to convey:

• Message 1: organizational structure and hierarchy;
• Message 2: financial results;
• Message 3: the leader’s sense of his or her job;
• Message 4: time management; and
• Message 5: corporate culture.