5 Best Practices for Strategic Communication in Leadership

Explore five essential practices for effective leadership communication that build trust, drive action, and foster engagement across teams.

Align Messages with Business Goals: Link your communication to organisational priorities. Be clear, actionable, and transparent to build trust.
Encourage Two-Way Conversations: Foster open dialogue, give and receive feedback, and embrace transparency to strengthen trust and engagement.
Adapt to Different Audiences: Tailor your message to suit stakeholders' roles, preferences, and priorities while keeping the core message consistent.
Use Stories to Connect: Share relatable stories to simplify complex ideas, inspire action, and make your message memorable.
Handle Difficult Conversations with Care: Approach sensitive topics with empathy, active listening, and a structured plan to achieve resolution.

These practices help leaders build trust, drive action, and maintain clarity in their communication. Whether you're managing a team or leading an organisation, effective communication is essential for achieving better outcomes.

7 Key Communication Strategies for Leadership and ...

What Makes Communication Work in Leadership

Before diving into the five practices, it's important to understand the basics of effective leadership communication.

What is Leadership Communication

Leadership communication is about informing and inspiring others through spoken, written, and non-verbal messages. It serves as the foundation for communication strategies that align with organisational goals. Key traits include:

Genuineness: Being honest and transparent in your interactions.
Approachability: Being open and available for conversations.
Clarity: Ensuring your messages are straightforward and easy to follow.
Confidence: Speaking with assurance and authority.
Empathy: Recognising and valuing others' perspectives.

Clear and Consistent Messages

Consistency is crucial to keep your team aligned and reduce misunderstandings. Here's how to achieve it:

Communicate frequently using various channels.
Ensure your actions match your words.
Maintain transparency in processes.
Set clear expectations for team conduct.
Break down complex ideas into simpler terms.

Understand Your Audience

Every stakeholder has unique concerns, priorities, and preferences. To connect effectively, consider:

Their role and responsibilities within the organisation.
Whether they make decisions based on logic or emotions.
How familiar they are with the topic at hand.
Their preferred way of receiving and processing information.
What aspects of communication matter most to them.

With these basics covered, you can begin aligning your messages with your organisation's objectives.

Practice 1: Connect Messages to Business Goals

While 71% of S&P 500 companies outline their strategic priorities, fewer than 3% meet all communication standards. Aligning your messages with business goals can help close this gap.

Link Messages to Key Priorities

To ensure your communications support business objectives, focus on being clear and actionable. Here are some examples:

Salesforce highlighted its expansion into analytics, commerce, and IoT, linking its message directly to action.
Electronic Arts measures its digital commitment by tracking annual digital-sales growth.

Here’s how to align messages with business goals effectively:

Limit Your Focus: Stick to a few strategic priorities to ensure clarity and demonstrate commitment.
Set Specific Targets: For instance, Carnival Corp. pledged to install new air-emissions technology on about 70% of its fleet by 2017.
Show Progress: Share measurable results to demonstrate progress toward your objectives.

Build Trust Through Clear Purpose

A Towers Perrin study revealed that less than half of employees trust strategy-related communications.

"Communications is fundamental to building trust. It contributes to the creation of an environment of trust around leaders that enables them to lead effectively, engage employees and ultimately deliver results."
– Jodi Macpherson, Communications Expert at Mercer Inc.

Expedia demonstrated this by tying product development to customer benefits, explaining how its innovations simplify booking travel.

To build trust through purpose-driven communication:

Be open about your strategy and performance.
Explain how individual roles contribute to broader goals.
Ensure actions align with your stated priorities.
Encourage feedback on strategic initiatives.

Next, we’ll look at how to encourage two-way conversations.

Practice 2: Create Two-Way Conversations

Two-way conversations are key to encouraging collaboration and gathering valuable input. Open dialogue helps build trust and keeps everyone engaged by inviting participation at all levels. Use feedback loops to ensure your messages remain aligned with your goals.

Use Transparency to Build Trust

Being transparent means sharing information openly and encouraging honest communication. Here's how to embrace transparency:

Communicate regularly: Share updates clearly and consistently across different channels.
Address concerns honestly: Be upfront about challenges, showing that honesty matters more than appearances.
Lead by example: Demonstrate the communication style and behaviours you'd like to see in your team.

"Trust isn't something you can mandate - it grows from consistently demonstrating your commitment to better communication with those you work with." – CCL

Get and Give Feedback

The SBI (Situation-Behaviour-Impact) model provides a simple way to give structured and constructive feedback:

Situation: A team meeting on Tuesday morning.
Behaviour: Interrupting colleagues during the discussion.
Impact: Reduced participation from others.

Companies like De Beers Group have experienced the benefits of effective feedback. Hermien Uys shares:

"I've learned to give feedback constructively and work better with my team, making me a more effective leader." – Hermien Uys, De Beers Group

To improve your feedback process:

Give direct feedback as soon as possible.
Focus on what you observed, not assumptions.
Listen carefully and allow time for reflection.
Act on feedback to show that it matters.

Once you've mastered these practices, tailor your communication to suit different audiences effectively.

Practice 3: Speak to Different Audiences

Adjust your communication style for each stakeholder group while keeping your core message consistent.

Tailor Your Message

Once you've established strategic alignment and open communication, customise your approach depending on the audience:

CEOs: Highlight the platform as a solution that cuts costs and allows product teams to focus on their strengths.
General Managers: Focus on how the platform supports product growth and point out the potential costs of independently rebuilding solutions, such as research and maintenance.
Product Teams: Stress the platform's ease of use in daily tasks and its ability to address specific challenges throughout the product lifecycle.
Legal and Security Teams: Emphasise how centralising data simplifies security controls, permissions management, and audit processes.

To make these distinctions more effective, develop clear personas to shape your tone, content, and communication channels. Use detailed audience profiles to refine your tailored messages further.

Know Your Audience

To personalise your communication effectively, consider these steps:

Build concise personas (e.g., someone focused on budgets versus a solution evaluator).
Identify each group's main goals and decision-making criteria.
Regularly gather feedback to ensure your personas and messages stay relevant.

"Effective communication requires a holistic approach that considers not just what we say, but how we say it and to whom." – Annie Zhou

Practice 4: Use Stories to Connect

Once you've tailored your message, weave it into relatable stories to boost engagement and make it memorable.

Stories take abstract concepts and turn them into meaningful, emotional experiences. They help people connect with the message, understand its purpose, and take action. By using stories, you can align your goals with your audience and maintain meaningful communication.

Why Stories Work

Stories resonate because they appeal to basic human instincts. They transform dry data into something relatable and allow people to learn from others' experiences. By adding a personal touch, stories help individuals see how they fit into the broader picture.

For example, Microsoft's GM shared a moment when they worked directly with a stressed customer to fix software issues. This story highlighted their commitment to customer focus during a time of organisational change.

Create Effective Stories

Here are some ways to build impactful stories:

Set the scene: Describe a specific time or challenge.
Focus on the main character: Make it relatable by centring on a team member or customer.
Define the goal: Show what you're aiming to achieve.
Introduce a challenge: Add tension to keep it engaging.
End with resolution: Highlight the positive outcome or impact.

1. Link to Strategy

In 2018, Amazon shifted its digital transformation messaging from technical details to a story of national connectivity and team growth. This approach made their vision more relatable and easier to grasp.

2. Address Existing Narratives

Acknowledge and respond to counter-narratives. Microsoft's GM emphasised this point by saying:

"If we're going to create lifecycle value, a key pillar is to Elevate the Customer Experience."

3. Share Personal Experiences

Personal stories can be incredibly powerful. As one expert noted:

"As a leader, remember your most powerful stories will be things you share about your life experience - especially a time when you failed or made a mistake. Not only can those stories make your intended point, but they also can build a stronger connection or relationship between you and those you are telling the story to."

Encourage your teams to use these stories in their roles, helping to create a shared narrative that spans the entire organisation.

Practice 5: Handle Difficult Conversations

Building on dialogue and storytelling, this practice helps you approach challenging conversations with structure and empathy.

Leaders often face tough discussions that require a mix of emotional intelligence, clear focus, and a structured approach.

Manage Important Discussions

Tough conversations have three key components: facts, feelings, and identity impact. Understanding these layers helps leaders address complex situations effectively.

Preparation Tips

Pick a private, neutral location at a suitable time.
Define the purpose, desired outcomes, and consider both perspectives.
Recognise and acknowledge strong emotions.
Plan a neutral, balanced "third-story" introduction.

Lolly Daskal, CEO of Lead From Within, advises:

"As a leader, it's important to recognize and accept difficult emotions, rather than trying to solve or avoid them, to reduce emotional intensity and tension. Difficult emotions, while uncomfortable, are not dangerous." – Lolly Daskal

Listen and Show Understanding

Active listening is essential in these situations. The Center for Creative Leadership explains:

"The key is to shift your thinking from 'I need to explain myself (or deliver a message)' to 'I need to listen and learn more about what's going on.' The listening is really the critical part." – Center for Creative Leadership

Key Approaches

Focus on specific behaviours, not personal traits.
Use "I" statements to express concerns.
Avoid assuming intentions; stick to observable actions.

Stay Calm

Use mindful breathing techniques to maintain composure.
Take breaks if emotions rise too high.

When discussing sensitive topics, follow these steps:

Opening: Introduce the issue neutrally to encourage collaboration.
Exploration: Ask open-ended questions to understand different perspectives.
Discussion: Share feedback and listen to build mutual understanding.
Resolution: Work towards solutions and agree on next steps.
Follow-up: Schedule check-ins to monitor progress.

Handled thoughtfully, difficult conversations can reveal opportunities for growth and strengthen relationships. By combining clear purpose, active listening, and emotional awareness, you complete the five-practice framework for effective leadership communication.

Communication Methods Comparison

Choosing the right communication method - whether it's data, storytelling, or a mix of both - can help you strengthen the five practices discussed earlier. Knowing when to lean on data-driven communication or storytelling is especially important for achieving clarity (Practice 1) and fostering connection (Practice 4). This choice can significantly enhance your leadership effectiveness.

Data-Driven Communication

Using data helps simplify complex ideas and supports informed decision-making. When leaders need to showcase expertise or analyse trends, facts and figures provide a reliable foundation. However, this approach often invites detailed scrutiny from the audience.

Storytelling Approach

Stories, on the other hand, tap into emotions, creating a sense of openness and connection. They are particularly effective for inspiring action or fostering engagement.

Combining Both Methods

The best leaders know how to combine these approaches effectively. Here's a quick comparison of the two:

Primary focus: Data appeals to logic, while storytelling engages emotions.
Audience reaction: Data often leads to scrutiny; stories spark connection.
Best suited for: Data is ideal for detailed analysis; stories are better for driving inspiration.
Retention: Facts may be forgotten quickly, but stories tend to stick.
Impact: Data highlights expertise, whereas stories encourage emotional involvement.

Making Data More Human

Nancy Duarte emphasises the importance of weaving stories into data:

"Learning to curate and tell stories within an organization can become a kind of superpower for a leader. By humanizing the data, leaders bring a greater understanding to the problems that data initially reveals."

To make your data more relatable, identify the "hero" within your numbers. This could be employees leading positive change or customers achieving meaningful results. Speak with the people behind the data to uncover the stories that bring those figures to life.

Conclusion

Strong leadership communication builds trust and drives positive results through clear and intentional dialogue. Focusing on key practices - aligning messages with goals, encouraging open conversations, adapting to different audiences, using storytelling effectively, and managing tough discussions - creates a solid communication strategy.

Clear and honest communication strengthens credibility. The five approaches - Connect Messages to Business Goals, Create Two-Way Conversations, Speak to Different Audiences, Use Stories to Connect, and Handle Difficult Conversations - offer practical methods to improve how leaders communicate.

The true measure of communication lies in its ability to build trust and inspire action. Achieving excellence requires consistent effort and reflection. By integrating these practices into your daily leadership habits, you can foster deeper connections and achieve better outcomes with your teams.