The Role of Communication in Managing People

1. She sees my facial expressions and general appearance (visual/nonverbal). My expression may suggest concern, surprise or satisfaction; and my general appearance, including my dress, may suggest professionalism or comfort (visual/nonverbal);
2. She hears my words (oral/aural), which may be at a certain volume to represent a normal tone or louder to suggest emphasis;
3. I might stand a certain distance from her (spatial) either to respect her space or to suggest authority over her and;
4. I might shake her hand or tap her on the arm (touch/haptic) as I make a point to try to convey the importance of the point or represent a collegial bond with her.

As the description of each mode suggests, the combination of the modes influences the specific message conveyed holistically. My dress may reinforce the formal tone of my words to suggest professionalism. I can reinforce professional respect by smiling courteously as I use formal language. Much communication is multimodal, limited only by the media involved or physical presence. Is one communicating face-to-face with their audience? Is one e-mailing a message? Talking over the phone? Video conferencing? Writing a report to be attached to an e-mail message or mailed? Each of these contexts facilitates certain modalities, emphasising a limited set while possibly excluding others.

Managers and executives can communicate using any of these methods— email, phone, face-to-face, video conferencing or document reporting. Managers and executives also, organisation communicate through actions. Even when not directly communicating with someone, actions convey messages visually and spatially that a given audience may perceive in certain ways. If one donates money to a cause within a workplace fundraising effort, the action is perceived as supporting that effort—supporting the organization. If one closes his office door, it suggests that he does not want to see others.

Also, the kinds of messages managers and executives must make tend to involve a certain range that is typically associated with elements of leadership: Inspiring people to act on decisions, articulating a vision for the organisation, building trust, facilitating change, conveying responsibility and knowledge while being a team player. However, how does one communicate these elements? Further, rarely is a message a single interaction. A single message, indeed, may be part of a larger series of messages an audience absorbs related to a given activity. What is the relationship between these messages?

Books and articles about management and leadership are loaded with principles and tips associated with the various elements involved in leadership and management, like those identified above. Some present examples of successful managers to illustrate the application of those concepts. The value in using such examples is that they act as case studies that readers may be able to emulate. A reader may imitate people in those cases and become successful. However, much as it is important to understand successful examples of leadership, it is important to understand what contributes to failed leadership. One can learn more from failure than from success. A growing number of recent works describe the use o empathy, or “emotional intelligence,” in decision-making and communication. Broadly, the concept describes the use of an understanding of others’ feelings in making how and communicating those decisions. The gist is that doing so will help the audience respond favourably to the decision. However, this concept becomes difficult to apply as the size of an audience grows. Managers may deal with a team of 4–10 people or more. Executives deal with many teams of varying sizes. Also, an interesting attribute of executive communication is that some of it may become public.