Skills of Leadership: The Art of Communication

The art of communication also known as the acting of getting, retrieving, and giving information is the process by which a person in a position of leaderships acts to receive, process, and give information. Each one of these parts are equally important because without all three components effective and accurate communication would not be possible. But exactly what do we mean when we say effective and accurate communication that is the question to answer. Effective communication is communication that uses the right channel for situation you in to send the message, while accurate communication is communication that gets the point across that you are trying to get across. From this we can determine that their is one negative way to communicate, two partially positive ways, and one fully positive way to communicate. The negative way that I am referring to is communication that is not effective and at the same time is not accurate. Obviously this method does not accomplish your goal which is to exchange information between two interdependent parties. Next comes the first partial positive communication method which is communication that is effective but is not accurate. Basically this kind of communication keeps the relationship with the other concerned party going good but even though the relationship was damaged or hindered there was still a problem because there was a misintrepretation of the facts by the receiver. Who is to blame in this situation it is more than likely whether or not you want to hear it will be sender not the receiver. Another partial positive way to communicate is to have communication that is not effective but is accurate. Obviously this is still good communication because you accomplished the goal of communication which is to successfully exchange information but you failed to remember that a important part of communication is exchanging information in a way that not only "saves face" but also does not hinder or damage the relationship. Finally comes the last way of communication which is that of communicating in a way that is both effective and accurate. Creating instances of truly effective and truly accurate communication are hard to come by but show to the world that you are truly a competent communicator. On average, the average person after objective and thoughtful evaluation will realize that in truth that we are only truly competent about 20% of the time. This is not something to despair or fret about it is just a statistic that is worth mentioning because it just goes to show that we all have work to do in regards to our communication skills.

Trust me communication is more complex than what I have simplified it down to in the post above but as usual in order to better understand such a vital skill you must first start with baby steps. Over the next several posts in the days and weeks to come I will continue my discussion on communication.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Assistant Den Leadeer/Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1316, Troop 1616(aka 669), Pack 100
Tustumena District/ Denali District/ Eklutna District, Great Alaska Council
NSJ '05 Youth Participant '10 Subcamp 7 Youth Staff WSJ '07
Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Member
Big Horn Denver Area Council NYLT QM Philmont AA '08\