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Leadership: Great Leadership starts with Great Communication

It's no coincidence that all great leaders share a common outstanding characteristic; all  are great communicators.  The ability to lead begins with the ability to listen and communicate in a clear, straight forward, and understandable manner.  

I was reminded of this important quality a few weeks ago while sitting on a plane,  preparing for take off. All of the passenger’s luggage was stowed, the seatbelts were on, and we were ready for flight. Then suddenly, and completely unexpectedly, the pilot came on and said that our flight was going to be delayed.

My first thoughts were of the passengers that were stuck on a runway for more than eight hours just a week earlier, who received  no explanation of why they were delayed, or when they would either be taking off or returning to the gate. This unfortunate event received a great deal of media coverage not only because the passengers were left on the runway for so long, but because of the lack of leadership by the flight crew which completely failed to communicate to the stranded passengers.

The public impression of any business  is shaped for the most part, by the people that deal most directly with their customers, in this case, pilots, copilots and flight attendants. These individuals are the de-facto leaders in most public situations,  and are the face of the business. The crew of the plane I was on, stuck on the runway, was obviously well aware of their roles as leaders and communicators.   

Within 30 seconds of the pilot coming on for the first time, to tell us that we were delayed, he was back on giving us a reason for the inconvenience. One minute later he was telling us that the flight attendants would be coming around to give us a beverage. Each flight attendant then gave a more detailed reason for the delay and assured us that it would not be long before we took off, and if there were any further delays, we would be told immediately.

Over the course of the hour or so that we sat and waited the pilot came on no less than half a dozen times to continue to keep everyone informed. There were no complaints from the passengers and the mood remained very light aboard the aircraft. The flight crew clearly demonstrated the difference that good leadership and good communication can make. As the commonly stated expression goes, “people can take bad news, but they can’t take no news.”

At EMA we pride ourselves on not only having great leaders, but great communicators. We know, just like with your customers, that communication is very  important.  We do everything in our power to ensure that our customers receive their industrial electronic repair, or equipment, or system in the time frame that we quoted. If we are delayed, and sometimes circumstances can arise that are completely beyond our control, it becomes our mission to see that they receive a call with  updated ship dates and information.  Our goal is to always call you before you have to call us.  

We fully understand that most people get very annoyed at "no news,"  and we think it's a role of leadership to institute procedures and a culture that doesn't allow that to occur.

David Brigden
dbrigden@emainc.net
EMA Drive Lines..  March 2007

David is the national sales manager at EMA, and works out of our Cortland, NY facility. David is known as a great communicator both within and without EMA. His only vices, as far as we can tell, is that he's addicted to Diet Mountain Dew and is a Yankee's fan.