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Introduction

The art of communication is the language of leadership.

—James Humes

As a school leader, your job depends heavily on effective communication skills. Everything that leaders do requires communication skills—whether it’s navigating a crisis, giving out directions, resolving conflict, or solving problems. Unfortunately, many leaders do not spend enough time strengthening this skill. Think about the workshops or conferences you attend; chances are they weren’t on improving your communication skills. Yet all the workshops and conferences you have attended require strong communication skills in order for you to implement any of your new learning from those events.

I remember when I attended my first Professional Learning Community at Work® institute and learned about all kinds of things: prioritizing standards, grading and assessment, creating interventions, building a guiding coalition—and so on. My biggest challenge was figuring out how I was going to take all that new knowledge and learning and communicate it to my teachers. One mistake in my communication, and I wouldn’t convey this important knowledge effectively. I personally have seen great ideas fail because of ineffective communication. I remember rolling out a writing across the curriculum initiative in which all teachers, regardless of what they taught, would incorporate writing into their day-to-day lessons. But when I observed the teachers, I didn’t see that happening. It was easy to get upset with the teachers for not doing what I asked; however, when I self-reflected, I realized my communication about this initiative was incredibly weak. I didn’t do a good job explaining, I tried to do too much via email instead of face to face, I didn’t communicate examples of what I was looking for—all in all, what I wanted to see happen didn’t happen because of my inability to communicate effectively. The good news is that these mistakes are easy to avoid.

Anchal Luthra and Richa Dahiya (2015) stress that without excellent communication skills, a leader simply cannot be effective. The success of your school can rise or fall based on your communication skills. Why are leadership and communication so connected? Leadership guru John C. Maxwell (1993) asserts, “When the leader lacks confidence, the followers lack commitment” (p. 6). This is undoubtedly true, and the only way to convey confidence is through effective communication skills. Through effective communication, you can show your teachers and staff members the way and influence them to commit to and excel in the essential work they do every day.

The answer, in short, is that without communicating, leaders cannot influence their followers. Leadership and communication are deeply connected, and successful leadership depends on successful communication. This book explores that connection, and how you can develop it to, in turn, connect with others and be an effective leader in your school.

The Importance of Communication

You communicate in multiple ways every single day. You communicate verbally through presentations, meetings, and conversations; you communicate through writing; and you communicate nonverbally through your body language. From the moment you walk into your school to the moment you leave, you are communicating. Deborah J. Barrett (2014) states, “A leader must be able to communicate effectively. When asked to define leadership, theorists and practitioners alike frequently use the words ‘influence,’ ‘inspire,’ and ‘transform,’ all of which depend on communication, verbal and nonverbal” (p. 2).

Not only do you communicate every day, you communicate with a lot of people. How many people in the school community do you lead? Or, how many people do you communicate with? The answer to both questions is the same. With just the teachers, staff members, students, and one parent per student, for a school or school district of about five hundred students, it could be well over one thousand people. And this number does not include visitors or a second parent. So, with that many people that you lead and, therefore, communicate with, it makes sense to ensure that your communication skills are effective, whether that’s by building new skills, adapting the communication skills you used in your teaching days, or brushing up on skills you’ve already established.

Gary Burnison (2012) asserts that communication is about connection. Through effective communication, you build relationships, which leads to trust. You build relationships with your staff, teachers, parents, and students one at a time through your communication skills. When you call parents to tell them something positive about their child—you are building trust. When you give parents reassurance after something bad happens in your building—you are building trust. When you help teachers through a difficult parent meeting—you are building trust. When you support teachers through a tough time—you are building trust. Again—in every situation when you communicate with your stakeholders, you are building relationships and trust, further developing those vital connections.

Communication is how you get your message out to people. Whether the message is positive or negative, good or bad, practical or impractical—you have a responsibility to ensure you convey that message in the manner you intend. More importantly, you must ensure that you serve the purpose of that communication. In essence, your school’s success depends on how effectively you can connect and communicate. Your job involves setting the vision for your school; identifying the strengths and areas for improvement for your school; establishing goals for your school; hiring and retaining top talent for your school; creating a safe and welcoming environment for your school; managing the day-to-day operations of your school; and the list of responsibilities goes on and on. The reality is that you will struggle to fulfill these responsibilities effectively if you are unable to communicate effectively.

As important as it is to ensure you communicate effectively because the day-to-day functions of the work depend on you conveying the message you intend, it is also important to do more. Burnison (2012) states, “For a leader, communication is connection and inspiration—not just transmission of information” (p. 151). Not only is communication essential for conveying information, it is also critical for inspiring and motivating your stakeholders.

Part of your job as a school leader is to inspire and motivate your teachers and others so that they feel supported and encouraged in their unique visions; however, it is also to fulfill your mission and to achieve your goals. As a leader, it is your job to ensure teachers are motivated and inspired to make a positive impact on every student they teach. You, ultimately, are responsible for continuing to articulate and implement the mission and goals, which in turn guide this positive impact. When you communicate, whether it’s in a meeting or through the one-on-one conversations you have with your teachers and staff, you should be consistently inspiring them and motivating them so they can be the best they can be for your students. School leaders always have a responsibility to do this for the betterment of their students. Whether it’s monitoring expectations or introducing a new policy to improve the school—we can’t coerce our staff into doing things. We have to inspire and motivate them through clear and consistent communication.

Take a moment to think about the latest request you made of your staff. Did you ask that teachers collaborate weekly? Or that they review data from their student assessments? Was it that teachers needed to provide effective interventions when students didn’t master the standards? Or that they provide enrichment for students who were mastering the standards? Did you ask teachers to follow up with parents within a reasonable amount of time? Or that they rely on effective classroom management skills instead of writing students up for everything? All of these are examples of expectations you may have communicated. When you communicate expectations, you can give directives and hope for the best, or you can truly connect with teachers and other stakeholders by communicating clearly and consistently, fostering trust while inspiring and motivating them to want to do the things you ask them to do.

Poor communication can be unclear, but it can also lack empathy for and understanding of the effect it might have on the receiver. Think of the impact this can have. Kevin Murray (2013) states, “Leaders who cannot communicate well, who lack the human touch, can create organizations which are toxic to work in, filled with turmoil and conflict, going nowhere, achieving little” (p. 2). I’m willing to bet that it’s possible to trace quite a few troubling issues in your school to ineffective communication. Many conflicts and concerns are rooted in either lack of communication or miscommunication. Teachers not knowing something or parents hearing rumors—issues like these typically stem from poor communication. This can happen frequently during crisis-type situations. Once I had a fire alarm go off, and I was unable to send an email to the community right away. Within minutes, rumors were flying, from “There was a fire in the cafeteria” to “The building collapsed because of the flames” when in actuality, a student had pulled the fire alarm and there was no fire. Richard DuFour and Michael Fullan (2013) sum this up when they say, “The effectiveness of educational systems at all levels is diminished without clear communication from a cohesive team of leaders” (p. 25).

The challenges are complex and varied, but the solutions are surprisingly simple. By mastering the five modes of communication that this book covers, you will have the tools you need to lead your school to success for every student. The next section contains an overview of this book along with descriptions of each of the different types of communication that every leader should be aware of.

About This Book

This book is divided into five chapters. Each chapter discusses a form of verbal, nonverbal, or written communication. You undoubtedly use one or more of these on a daily basis. Each chapter ends with reflection questions to give you an opportunity to process what you have learned and to reflect on your current communication practices to see how you can improve them. In addition, at the end of every chapter, you will find several reproducible pages. The first of these is that chapter’s corresponding challenge, which guides you through using the rest of the reproducibles to analyze your strengths and weaknesses, create personal goals to strengthen and reinforce your skills, and put your learning into action.

Chapter 1: Communicating Through Presentations

This chapter begins with outlining all the different purposes presentations serve. I share how to structure presentations along with what elements make presentations effective or ineffective. The chapter also explores ways to be a charismatic presenter and the importance of soliciting quality feedback in order to improve your presentation skills.

Chapter 2: Communicating Through Meetings

In this chapter, I outline the different types of meetings school leaders can have and the different purposes meetings serve. I also share elements of what makes meetings effective or ineffective.

Chapter 3: Communicating Through Tough Conversations

This chapter reviews the different purposes tough conversations serve as well as discussing when those conversations are necessary. I explore barriers that can prevent you from having tough conversations, and share elements of ineffective tough conversations. The chapter ends by providing strategies for effective tough conversations.

Chapter 4: Communicating Through Writing

This chapter goes into the different purposes written communication serves. I explore the various advantages and disadvantages of written communication as well as the different types of written communication. The chapter ends by providing various strategies for effective writing.

Chapter 5: Communicating Through Body Language

This chapter begins with outlining the impact body language has on communication. I explore body language communication as it relates to the face, arms and hands, and legs and feet. The chapter also explores how your appearance and emotional intelligence play a role in body language. The chapter ends by providing tips for leaders on appropriate body language.

The Five-Month Communication Challenge

All five chapters culminate with a segment of a communication challenge that you can use to improve your skills. Each chapter segment pertains to the contents of that specific chapter. That is, the five-month communication challenge consists of five individual challenges that should each last one month.

During each month, follow the suggestions in the challenge column. For example, if you decide to read the book in order, the first chapter is about presentations and the challenge will help you improve your skills in presenting—do that challenge every time you present during that month. When you move on to the next month, continue with those tasks to increase the effectiveness of your presentations, but then add on the next challenge for every meeting you have in the next month. At the end of each month, reflect on the ways in which that challenge impacted your communication. By the end of the fifth month, you should have mastered effective presentations, meetings, tough conversations, writing, and body language.

Time to Take Up the Challenge

As you get ready to learn tips and strategies on how to communicate more effectively in order to lead more effectively, keep in mind you do not need to read the chapters in order. I have designed each chapter in such a way that it stands on its own, so you can go directly to the chapters that you most want information on, and then commit to improve your skills with the corresponding challenge, where you incorporate the tips and strategies outlined in each chapter into your practice. The challenge is a good way to ensure you will put your new learning into practice. Many times, we learn about great things, but we never change our practice so we don’t get better. This challenge will help you sharpen your communication skills, so I challenge you to take it!