Our client leaders John McArthur and Kent Skornia at Krilogy have worked on their communication through KAG’s Brand New You program
“Leadership is Communication.” I first heard that concept in October of 2023, while interviewing Mark Heisten, founder of the branding firm Leadership Legend and then a University of Colorado professor. He said it on the podcast Can You Hear Me?, which I co-host with Eileen Rochford, CEO of the Chicago-based marketing and strategy firm, The Harbinger Group. It seems like such a simple comment, but it stopped me in my tracks because, as a Communications Consultant, it is at the core of what I believe and what I try to convey to my clients about the importance of clearly communicating.
“Leadership is Communication” is actually the first chapter in my upcoming book Overcommunicate: A Guide for Business Executives and Aspiring Leaders, which will be published in early 2026. As I mentioned in my last blog, to overcommunicate, by my definition, is to make sure you have clearly articulated your goals and expectations to your team, so that you are aligned and focused on your top business priorities. It is NOT about micromanaging or sending your team a mountain of emails that will never be read. I am grateful that Kraig encouraged me to share information and concepts related to Overcommunicate in this blog.
Mark is now Dr. Mark Heisten and is currently a professor at Marist University in New York. His basic premise behind “leadership is communication” is this, as he states in the book, “How do I go about a process of enlisting others to make my mission feel like it’s theirs too and make it feel like they’re not doing this work entirely at my bidding, but rather that we are engaged arm and arm together to go solve this problem.”
This is an important point, because it speaks to the “top-down” leadership style I see with many of my clients, where they think that because they are the boss, and are paying all of their employees to “do their jobs”, what they say goes. Just because the leader of the organization may be barking orders from the mountaintop, it doesn’t mean they are actually being heard. They must have buy-in.
Another key point related to “leadership is communication” that Mark makes is this: “They (the leaders) tend to think that the reason I got there was because of my expertise or my domain skill, whatever the case may be. And not realizing at some point, the more senior you go, the more it’s about that communication.”
I couldn’t agree more. When I conduct my Voice of Reason presentation trainings with clients, I will often see someone who is a subject matter expert in their field. They possess an abundance of technical expertise, and may question why all of these communications techniques are necessary, and I will explain to them that, if they don’t invest in communication, they can keep doing the same job for the next 15-20 years, and do it well. However, if they ever desire to move up the proverbial ladder, to be promoted, to lead people, their communication skills must be evident to everyone else.
I hope you have found this helpful. It is an honor to share some of the leadership concepts I have been thinking about while working on the publication of Overcommunicate.