communicates<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat makes people stand out, even among leadership positions, is their superb communication skills. This is how you not only express your needs, but build empathy and strong relations within your team, eliminating confusion and uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Communication can be broken down into several parts, the first, and arguably most important, part is listening<\/em>. Effective leaders aren\u2019t all talk– they listen too.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThey pay attention to what their teams, their followers, their employees, or whoever they\u2019re leading, are saying. Making people feel heard breeds loyalty and satisfaction. Wasn\u2019t it Dale Carnegie who said, in How to Win Friends and Influence People, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201ctalk to someone about themselves and they\u2019ll listen for hours?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
This is why some leaders seem to magnetically draw people to them. They make time to sit down and hear others\u2019 concerns. They make eye contact. They show genuine interest in the lives of their subordinates. The more the leader listens, the more passionate people will be about following them and their cause, the more they\u2019ll trust them, and the more dedicated they\u2019ll be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Look at it this way: if a person doesn\u2019t make eye contact consistently, this shows they\u2019re not interested. They don\u2019t even bother pretending<\/em> to care about people beyond their skills, employees will pull away. If you want to be a true leader, one whose followers genuinely want to follow and trust, then communication is an absolutely crucial skill.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd contrary to what many \u201cmanagers\u201d believe, employees can\u2019t read your mind. Good leaders don\u2019t take pleasure in withholding information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n