Influence: Communication Skills for Management & Leadership

Communication processes allow people to interact. In order for people who interact with each other to become a group and begin to work for a shared goal, it is necessary to move from simple conversations to communication. It is communication that serves as the leader's main tool, using which the leader can effectively influence their followers. 

The way a leader communicates with the group members is determined by: 

• * The size of the group (in a large group, the leader is more likely to use the mechanisms of suggestion and infection, and in a small group - persuasion and imitation);
• * The main goals (in a group focused on relationships, the leader will choose different forms and means of communication than in a group focused on a task);
• * Personal and socio-demographic characteristics of the group members (youth group; group including only men or only women; group consisting of former military personnel; etc.);
• * Personal characteristics of the leader (the way of communication greatly depends on the leader's worldview, and the level of expressiveness depends on the leader's temperament). 

The characteristics of a leader and a manager, while not mutually exclusive, have some differences.

Criterion	Leader’s way of communication	Manager’s way of communication
The main goals	Bringing all of the group members together in order to achieve one goal.	Coordination, monitoring and evaluation of group members’ activities to achieve the group goal.
The mutual status of partners	Communication between people with the same status - conversation "on equal terms"	Subordinate communication between people with different statuses
Communication focus	Personality-oriented	Socially oriented (regulation of the content and means of communication, interaction at different social role levels)
The main content of the goal	The concept of the future development of the group	Facts, statistics, decisions
Subjects of control over the communication situation	All members of communication	The manager
Place in the communication network	Predominantly decentralized (allows to create a trustful atmosphere within the group)	Mainly centralized (allows to control the execution of tasks)
Functional types of communication that are predominant	Conversation, speech	Orders, meetings, reports, negotiations
The predominant form of influence	Dialogue	Imperative
The focus on mutual understanding	High - regardless of the situation	Situationally determined

The effectiveness of the leader's communication with the group members is influenced by the level of their communicative competence, which consists of: 

• * Formed verbal (listening, speaking, reading and writing) and non-verbal (facial expressions, gestures, postures, intonations, etc.) skills that ensure the transmission and receiving of information, personal impact and perception of a situation;
• * Developed perceptual social skills (the ability to understand the feelings and thoughts of the interlocutor; navigate in a communication situation which means navigating in the psychosocial context; form a normal impression of another person, understand the psychological properties of a person and specifics of their behavior through the mechanisms of empathy and identification; emotionally regulate the process of understanding);
• * Developed interactive abilities (the ability to develop a strategy and tactics of interaction, organize it correctly, agree on the communication plans with the participants in accordance with the shared group goal; choose the optimal behavior model by taking into account the situation and individual characteristics of other subjects of communication). 

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