how leadership and communication are related. based on article by Jim Shaffer

1. Creating
a
Leadership Engine
to
Power Performance
15020241005 ABHISHEK PANDEY
15020241010 ADITYAVARDHAN SINGH PANWAR
15020241015 ALISHA GROVER
15020241020 ANINDITA NEOGI
15020241025 ANKIT GODALE
15020241053 KALLURI SURYA DEEPTHI

2. What is communication?
 A process by which information and understanding are transferred between a sender and a
receiver
Communication is the exchange and flow of information and ideas from one person to another;
it involves a sender transmitting an idea, information, or feeling to a receiver
Studying the communication process is important because you coach, coordinate, counsel,
evaluate, and supervise throughout this process. It is the chain of understanding that integrates
the members of an organization from top to bottom, bottom to top, and side to side.

3. What is Leadership?
 Leadership is a process by which an executive can
direct, guide and influence the behavior and work
towards accomplishment of specific goals in a given
situation
 Leadership is the potential to influence behavior of
others
So, make sure we have strong leaders who build and
maintain an open, trusting environment where people
have the information, skills and resources they need to
perform at their peak and know when they improve
they will reap the benefits.

4. Key Points
 Successful organizational performance starts with leaders and their verbal and non-verbal
communications.
 Communication inconsistencies can frequently be found in the leadership goal setting and pay
systems.
 Unclear messages results in confusion among the workforce.

5. The Leadership Communication System
Made up of two components -
 Expectations
 Feedback

6. Goal vs Performance
 Presenting a case of indirect communication at a distribution center.
 Management’s goal was – Productivity, Safety and Quality
 Employees goals were also aligned with the leadership.
 Still, there was a difference in the performance.
Reason – though the management gave equal weightage to the three goals but the incentives were
different – productivity (80%), safety (10%), quality (10%). This was giving an indirect picture that the
management was more focused on productivity than quality.

7. Aligning Goal with Pay
 Aligning ‘Say’ with ‘Do’.
 For around 7 months, the center’s communication systems were studied and revamped.
 At the end of five months, quality went up by 65% and productivity was up by 16%.
 Hence, the objective of increasing the quality without affecting productivity was achieved.
Key finding- Performance is directly related to goals and pay being aligned.

8. Leader’s Behavior
 ‘Please the boss’
The leader’s behavior becomes the
organizations behavior.
 Bad behavior may spread into the
communication system and hamper the
organization.

9. Case study: ConAgra Foods
 Key Actors –
 Bob Kula, senior director of corporate communications
 Jim Shaffer, author
 Very poor safety record at one of the plants.
 Objectives for the study –
 Understand the problem
 Determine the cause
 Identify the size of the problem
 Create an action plan to resolve the problem

10. Findings of the team
 On meeting different employee groups, the core team found the following reasons for the high
accident rate-
 Employees not focused
 Employees not valued
 Not clear on priorities
 Mixed messages from communications on what is important and what is not from their leaders
 Leaders not being clear on what they’re supposed to do
 Root Cause – Poor leadership expectations.
 This was running in parallel to the key problem – unacceptable accident rates.

11. Correcting the ‘Problems’
 Establishing clear leadership expectations
 Conducting baseline assessment
 Setting new goals
 Correcting the selection procedure
Accountability among members of leadership
Adjusting the pay structure as per the new goals

12. Results and improvements
 Accident rate dropped by 35%
 Attrition dropped by 25%
 All this could be achieved because a more people-focused culture and climate had been
created.
These findings were replicated on other plants and also on other operational verticals of the
company with positive results.

13. Conclusion
 Good Leaders, Good communicators
 Prepare how you’ll communicate
 Deliver the message
 Receive the message
 Evaluate the effectiveness of the communication afterwards
 Take corrective action as necessary

14. THANK YOU!