One of the most difficult things to do in communication is to ensure the flow of information across all levels of an organization and over the boundaries between the organization and other groups.

As a leader, success in reaching your goals means that you must encourage, support, and embrace communication with, to, and from everyone below and above you in your organization's hierarchy.

Communicating with Your Key Players

It is critical that you work with other leaders within the organization so that all of you are communicating the same message. This group of leaders is the one that develops communication strategies and policy statements. When all of you reinforce the same set of messages, you are far more likely to succeed. Now that the entire team shares a common language, the whole organization will be able to work toward the same well-defined goal.

Key players must have real dialogue with each other so that they can freely share their views. All should feel that they have contributed to decisions, and all should agree to support a decision in action and word, even if the decision is not what a specific team member wanted.

Communicating Up and Down the Line

When you talk only to your peers, you are cut off from the organization. When that happens, you can do nothing. Talking to your immediate team is also not enough. You must strive to build a communications channel up and down the entire organization. Concentrate on communication principles and promote them so that the same principles work at all levels.

When you manage to have clear communication throughout the organization, you build the psychological equivalent of a resonance chamber, like a pipe in an organ. The tone — your message — reverberates and strengthens, reinforcing your goals.

Communicating with the Outside World

It doesn't matter what your organization does or wants. Eventually, you must deal with the outside world. This is the ultimate challenge in communication. As a leader, it is your job to set the example for others to learn from. Communicating with those outside your organization is merely an extension of the same good practices that work inside.

You will deal with customers, supporters, agencies, people who have a need, and others who want something. They will all have goals and interests that may or may not mesh with yours. So while communication is always important, it becomes vital when the organization must turn its face outward to the rest of the world.

When your organization listens to those from the outside using a disciplined and principled approach to communication, it will succeed. When your organization listens to what it only thinks others are saying, it is gambling. The successful business is able to clearly understand the needs and expectations of the customer and find the best ways to make the customer happy.