Communication Skills for Leaders

Today, I attended a workshop titled "Communication Skills for Leaders" at Concordia University as part of the Leadership Workshop Series. Below is a summary of what I have learned.
Listening represents almost half the components of communication. Therefore, it is necessary to be a good listener if you are looking forward to be a successful leader. No listening to what your team have to say will decrease their motivation, diminish their contribution and lead to frustration and disappointment.
However, being a good listener by itself is not enough. Another important component of communication is responding effectively. A leader should avoid harmful responses such as prying, devaluation and preaching. Instead, a leader should use different forms of empathic responses such as encouraging, and giving feedback.
Team members should  go with an assertive communication style instead of being passive or aggressive. Describe, Express, Solution, Consequences (DESC) scripts can be used to help you establish an assertive communication style. And don't forget that 65 - 90 % of communication is non-verbal which means that you have to pay attention to your body language such as tone of voice, hand movements, and posture.

Marlene Gross and Anna Lenkovskaya, Thank you for a an interesting yet very useful workshop.