There is a reason why most job descriptions for leadership roles start their requirement lists with “Excellent communicator”. Below is just a sampling of activities that leaders commonly engage in. Note that all of them require great communication to be carried out successfully:

• 1:1s with reports
• Conflict resolution on the team
• Selling candidates
• Inspiring teams in all-hands
• Messaging organizational changes
• Q&A with team
• Reporting to the executive team
• Performance reviews

Above all else, leaders get their jobs done by communicating.

Of course, good communication is not just a requirement for leaders; everyone communicates as a part of their job, and poor communicators struggle even if they spike in other areas (for example, technical skills). But leaders are unique just in how much of their jobs revolves around good communication, in the sheer amount of communication that they need to do in various forums and formats, and in that they often get far less feedback about the effectiveness of this skill than others get for their respective critical skills (for example, writing code).

There is also relative scarcity of support and advice when it comes to good communication. At a micro scale, leaders figure out when they are unclear by seeing confused faces or hearing their team members ask for clarification. At a very high level, there are leadership communication training programs (though they often deal with communication style and form, not the substance, and they are designed to be broadly applicable, which makes them less actionable). In between these two extremes, the leaders are on their own, navigating the minefield of communication mostly blindly.

I’ve collected some best practices and insights that may help you close that gap in the middle. I’ll try to avoid falling in the theoretical trap and will focus on how leaders can translate theory into actionable behaviors and techniques.

The Foundation

There are a few key insights that great communicators in my life have shared with me. I think of them as the “foundations” of good communications regardless of your role or seniority. They are mostly dealing with what communication really is (and is not):

1. You cannot not communicate

We all communicate information, all the time. When we speak, the actual words are just the tip of the iceberg. First, there is the nonverbal communication, with the following sampling of considerations:

• What is our body language?
• Does it support what we’re saying, or does it contradict it? (The commonly cited example of the nonverbals contradicting the words is saying supportive things while folding one’s arms).
• What is our facial expression?
• Do we avoid eye contact?
• Do our eyes dart around?
• Do we have a pained expression, or an artificial smile?

One thing that we are all aware of about others, but never about ourselves, are the nonverbal “ticks” and habits inherent in their communication. If you were to see yourself communicate, you would be surprised to see how much your communication is anchored in these. And these habits can have far-reaching consequences. For example, I have been subconsciously squinting when talking, which made my message seem less certain. And to give another example, a CEO I knew would frequently run his hands through his hair, which appeared to everyone (but him) to be a sign of despair. My advice to everyone – especially those in a leadership position who often broadcast information to teams – is to watch themselves communicate. Yes, it is awkward and uncomfortable, but I can’t think of another thing I could do for an hour that gives me more insight about how I communicate and what I could be doing differently.

It’s relatively easy to do. Pick a longer (1 hour or more) meeting that you are a part of. If you are on videoconference, it’s easy to record the screen (but make sure to record yourself even when you’re not speaking!). If you are in a conference room, ideally you would also capture a recording of your body – your posture and anything that others could see in person that isn’t just your face. Then play back the whole recording to yourself. Pay attention just to the recording, don’t try to check email or Slack at the same time, regardless of how slow parts of the recording may seem. Write down notes (ideally in a document next to the recording you’re viewing so you can still watch while you’re writing the notes) – recordingly any observations, positive, negative or surprising. For extra credit, ask someone else to watch the recording too and take notes so you aren’t biased by your own perceptions.

But besides the nonverbals, another implication of “you cannot not communicate” is that even when we don’t appear to communicate anything, we still convey information. We do it when we choose not to say something even though others suspect we could or should. It’s our reactions to others communicating. It’s our body language in the room even where there is absolutely nobody saying anything. Do we seem bored? Tense? Are we relaxed? Are we making others comfortable in the space we occupy or are we threatening – or intimidated? Next time there is silence in the room, look around to see what others are communicating with their bodies (or with silence) and think about what you may be signaling. Go back to the recording if you can!

Similarly, even the most terse, fact-filled written communication is rich with metadata. What have we decided to include in our communication? What does that imply? Did we send an email or a more fleeting message on Slack? Who is on the email? Or were people BCC’d? All these factors contribute to the quality of your communication, and the first step is being aware of their existence and the impact they may have on others.

2. Silence is communication

Silence can be a very powerful mode of communication. We are conditioned to “fill the space” with words, especially when we are facilitating meetings, or being interviewed, or leading an all-hands. But judiciously inserted silence can have a powerful effect. It can emphasize what has just been said, giving others a chance to “take in” the information. It can help people focus ahead of the next thing that is about to be said. It can also be a good way to signal reflection or importance of the topic or the entire meeting. When watching the recording of you speaking, ask yourself where a carefully inserted pause would have had the greatest impact. Also, particularly in Q&As, build a habit of asking yourself if taking some time in silence would help you craft a better answer.

3. Communication is a muscle

We are all born communicating (very loudly at first!), but we are not born communicating excellently. It’s a muscle that can be strengthened just like our technical skills. The best way to work out this muscle is to communicate a lot. Teams often complain that communication (especially from leaders) is inadequate, so finding opportunities to communicate more will also likely benefit the team. As you communicate, listen to yourself a lot as well, and seek feedback from others.

One technique I’ve used before is to approach a particular meeting with a “communication assignment,” that is, a goal to communicate something specific. Think about what you would like to communicate to whom and how you are going to do it. It doesn’t have to be a specific decision or opinion – could be as simple as “communicate my good mood to the team” or something more abstract like “communicate that I trust person X’s judgment”. This exercise helps you become more attuned to the dynamics in the room and the impact you can have on others while communicating. It also builds a habit of being more intentional with communication (and your style of communicating).

Finally, in addition to initiating communication, take in a lot of others’ communications. Be a student of the different communication styles. Who in the company do you consider to be an excellent communicator? What techniques do they use? How would you describe their style? What makes certain forms of communication better or worse in the context of the team and culture of your company?

The Substance

The above fundamentals form the building blocks enabling the higher-level goals of communication. When done well, they take the form of established habits. This doesn’t happen overnight – I would argue that we spend our entire life getting better at the foundation. That said, it is also important to focus on the substance of communication.

4. A leader’s communication is necessarily low-bandwidth and noise-resistant

This is probably the most important insight I can share about leaders communicating. The most effective leaders don’t try to pack as much information as possible in their communication; they don’t try to be as efficient as possible. Instead, their communication is low-bandwidth and noise-resistant:

• Low-bandwidth means that the amount of raw information being transmitted isn’t actually that high. Leaders who communicate in a low-bandwidth way repeat themselves a lot, use context and analogies, reflect back on their audience, and generally slow down. This is critical because the absorbtion of communication is an inefficient process. People will carefully read about 20% of what is written, and retain about 20% of what is spoken. The gap is an empathy one – inexperienced leaders often forget that while they are experts in the information they are communicating (it has, after all, originated in their heads, often prepared or repeated to others before), others are likely hearing it for the first time. Moreover, your audience doesn’t know what to expect, and has to do the hard work of continuously getting onto your wavelength. If you’ve ever sat next to someone surfing the Web and been disoriented by all the scrolling, you will know what I mean. When talking to your audience, you know that the most important point is coming up, they don’t. To use the engineering analogy, by making your communication low-bandwidth you ensure that they are able to process the signal easily.
• Noise-resistant means that the communication is less susceptible to misinterpretation, requires less context and focus, and sticks more. Leaders who communicate in a noise-resistant way don’t assume that the audience has a lot of prior knowledge, don’t use abbreviations and stay away from complex terms. There, again, those who produce the communication often don’t put themselves in the shoes of their audience and assume that if something makes sense to them, it will also make sense to their audience.

One technique I use to make my communication low-bandwidth and noise-resistant is ask the members of my audience, individually, what they retained from what I said. I ask that not as a test, but as a way of understanding where I was and wasn’t effective communicating. Another “rule of thumb” I use is to take whatever amount of information I want to communicate and cut it in half.

5. Leaders must cater their communication to their audience and according to their intent

As engineers, we like generics, and we try to apply them to communication. We want to do scalable things: in this case, to communicate the broadest possible message to the broadest audience. Unfortunately, the more generic the communication is trying to be, the less effective it is. Of course, sometimes you need to have broad reach, or to send a general message, but if possible, you should narrow your audience to the minimum viable scale, and narrow your message to the most important point you’re trying to get across. Once you do, you can customize your communication to the audience and the point you’re trying to make.

The benefits of specializing your communication in such a way are numerous. By narrowing your audience, you can take advantage of any shared context the audience may have. It also allows you to make the communication more personal; make it seem less like you are broadcasting information and more like you are talking to your audience. By simplifying the point of the message, you increase the chances that your audience will get the message. And of course, if your communication is tailor made to the audience and the intent, you are more likely to effectively send the point across.

To tailor the communication try the following techniques:

• Come up with a reference persona – a conceptual representative in your audience whose characteristics are shared with the large majority (over 75%) of your audience. Be specific about your persona, don’t just average out the characteristics or leave them open-ended. Then imagine speaking to that one specific person
• Figure out what context is shared among most people in your audience (narrowing your audience helps increase the shared context). What shortcuts can you safely make in your communication?
• Identify a style of communication that will resonate most with your audience. Will they resonate with an “inspirational speech”, a “fireside chat”, or a “transparent debrief”?
• Who in your audience is least likely to receive the message (or interpret it the way you want it interpreted)? How can you tweak your communication to help bring that one person along? It’s likely that there are a few other outliers whom this modification will help as well

6. Diversify your communication

Different forms of communication resonate differently with people. The obvious dichotomy is between people who are visual absorbers (who perform better reading memos and emails than listening) and people who are aural absorbers (who do better listening to someone talk than reading things on the screen), but the distinctions don’t stop here. Some people are perfectly fine with short-form, fleeting messages on Slack; others benefit from long-form communication in email. Some absorb better in 1:1s; others like large-scale formats where they build on the energy from the crowd.

As a leader, if you want to have an ongoing reach to your audience, you cannot rely on a single forum and channel. You need to vary the format (written, spoken, etc.) and the setting (town hall, Q&A, 1:1, small group meeting, ad hoc meeting in the kitchen). And give people access to these channels so they can take advantage of them, if they so desire (you don’t want to add a bunch of mandatory meetings to their schedule; let them self-select).

Most importantly, experiment! Try out third party tools facilitating different types of communication. Experiment with your channels – the sizes of groups, the amount of time you speak vs others. Write down what you have tried and get feedback to understand what worked and what didn’t.

A diversified communication is necessarily less efficient than a homogeneous one. But, unlike homegeneous communication, it’s more likely to stick and resonate with a broader cohort. It increases the amount of information being absorbed and increases the chance that people will get to hear your message in a forum that is safe and comfortable for them.

The Style

Last but not least, your communication style (“how” you communicate) can be a powerful amplifier of your message itself. Much has been said about style; and it is also the most subjective topic. I will leave you with a couple of insights about communication style that I have discovered over the years.

7. Channel your own communication style

You have a distinct style of communication. Don’t shy away from it – lean into it. Be consistent – one of the most valuable properties of good communication is its consistency, so your audience knows what to expect and can absorb the information you share with them better. If anything, most people’s communication style has simply accumulated too much cruft: elements which are not consistent with the core of your communication style. The best thing to do is to analyze your communication style. Distil it into its essence, extracting any items which are separable and which are not consistent with others.

Don’t try to change your style overnight – as something that’s deeply embedded into who you are, it’s not something you will be able to bend in a short time frame. The easiest transformation is to start dropping any elements which are in conflict with the essence of your communication style, and adopting new ones that help bridge the gaps.

Don’t apologize for your style – give your key people the transparency into what you’ve reflected on and what you are working on. This transparency will likely yield valuable conversations with other leaders around some of the principles presented here (which – it’s worth repeating – you should feel free to make changes to if the benefits outweigh the risks)

8. You will not resonate with everyone

Finally, a word of caution. Even the most skilled “communications architect” can’t create a foolproof communication brand and style, neither should they. What I’ve found helpful is early transparency and candor, and frequent checking of the pulse. If much of your communication doesn’t seem to land on people well, perhaps you can split your channels and audiences. Another technique I’ve found helpful is having frank conversations with people about what part of your communication didn’t resonate and why. Your goal is not to force resonance, but to understand if the person was supposed to internalize the information you’ve communicated or not, and if the answer is yes, how you could get them there.

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The above are just a sampling of principles and techniques that leaders can find helpful. At the end of the day, it’s a highly personal journey, filled with inspiration from others, experiences and struggles which lead to course corrections. As a leader, the best single thing you can do, though, is to realize the importance of communication in your role, and the fact that it is something you can work on, rather than some inherent quality. This will hopefully lead you to paying more attention to how you communicate, seeking feedback, experimenting and honing your craft.