I run a consulting company that assesses organizational culture and will share that no matter what we uncover, there is nearly always an element of poor communication between leaders and employees. And yet those in leadership positions rarely get any training in communication.

And it shows. Because of the kind of work I do, people routinely forward me emails from their leadership that are, frankly, appalling. A few big offenders:

- Decisions relayed without explanation, background, or opportunity for input
- Explicitly denying opportunity for input
- Condescending, even infantalizing language and tone
- Inappropriate language or humor
- Defensiveness or anger about questions or complaints received

Adequate explanation and effective persuasion are discrete skills that people fail to develop. For the former, leaders tend to believe the process behind decision making is much more transparent and obvious that it is. In general: one cannot over explain big decisions.

For the latter, I have seen way too many approaches of this general nature: “I’m a nice, jovial person! I’ll use my personality to make people feel okay about this really big change in their work responsibilities”

or

“I’ll explain to people why this is really not a big deal to them so they shouldn’t make a big deal about it”

Often what we discover is that the communication chasm between leadership and employees is so huge that every action on either side is thoroughly misinterpreted and intent and perception is completely unknown

And the other part of this is a bit of a Lake Wobegone effect: everyone thinks that they are above average in communication. (Seriously, find me a leader who thinks they are below average in this area. And yet...)

(I do appreciate that the examples I gave above reflect things besides pure communication skills. Like, if the language is inappropriate or disrespectful, there are bigger problems than that they didn't construct that communication well.)