Communication is a core leadership function and is closely aligned with effective leadership. There is no escape from growing your communication skills. Every relationship requires skilled communicators, whether in casual groups, formal organizations or within communities.

Leaders are expected to express ideas and share information with various audiences; bosses, peers, employees, customers, partners, stakeholders and influencers.

Communication is giving, receiving or exchanging ideas, information, signals or messages through appropriate media, enabling individuals or groups to persuade, to seek information, to give information or to express emotions.

The Shannon and Weaver Model of Communication is a mathematical theory of communication that argues that human communication can be broken down into 6 key concepts: sender, encoder, channel, noise, decoder, and receiver. A later version of the theory by Norbert Weiner added a 7th concept (‘feedback’)...

I spent 27 years in the greatest Army on the planet with other visionary leaders who wanted to achieve more within the organizations and teams they led while serving in complex environments.  Most recently over the last four years I've led myself as a small business owner, engaged with clients and interacted with volunteer teammates focused on serving the community while wanting to show up more authentically.  In both environments I observed and experienced the most common issues that challenges people in positions of authority. 

Here are the top issues the leaders I encountered are facing:

• Leader Burnout: Leaders are working too much, expending too much time, energy and effort for far too little payoff while still not getting everything on their exhaustively long 'to do' done. 
• Unsatisfactory Executive Team Functioning: Some executive teams are working out better than others, however, the majority of the people...