How do good leaders communicate?

Fairhurst is a Distinguished Research Professor in the University of Cincinnati’s School of Communication, Film and Media Studies. She was recognized this fall with a lifetime achievement award from the International Leadership Association for her contributions to the study and practice of leadership.

The Fulbright Scholar is the author of several books on communication, including this year’s award winning Performing Organizational Paradoxes and two previous books on framing including the 2011 book "The Power of Framing: Creating the Language of Leadership."

Fairhurst shares her thoughts on the communication practices of good leaders and why the best speakers frame issues.

Integrity. I teach a class in leadership communication, and we talk a lot about integrity and the role that plays in all aspects of leadership.

The second thing is someone who is open to collaboration. We have a lot of knowledge workers in the workforce — more than ever before. So when I talk about leadership, it’s not just an individual who is doing brilliant things but really the individual set among other competent and capable individuals who collectively can tackle the most difficult of problems.

Steve Jobs often talked about the role of collaboration as endemic to Apple’s culture. While he’s regarded as a charismatic leader and visionary, Apple is steeped in a collaborative mindset.

There are individuals who are born with a level of intelligence that predisposes them to be more verbal than others, which helps. But I strongly believe leadership has a set of skills that can be learned.

Listening and ‘it’s all about me’ thinking. I once had an executive client who wanted to move up the ladder, but he had problems with his listening skills — he didn’t know how to respond as an active listener. When I observed his behavior, it was always centered around himself, and he left conversations when it wasn’t about him. He sent out mixed signals about wanting to be open while his behavior didn’t show it. 

Framing is the ability to paint a picture with the words we choose. We live in a world where there is a lot of ambiguity and much that is open to interpretation.

To take a simple example, if a plane crashes outside the building we’re in, there’s very little ambiguity associated with the fact that the plane crashed. But there is ambiguity about why the plane crashed. Was it pilot error? Was a plane malfunction?

These are possible mental images or frames of the crash, but they enter into the communication process as interpretations that can be framed and reframed. Who has the power to define ‘the situation here and now’ is very important because how we organize follows directly from these interpretive frames.

When companies try to apologize, it’s an interesting thing to study.

Mark Zuckerberg is not particularly good at offering apologies. Facebook, now Meta, has gotten into trouble for its transparency around safety and security issues. Every time he steps up to the microphone, his use of passive language defers responsibility for his company’s role.

Starbucks. When two Black men were recently arrested for trespassing after they asked to use a Starbucks bathroom in Philadelphia, the CEO called the company’s actions reprehensible and took direct responsibility for that. That’s a really great example of the ways you have to be conscious of the language you use.

In my leadership communication class, we talk about the consequences of communication choices. You can be verbally skilled, yet quite unaware of the context-shaping nature of your language use. Especially when leaders are facing problems of enormous scope and complexity, you really have to think carefully about how you want to communicate both outwardly and within your organization because you want to build trust.

Trust is a hard thing to build up but an easy thing to lose.

Featured image at top: UC Distinguished Research Professor Gail Fairhurst was recognized with the lifetime achievement award from the International Leadership Association for her contributions to the study and practice of leadership. Photo/Joseph Fuqua II/UC