1. ENGAGING FOLLOWERS

Steve Radcliffe is a leadership development and coaching consultant with considerable experience in the private sector, notably at FMCG giant Proctor & Gamble. The clients he has worked with as a consultant cover all sectors, from government and the cabinet office, to leaders of major FTSE 100 corporations. Here, Radcliffe, author of the recently published Future-Engage-Deliver, talks about leadership and communication.

Where does leadership communication go wrong?

I come across too many leaders who communicate at, or transmit, or tell. There is a world of difference, at times, between engaging people and communicating in order to engage.

Frighteningly, many leaders just do not get this distinction. So they do not just talk about where they want the organisation to go, they also send out the company video, and then they reinforce it with the newsletter. But if they don't also engage their people, then they are completely wasting their time.

What can they do to lead to a more engaging style of communication?

There are three parts that I would emphasise, if I was helping people to become more engaging through communication.

In order to engage, you need to build and attend to the relationship within which the communication is taking place. Secondly, really pay attention to another crucial piece of engagement, which is creating possibilities for others. That can be magical in terms of helping people see that there is something in it for them, and not just for the leader.

Thirdly, one of my phrases is that leaders make big requests. So communicating in terms of "this is where we are headed, this is what I can see is possible" and so on, is fundamentally missing a piece, if that communication does not finish with a request of, "and this is what I would like to see us doing now."

A lot of communication in organisations is very impersonal. How important is the personal aspect of communication?

It is absolutely essential. Some people in a particular department in the public sector went out to survey their people, asking them what form of communication they would like. I was shocked that they were surprised when the overriding feedback was that people would like face-to-face communication.

Human beings love interaction, dialogue and conversation. Just look in any pub, in any coffee shop, so why leaders think that they can short-circuit that with impersonal videos and so on completely baffles me.

If you are the leader at the top of the hierarchy, though, it is not always easy to be personal with everybody.

I was with a group in the financial services sector working with the chief executive and team of top 30. One theme was around helping the CEO to become more engaging. But it also included a request to everybody else in the room that they practise being an engaging leader.

The point being that the way to reach many people in big organisations is to grow many more engaging leaders down to all levels of the organisation.

So by personally communicating with your senior management team, your message cascades down the organisation?

Absolutely. You say, "the conversation that we are having now, I want you to be having with your people. And I then want you to help them to see how they can help their people have these grown-up, adult, engaging conversations." Rather than being a top-down only communication.

2. ADTASTIC

The Super Bowl is the biggest sporting event of the year in the US: one of the few things that brings the nation to halt. Once again this February, America parked itself in front of the television set to watch two American Football teams duke it out for 2009 Super Bowl 43 bragging rights.

The Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers weren't the only teams competing at the Super Bowl. For marketers and advertising executives connected to some of the world's biggest brands, the main event took place every time play stopped and the sports coverage cut to an ad break.

This was perhaps the second year social media was writ large across the Super Bowl advertising playing field. Last year, tracking the content in over 100 million blogs, Nielsen Online's Blogpulse revealed that over a third of the buzz after the game was ad rather than game related.

Twitter, the seemingly ubiquitous comms application, muscled in on US football's big day with companies like E*Trade creating Twitter accounts aligned with the Super Bowl advertising. Fans could even vote on their favourite Super Bowl ads via Twitter during the game.

On You Tube, advertisers ran teasers for their ads in the run up to game day. Other firms were running their main ad in its entirety. Interestingly, those ads that got knocked back by NBC as being inappropriate also made their way onto You Tube. So a PETA campaign ad that was turned down for excessive sexuality has been a big hit on You Tube.

Elsewhere, GoDaddy, the domain registration company, let surfers visiting the company's website vote for the ad they wanted to run on the day, out of a choice of two.

Facebook was another online social media website that advertisers used to buttress their TV ad efforts, with Careerbuilder.com coupling banner and sponsored ads with Facebook polling to raise awareness and promote interactivity.

While the Pittsburgh Steelers ran out winners of the Super Bowl, beating the Arizona Cardinals 27-23, winner of the Ad Bowl appears to have been the Doritos ad, which headed USA Today's Ad Meter poll.

The popularity of the ad was good for Doritos, but not so good for ad agencies, as the advert was made by two formerly unemployed brothers for les than $2000 as part of a competition. You can see how that might cause a few sleepless nights for the ad executives.

3. DOWN IN DAVOS

January is the month where the great and the good, corporate CEOs, public sector bosses and government ministers, gather at the Swiss skiing resort of Davos to celebrate economic successes, mull over the challenges facing society and business, and network. This year was no exception, although the congratulatory back slapping was in short supply, amidst much hand wringing and general lamenting over the dire global economic situation.

Indeed, numbers were down at Davos in 2009, as many executives stayed at home to help keep their businesses afloat.

Not all the talk was of financial meltdown and banking mechanisms and models. There were sessions on subjects as wide ranging as the future of design, to travel and tourism. Given the roster of experts wheeled in for the panel sessions, it was a perfect opportunity to gauge what the world might look like over the next few years.

A number of Davos sessions, in particular, should be of interest to people involved in the world of communications, where the internet is one of the main mediums for communication in the 21st century.

One area of concern, highlighted at Davos is the issue of internet security. At a basic level, email requires no security, and is subject to manipulation and abuse, far more so than many email users realise. Cyber crime is a trillion dollar problem: the amount of malware hitting the internet has increased by 400%, and the Conficker worm had infected over 15 million computers by the middle of January 2009. In some cases automated bill payment systems have been hijacked and mined for credit data, then used to buy goods online.

As the cybercriminal becomes more sophisticated, internet users will need to be increasingly vigilant, as an intergovernmental coordinated response to cyber crime has yet to emerge.

On a more encouraging note, another panel discussion focused on the increasing convergence between internet and mobile phone communications. Although an impressive billion people are online, far more, some four billion, are registered mobile phone subscribers.

Data traffic delivery technology still restricts the experience of many users, with many in Europe enjoying a bandwidth of one megabit per second while the developed world makes do with 2G technology.

As technology and data transfer rates improve, however, the utility value and the ability to deliver targeted communication is going to increase significantly. For example, it was suggested that, aided by information available from social networking sites, it would be possible to "augment reality" by providing information that is based on the social setting of the user. GPS integration with mobile phones will also mean marketers are able to hone and deliver information that is location specific.

Moreover, much of the most effective communication will be that which emanates not directly from marketers, but from the users' peers. As YouTube CEO Chad Hurley observed, a combination of the ability to upload video from mobile phones and improved cameras in phones, will mean a world full of potential roving reporters and commentators. As a result, the linear broadcast model will disintegrate much faster than people could ever imagine.

4. MIXED MESSAGES

The last six months or so have not been a good advertisement for senior management communication. At least not where the financial sector is concerned, and that extends to both corporations and regulators.

In the US, for example, the Treasury wants banks to lend more money in order to loosen the credit squeeze. However, federal regulators are sending a message that they want the banks to maintain a high level of reserves. Plus they are being extra cautious when poring over the loan book. The reason for the regulator's approach is to safeguard bailout money that has been pumped into banks. But tougher capital requirements inevitably mean less lending.

So, argue the banks, poor communication because of mixed messages from government merely prolongs the financial pain,

Mixed messages can also tarnish reputations. Lehman Brothers, the once mighty investment bank, used to proclaim in its mission statement: "We are one firm defined by our unwavering commitment to our clients, our shareholders, and to each other."

Unfortunately, it seems that the first many employees heard of the firm's bankruptcy filing was from the news media rather than direct communication by Lehman's then CEO Dick Fuld, or other members of the senior management team. Fuld did send around an internal memo a few days later expressing how horrible he felt about the situation, but it was a little late by then.

Contrast this approach with that of Pete Luongo, former CEO of yellow pages firm Berry. In 2001, the firm's parent company started a programme of lay-offs, which entailed Luongo having to offer voluntary retirement packages, or involuntary lay-offs, for the first time in the company's 93 years.

Luongo responded by visiting each person who decided to accept the voluntary redundancy offer in person, to thank them for their service. "Do the right thing for the right reasons and you'll earn something valuable-respect," he said. No mixed messages there.