Mind the gap: How to take communication leadership from knowing to doing

The communication sector needs to pay greater attention to leadership development and the learning this entails going beyond ‘knowing’ to ‘doing’. Dialogue, co-creation and experimentation are the keys to achieving this.

When working with communication professionals a question I often ask is what principles guide you as a leader?

Even those who haven’t reflected on this before can usually quickly articulate the priorities underpinning their leadership practice. The sort of themes which emerge from these discussions often involve statements around “providing a clear sense of purpose”, “empowering others” or “leading by example”.

When considered in isolation these are simple ideas and at one level leadership is simple. The principles people associate with leading others tend to be straightforward and reasonable rather than complex. The real fun begins when you start to consider what lies beneath such aspirations and how you go about putting them into practice? This challenge is encapsulated in what Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton call the ‘knowing-doing gap’. These American academics argue that the divide between knowing and doing is one of the biggest obstacles to effective organisational performance and is a particular problem for leaders.

I’d argue that confronting this issue is especially important for the communication profession. In my experience, as both a researcher and practitioner, many of the senior people in our field receive little or no formal leadership development. They tend to learn their leadership ‘on-the-job’ by watching others and trying things out (with both good and bad consequences). Such experiential learning is important but from my research it is clear that additional support to help tackle the specific challenges of leadership would also be appreciated. That said, any development activities need to go beyond “what we know about leadership” to consider questions around “how should we do it”? 

"Many of the senior people in our field receive little or no formal leadership development."

For Harvard professors Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana, finding ways of taking action while confronting the difficulties that surround you is at the heart of effective leadership. This is tricky territory which is why I work with senior communicators to help them develop personal strategies to overcome the barriers they face. These conversations usually identify a range of conditions that impact on their leadership practice. These might include issues around perceived levels of autonomy (or a lack of autonomy), organisational culture, role conflict, role ambiguity, role overload and so the list goes on.  

I find that a facilitated discussion with a small group of leaders is usually the best way of gaining insights which can help them generate solutions for their own situation. Dialogue, co-creation and experimentation are the key words here given the sort of challenges being scrutinised aren’t usually amenable to off-the-shelf approaches.

Asking the right questions

To get the ball rolling when considering these issues it is useful to engage in a way of thinking known as retroduction. In essence, this involves trying to identify the factors that influence and shape a particular context. For example, ask yourself what was it that allowed you to operate at your best as a leader in a certain situation? Or, what was it that held you back? Crucially, don’t stop at one cause. What else is present that creates this situation and is it related in some way to what you‘ve already identified? A focus on retroduction generates questions which can help leaders to appreciate the conditions which need to be in place for them to operate effectively. It therefore serves to inform conversations concerned with addressing the knowing versus doing gap.

This idea builds on an insight made in a book I co-authored about the importance of contextual intelligence to the effectiveness of communication practitioners. However, rather than a focus on the operating environment and its impact on their organisation, this form of contextual intelligence is concerned with communicators better understanding the culture, structures, processes and systems in the organisation which impact on how they do their job. Drawing on this knowledge, they can then consider the behaviours and skills required to get things done.            

To summarise, the communication sector needs to pay greater attention to leadership development and the learning this needs to go beyond ‘knowing’ to ‘doing’. Just as communicators pride themselves on understanding the wider stakeholder environment which impacts on their organisation, so they must also think through the specific factors and forces which shape their own leadership practice. This involves developing a sensitivity to the constraints which surround them as well as a set of personalised coping strategies.

This blog draws on research presented by the author at the European Public Relations Education and Research Association Annual Congress held in October at the BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway.

You can follow Paul Willis at @ukprman and order his book with Ann Gregory, Strategic Public Relations, here.

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Paul Willis

Paul Willis is part of the strategic communication group at Leeds Business School. Before joining Leeds Beckett University he spent 20 years as a public relations practitioner in a range of leadership roles working for clients such as ASDA, BT, BMW, the FA and NHS. He is currently delivering a leadership development programme for the Cabinet Office of the UK government and an international research project on engagement for the EU. He is a Visiting Fellow at The University of Waikato in New Zealand and was jointly awarded the National Communication Association 2012 PRIDE Award for Outstanding Contribution to Public Relations Education. Paul is also co-author of Strategic Public Relations Leadership.