In a New York Times article, Delta Airlines CEO, Richard Anderson, says leadership is about effective communication skills.
When asked in a recent New York Times article about what he looks for in a job candidate, Delta CEO Richard Anderson said, “Typically, when you’re hiring a vice president of a company, they already have the resume and they already have the experience base. And so what you’re trying to find out about are the intangibles of leadership, communication style and the ability to adapt to change.”
"I'm looking for really good communication skills"
Anderson’s response reminds me of a book titled, “Jacked Up”, by former General Electric speechwriter, Bill Lane. In the book, Lane recalls that each of the 23 candidates in line at GE to succeed Jack Welch were considered “good to great” presenters. Anyone who seeks a position of leadership in today’s global economy should strive to improve the way they write, speak and present.
During job interviews, Richard Anderson says he’s listening for really good communication skills. “More and more, the ability to speak well and write is important. You know, writing is not something that is taught as strongly as it should be in the educational curriculum. So you’re looking for communication skills.”
Anderson doesn’t end there. He goes on to say “I think this communication point is getting more and more important. People really have to be able to handle the written and spoken word. And when I say written, I don’t mean PowerPoints. I don’t think PowerPoints help people think as clearly as they should because you don’t have to put a complete thought in place. You can just put a phrase with a bullet in front it. And it doesn’t have a subject, a verb and an object, so you aren’t expressing complete thoughts.”
Great leaders are great communicators. It’s why I’m devoting my career to help professionals improve the way they write, speak and deliver presentations. There’s simply too much at stake to fail at this all-important skill.