When someone talks about being effective, in essence it is really about getting things done. If you aren’t getting anything done, then are you being effective? No.

Let’s look at what is really takes to get things done. The word execution might come to mind – you have to execute on your processes in order to accomplish anything. But look deeper – what is being that execution? How do people know what to execute on? How do people know what the processes are, and what the important goals of the organization are?

One word: communication. It all comes down to communication, and if your organization isn’t effective at communicating, and if your leaders are unable to communicate in an effective manner, nothing will get done….at least not properly. In an organization, no matter what area you are looking at, the most important thing is communication. If people don’t talk to each other, if they don’t understand each other, or what is important, or what the organization is trying to accomplish, or how their role fits into the big picture – if none of that happens, the organization will not be effective.

And what drives all of that? Communication. And not just communication – effective, clear, precise, understandable communication. If the message isn’t being understood, if messages aren’t being delivered and received properly, it really isn’t communication. Its noise. And if there is too much noise, there cannot be communication.

Communication – yes, it is that important.