I have spent a lot of time in recent weeks discussing leadership, one-on-none, with several New Zealand CEOs.  One consistent theme to emerge is recognition that analytical tools and monitoring frameworks are important to ensure you follow the right strategies but that the best leaders can translate these into the language of their people in inspiring ways. Words can be our greatest barrier in communication. Especially when listeners are a little anxious to appear smart; and would rather pretend to understand than ask for clarification. The leader looks through this to the outcome of the actions that result from their communications and so takes responsibility to ensure they are understood. Of course, this requires understanding the basic principles - like knowing your audiences and tuning what you say to work for them.  What's the effort worth? Well Watson Wyatt have recently researched the ROI on communications and will show you the benefits; go here for a good review.