The title was a comment I’ve heard multiple times.

True is that the importance of communication should not be underestimated. It is very relevant for leaders who have to find ways to lead a team and enable them to see what they are asking for.

However, the idea that “communication is always at the center of everything” does not mean that it is the essential component of leadership. Communication contributes to the success of an organization but is not responsible for it.

However, communication easily can become responsible for the failure an organization experiences. Much less because of its content, than because it fails to address what the organization needs to succeed.

Communication serves as a connector between the objective of an organization, its values, and the contributing entities. What communication can do, is reduce or dissolve tensions, such as those that can prevent the team from acting toward the objective. Or those that distract individuals from attending to the values that guide the process.

That brings communication to the center of everything. But it will only serve its purpose when the circumstances are being attended to.

The main task is to create the circumstances within which a team can feel motivated and sees what to do. Communication adds to making these details visible that the team has not yet been able to see. Communication also serves to repeat often enough whatever has been said in the past, to keep the essential visible.