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The Best Leaders Adapt Their Communication
- Kelly Margani
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
By Kelly Margani
Part 3 of a 3-part blog series
Leadership Is Experienced Through Communication
In Part 1 of this series, we explored the idea that leadership isn't a promotion—it's a practice.
In Part 2, we looked at one of the leadership challenges firms most frequently misdiagnose: the absence of clarity and alignment.
Which brings us to an important question:
How do leaders actually create clarity?
The answer is communication.
Not simply the communication of information, but the communication of expectations, priorities, decisions, accountability, feedback, and trust.
And communication is more than words, it’s tone, style, approach.
Because while leaders often think they're being judged on what they know, they're more often being judged on how they communicate.
Leadership is experienced through communication. And that's where many leadership challenges begin.
One of the most common leadership frustrations sounds something like this:
"I've explained this already."
"I thought we were aligned."
"I was perfectly clear."
"I don't understand why this landed so poorly."
Most leaders have experienced some version of this moment. And often, the issue isn't a lack of intelligence, effort, or professionalism on either side.
It's that communication is far more relational than many leaders realize.
Intention and Impact Are Not the Same Thing
One of the biggest shifts leaders need to make is understanding that communication is not simply about what they intended to say.
It's about how their message is experienced by the person receiving it.
The same communication style that motivates one person may completely disengage another.
Directness may feel efficient and decisive to one team member, while someone else experiences it as abrupt or intimidating. Detailed feedback may feel supportive and clarifying to one person and overwhelming or critical to another. A highly collaborative leadership style may feel inclusive to some people and frustratingly indirect to others.
None of those interpretations are necessarily right or wrong.
They're human.
And they're shaped by differences in the behavioural preference, experience, communication style, expectations, and context of the people being led.
Strong leaders understand this. They recognize that leadership communication is rarely one-size-fits-all. They understand that being clear isn't the same thing as being understood.
Leadership Communication Is an Adaptability Skill
Many professionals spend years developing expertise in technical communication. Lawyers, in particular, are trained to communicate with precision, logic, and persuasion.
But leadership communication requires something different.
It requires adaptability.
The strongest leaders understand that effective communication is not about speaking the way they prefer to communicate. It's about communicating in a way that allows other people to hear, process, and engage with the message effectively.
That doesn't mean changing your personality or becoming inauthentic. It means developing enough awareness and flexibility to recognize what the moment—and the person in front of you—may require.
Sometimes people need directness.
Sometimes they need context.
Sometimes they need reassurance.
Sometimes they need clarity around expectations.
Sometimes they simply need to feel heard before they can move forward productively.
The most effective leaders don't ask:
"Did I say it?"
They ask:
"Did they receive it the way I intended?"
Self-Awareness Comes Before Adaptability
This is where leadership development and leadership communication intersect.
You cannot adapt your communication if you don't understand your own tendencies first.
Every leader has default behaviours. Ways they communicate when things are going well. Ways they communicate when they're under pressure. Assumptions they make about what constitutes clarity. Blind spots they may not realize are affecting others.
The strongest leaders remain curious about those patterns. They seek feedback. They pay attention to how people respond. They ask themselves difficult questions:
"How do people experience me when I'm stressed?"
"Do I provide enough context—or too much?"
"Do I assume people understand expectations that have never actually been stated?"
"Do I communicate differently with different people? If so, is that helping or hindering clarity?"
Awareness creates choice. And choice creates adaptability.
Without awareness, leaders tend to repeat communication habits automatically. With awareness, they can begin adjusting intentionally.
Stress Reveals Leadership Habits
This becomes even more important during periods of pressure, uncertainty, or change.
Under stress, people tend to communicate more narrowly and less intentionally. Patience shortens. Assumptions increase. Tone sharpens. Listening decreases. Leaders often become more transactional without realizing it.
At exactly the same time, teams are usually looking for more clarity, consistency, and steadiness from leadership—not less.
This is where communication breakdowns often begin.
Leaders believe they're being efficient. Teams experience them as unavailable or reactive.
Leaders believe they're empowering autonomy. Teams experience a lack of guidance or support.
Leaders believe they're avoiding unnecessary conflict. Teams experience confusion, inconsistency, or unspoken tension.
Without awareness, the gap between intention and impact widens quickly.
The leaders who communicate most effectively under pressure aren't necessarily the most polished communicators.
They're the most intentional.
Communication Shapes Trust
At SGI, we often remind leaders that communication is never neutral.
The way leaders communicate shapes trust, accountability, alignment, and ultimately performance.
People are constantly interpreting leadership behaviour. They notice consistency. They notice tone. They notice what gets reinforced and what gets ignored. They notice whether leaders create psychological safety or defensiveness. They notice whether communication becomes clearer or more chaotic under pressure.
And over time, those experiences shape culture.
The strongest leaders are rarely the loudest or most charismatic people in the room. More often, they're the leaders who communicate with intentionality. They create clarity. They adapt thoughtfully. They remain curious about how others experience them.
And they understand that communication is not simply a leadership skill.
It's one of the primary ways leadership is experienced.
Leadership Is Still a Practice
Across this series, we've explored three ideas:
Leadership isn't a promotion. It's a practice.
Leadership creates clarity, and;
Communication is one of the most important ways leaders create that clarity.
The future of law will continue to bring complexity. New technologies. New expectations. New challenges that leaders can't fully predict.
What won't change is the need for people in leadership roles who can build trust, create alignment, and help others move forward together.
Leadership isn't a promotion.
It's a practice.
And like any practice, it's never finished.
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