Communication skill is necessary but not sufficient...Effective leaders must also have communication savvy.

I don’t recall a search I’ve participated in—whether as a candidate, a hiring manager, a committee member, or a search consultant—when communication skill hasn’t been on the list of important characteristics.

No surprise, then, to see the recent study 2024 Competencies for the College Presidency prepared by Jorge Burmicky, Ph.D. and Kevin R. McClure listing the area of communication as the third of those seven competencies.

But, interestingly, the authors don’t call for leaders who have communication skill—they describe the need for communication savvy.

What’s the difference? As I look through their report, two things strike me as essential to move from communication skill to communication savvy.

First is what they describe as “infusing their personality and emotion into messages”. Audiences—including faculty, staff, and trustees, long for leaders who are authentic and genuine. Savvy communicators know that leadership and communication are largely the art of being one’s self in public, and they are comfortably expressing that self in a genuine manner. People follow other people. Savvy communicators never let others forget that while they may hold leadership roles, they are people too.

Second is what the authors refer to as “discerning which issues merit the “president’s voice.” Navigating what to say and how to say it isn’t enough; the essential question is whether to say anything. Answering that question requires a deep understanding of the institutional culture; it also requires courage. The more obvious form of courage is to speak out when one believes the issues and circumstances call for it. In my experience, that isn’t the hard part. The hard part is the courage to hold one’s tongue when the issues and/or circumstances do NOT call for it—especially when goaded, perhaps on all sides, to speak out.

Communication skill? I’m all for it. But don’t forget to develop savvy as well.