Allan Bonner loses one or two big clients every year.

It happens when he has to press a CEO or company president to explain himself or herself.

Bonner asks the CEO to define what the company does, and what it wants to achieve. But the leader simply cannot articulate an answer.

Allan Bonner

“One of the things they start to do is blame me, saying I don’t understand,” says Bonner, an executive coach, author, former journalist and head of Allan Bonner Management Communications Inc.

While these are extreme cases, Bonner says this type of client highlights one of the most pervasive trends in today’s workplace – miscommunication.

In many cases, the leaders are to blame. Whether it’s at the corporate table or trying to explain a mission statement to the rank and file, they just aren’t making the connection.

“Humans have no end of ability to delude themselves,” Bonner says. “And middle-aged men shaving themselves in the morning are perhaps the most prolific at delusion – that they (believe they) are doing well, or doing the right thing.”

Earlier this summer, Bonner traveled to Edmonton and Vancouver promoting two of his books: Doing and Saying the Right Thing, and Media Relations.

In a wide-ranging interview with Business Edge, Bonner said he believes that only five to eight per cent of the corporate leaders he encounters are excellent communicators.

His conclusions are drawn from a variety of clients: CEOs, heads of government, delegations from the G8 and United Nations, the World Trade Organization and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Based in Toronto, the former broadcaster has been training leaders over the past 14 years in areas such as crisis management, media and communication. He is also working toward his doctorate of business administration.

Bonner says his company has coached approximately 25,000 senior executives. Remarkably, he notes few rate as great communicators.

But those who are share some common traits. First, good communicators are those men and women who are empathetic with themselves and others. However, Bonner says empathy doesn’t mean these leaders are soft.

“If you are operating at a high level intellectually or physically . . . it’s easy to look down on everybody else who isn’t at that level.”

That’s unfortunate, he says, because although it’s the path a leader has chosen, others in the organization are raising kids or doing other things important to their lives.

Bonner also believes there are limits to growth – not everybody can be a CEO or a leader, or improve himself or herself 20 per cent each year.

Organizations must also have room for the people who just want to do a good job and work 9 to 5, he explains. Leaders and organizations that constantly use the clichés of “more, onward, upward, bigger, richer and faster” just drive the average worker crazy, he says, “so empathy with oneself and with others around you is important.”

Good leaders also understand it’s their duty to communicate effectively, and it’s not the recipients’ responsibility to try to decipher what they are being told.

Poor communicators rely on jargon, Bonner notes. They assume a certain amount of knowledge and expertise on the part of the audience, and assume that it is the audience’s responsibility to understand.

The latter happens often in the workplace. Having a boss with poor communication skills can mean employees will be reluctant to speak up and admit they don’t understand what the leader is saying.

“Nobody, especially men, is going to self-identify as not understanding,” says Bonner. “So what you end up with is people implementing what they think the boss meant.”

That lack of clarity, he adds, is a terrible waste of time and energy.

In his consulting and training programs, Bonner uses an interesting technique to help his clients understand their shortcomings.

He has clients draw pictures to illustrate the message they want to deliver because, he says, “you can’t draw jargon.”

The idea is to have people think carefully about the words they use, and to understand the picture they should be creating for their audience.

A leader can say his customers are happy, and draw a big happy face.

“But why is the customer delighted?” asks Bonner.

“Is it because the product is durable? Is it because of price? Is it because of status?”

Drawing pictures can help peel away the layers in order to get to the deeper explanation. Bonner offers a simple example: Imagine a boss calls an employee into the office and says he needs a chair. But what kind of chair does the boss want? Is it an Obusforme, bentwood, a rocker or a stool?

If the boss thinks visually, he can describe the chair perfectly – perhaps requesting a tall leather wingback, diamond-tufted library chair, the kind that Winston Churchill would have been comfortable sitting in puffing a cigar. “Then there’s no ambiguity,” Bonner says.

The employee has a clear understanding of what’s needed. There’s no guesswork, and more importantly, the boss is likely to get what he wants.

Message given, message received. And communication is the clear winner.

(Mike Dempster can be reached at miked@businessedge.ca)