Leadership Communication vs Political Communication

by Dr. Nicole Pfeffermann, February 27, 2025

Can listening to the news in the last six to eight months improve your life? Yes, it can.
Listening to the news painted a new picture of individuals and systems. It clearly shows that we need change more than ever before and understanding communication in leadership positions is key to build mature systems and a stable economy for long-term growth.

Many articles and trainings focus on leadership communication skills, for instance, how to clearly communicate visions, engage employees in strategic programs, be present and ask the right questions that will foster productive and intelligent communication, actively listening to other people (e.g. Brent Gleeson, 5 Tips for Improving Leadership Communication, Forbes, May 2016). So, what is the missing point here?

This article brings to light how enhancing leadership communication skills positively affects systems and why the emotional age plays a vital role in understanding the difference between leadership communication and political communication.

I. Communication Blueprint: There and Not There

Long before the economic meltdown Brooksley Born tried to warn about the threat to the financial system and was shut down by leaders of the Clinton administration. Why? In fact, nobody wanted to listen and the ‘man behind the curtain’, Alan Greenspan, could communicate in a way that “no one understood what he said, but he said it in such a way that everybody bought it” Arthur Levitt, SEC Chairman, 1993 - 2001, Frontline ‘The Warning’.

The example of Hollywood, published by the journalist Ronan Farrow, reveals a very similar story of one ‘man behind the curtain’, Harvey Weinstein, and his enablers, the ‘army of spies’, who helped to track targets and shut down their attempt to speak up and speak out what needed to be heard for making better decisions and taking the initiative in leading necessary change to the system including strategy, structure, operations, and culture.

Both examples demonstrate the importance of knowing communication blueprints and its effects on financial, political and societal systems as well as biological, psychological-emotional systems of human beings. What is a communication blueprint? A communication blueprint is a navigation system, so-called knowledge scheme, which helps us to interact, act and reflect on situations and events in our life. We have learned in childhood how to relate, engage and interact with other individuals and, hence, it is the knowledge scheme ‘how to communicate’ which is deeply anchored in our subconscious. It is so basic that often times the way how we communicate is a given.

The Example ‘There and Not There’

Maybe Brooksley Born and the abused women and men could improve their communication skills (body language, voice and negotiation skills) to obtain different results? Certainly, we can learn business communication, negotiation techniques and how we can use our voice, actively listen to others and ask the right questions in many courses at universities, business schools and educational institutions. But it would have made no difference.

A better question is: How can we communicate with a person who is there and not there, can’t we?
A communication blueprint is different for each individual on the basis of how the upbringing looked like and how an individual has experienced relationships with caregivers and other individuals. If a person has experienced emotional abuse in childhood or had a caregiver who was emotionally and/or physically unavailable, this person has learned to relate to and interact with a caregiver who was ‘there and not there’ resulting in a similar communication blueprint in adulthood.

II. Diversion Tactics: The Communication View

Let’s have a deeper look at disempowering transactions and a repertoire of abusive tactics, which explain the two examples and, hence, communication blueprints in toxic relating networks and its negative effects on individuals and systems.

(a) Toxic Triangulation: It is a transaction model with an abuser, controlled target, and passive enabler(s). The triangle makes it very hard to detect the true cause of conflict, drama, and stress. It is a power game to create tensions between controlled target and enabler(s) leading to distraction from the abuse. Communication seems to be ineffective, not fruitful or progressive and cannot lead to (re)solutions because the abuser does not want it. Normally it is defensive communication: The controlled target and enabler(s) want to avoid power plays, anger, negative consequences, and violent outbursts of the abuser at all costs. The enabler(s) are passive and tolerating to the point where it becomes an extremely toxic, fear-based communication climate and a negative, unhealthy system, far away from resilience and effective communications.

If this abusive communication blueprint is not understood and identified as a tactic, it is frustrating and exhausting to try to implement change and effective communication. And it doesn’t matter how many meetings, workshops or award-winning image videos are implemented to find a solution and bring forward a new idea. As a purifying moment it goes so far to finally destroy relationships, businesses, and systems.

(b) Gaslighting / Cognitive Dissonance: Another name for gaslighting is crazymaking or brain-washing. It is the most dangerous and subtle manipulation tactic out there. The abuser misdirects, reframes and twists conversations with the aim to disorient, confuse and frustrate the target. Communication with the abuser never leads to any concrete results or goes on and on in a circle with changing topics, argumentation lines and confusing, senseless remarks. Over a period of time the target starts self-gaslighting, dissociation, losing his/her own reality and feeling guilty for being a human individual with needs, thoughts, opinions, values, and moral standards—life-fading is the worst-case scenario which can lead to helplessness, depression, disempowerment and regression. The target has no voice, gives up and does not speak out because it was learned and intentionally conditioned ‘I am powerless. It only leads to more pain.’

(c) Play Victim / Hoovering / Love Bombing: The abuser plays the victim at the beginning or in the hoovering stage of an abusive relationship. This subtle tactic supports opening up to the abuser and believing ‘It is me.’ because the abuser is so kind, innocent and friendly. In conversations the abuser effectively mirrors the target, gives great compliments, pays attention to details and is very engaging and available. After building trust and letting the guard down, the abuser starts to constantly devalue and violate emotional, physical and psychological boundaries or feels boredom and soon disengage/discard. It is a toxic cycle of abuse which normally leads to trauma bonding and internalized toxic shame resulting in going back to the abuser to find closure, get love & approval, feel safe again, understand what happened and solve the problem. It is not love, passion or chemistry, it is a strong chemical reaction of the brain and emotional, addictive reaction to a toxic, abnormal situation in life. It can lead to PTSD or C-PTSD and many health problems (addictions, depression, burn out).

(d) Smear Campaign / Stalking / Isolation: The abuser goes further and not only controls the target but often the whole system which leads to smear campaigns, stalking and isolation. Typical communication forms are gossip, storytelling, insults, and re-framing to provoke reactivity, silence and self-sabotage. The target should behave ‘crazy’ so that the abuser can better destroy the target’s reputation and support network. …

Those diversion tactics show that a communication blueprint can explain system dynamics resulting in the need for a better understanding of communication in leadership positions.

III. Elements of Clear, Effective Communication

Dr. Nicole Pfeffermann | Leadership, Strategy & Innovation, Innovation Communication

Fig 1. and Fig. 2. show the difference between leadership communication and political communication. The three basic elements of clear, effective communication are as follows:

Emotional age: The emotional age encompasses emotional intelligence and communication blueprint, which means (1) at which age we stay ‘stuck’ in our personal development with respect to emotional regulation and attachment and (2) how we relate, engage and interact with others based on our upbringing and relating networks in childhood.

Capability to lead: The capability to lead depends on the emotional age and is defined as the ability to positively captivate and inspire people around the world, connect and interact with human beings to systematically co-create solutions and focus on system innovation and long-term growth (methodology approach).

Communication model design: Communication model design is a powerful technique which describes the rationale of how leaders [individuals and organizations] create value through communication, reach different markets, and successfully link a strategy approach to a communication approach to achieve goals.

Dr. Nicole Pfeffermann | Leadership, Strategy & Innovation, Innovation Communication

NEW APPROACH: WE ARE ALL LEADERS IN LIFE. We are Liminal Persons.

“Liminal is who we are. And right now is your time as a liminal person. … The world needs you. At a time where the world is putting up its borders and trying to divide people into this or that we need people like you who can bring in fresh perspectives. ... You are in good company along with innovators and changemakers of the world. … You belong here as does every part of you. ”

The hidden power of not (always) fitting in. | Marianne Cantwell | TEDxNorwichED

IV. Overcoming Individual-System Challenges: From Politics to Capability

Individual leaders can surely make a difference in the world, but I think it is difficult when a solid foundation is absent and being ‘there and not there’ has become the status quo in relating networks. It is exhausting and makes it difficult to build impactful businesses and create growth opportunities. How can we fix it?

A first step in this process is to be prepared and committed to better understand how financial, educational and corporate systems were build. It is NOT complex because it points to similar problems and key themes: Assumptions and expectations of how relating networks function based on communication blueprints. It is a collective, learned belief system that needs change and, hence, it needs amendments and refinements in educational and corporate systems.

For example, Porter’s value chain (1985) is still the basis for organizational functions and job descriptions and corporate tax systems define how to build a firm’s resource set and assets. In digital business, however, we can see a change from primary to secondary activities in order to develop new business models and successful community platforms (e.g. information and knowledge management is not a secondary activity in true digital innovation, it is at the heart of value creation). Another example is even bigger than the Enron case and Arthur Andersen & Co., it is the so-called culture of ‘gamesmanship’ (Arthur Levitt) and deceptive reporting of financial results and turnarounds. In this context, communication is key to (re)build trustful relationships with partners, investors and the public and a communication model design can help to better avoid wrongdoings and abusive political behavior.

From Politics to Capability: A New Capability-Based View

A second step in this process is to re-think systems and commit to building new solid foundations. It presents tremendous challenges for executives, digital/business transformation managers and strategy & innovation units. Why? Because the true cause is often ignored in outsourced project management with short-term goals and in particular in toxic systems it is excluded from the ‘ingredients list’ for business transformation and growth.

One new approach is the capability-based view which ultimately leads to a shift from politics to capability and from political communication to leadership communication. That includes relational communication management and communication trainings to empower individuals in building mature systems in the long-run.