Tim Ferguson, the host of Audience’s mental model videos, has often been asked this question: “what are the attributes of the best communicators?”. In his years as a coach, he has worked on a list, adding and tweaking as his experience adds on.

In this video, Tim shares the list he has come down to – 4 attributes for excellent leadership communication. The four attributes, all critical but ranked in order, are Authenticity, Clarity, Confidence and Flexibility. Imagine having less of one and more of the other, you may come across as arrogant (overconfident but low authenticity), or robotic (great clarity but no authenticity). Get these attributes right and you’re going to be a stellar communicator.

As you watch this video, Tim encourages you to be attentive to the order that he has and challenge it based on your own experiences. Drop him a note on LinkedIn if you feel like this mental model can be improved.