Tell-and-sell or ask-and-listen: A self-concept perspective on why it needs leadership communication flexibility to...

Beneath the verbosity of modern leadership theories, there is a simple truth: leading people is essentially about communication. The respective communicative philosophies underlying leadership theories can be broadly separated into two camps: one arguing that leaders should tell-and-sell and one urging leaders to ask-and-listen. In the present essay, we first define the two communication approaches. Second, we outline how both approaches manage to engage subordinates but in different ways. Third, we review the appropriateness of each of these communication approaches under different circumstances, outlining why communicative flexibility is needed. Lastly, despite the advantages, we discuss that leaders will struggle to adopt communicative flexibility due to widespread simplistic leadership schemas-in research and practice.