Leadership Communication: Communicate with Impact–Aligning Words with Vision and Values

“Lahat ng bagay nadadaan sa mabuting usapan.”

Language is a powerful tool that an individual can wield to another, and communication bridges the gap in delivering a message. In a government workplace setting, the usage of language and the capacity to communicate to one another is considered an essential skill one should possess in order to effectively deliver their functions. And for employees situated in supervisory positions, the ability of an employee in a managerial position to communicate effectively with ease and sensitivity towards its staff wholly affects the office’s ambiance and interrelationships between the said staff and unit heads.

Aligned with the HRDO’s initiative to boost the communication skills of UP Manila employees in supervisory positions, the Learning and Development Section (L&D) conducted a hybrid leadership training entitled “Leadership Communication: Communicate with Impact–Aligning Words with Vision and Values,” held on February 20, 2026, Thursday, from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, located at the 8F Social Hall of the UP-PGH Building. This training is hosted by Ms. Julia Cabalda, along with the invited resource speaker, Dr. Emely D. Dicolen from the National Teacher Training Center for the Health Professions (NTTCHP). Dr. Dicolen provided various individual and group activities that allowed participants to practice and enhance one’s communication skills in relation to their standing as a leader in their respective offices/units.

To formally start the program, the HRDO Director, Dr. Michael Antonio F. Mendoza, gave his opening remarks. In his message, Dr. Mendoza highlighted the importance of this training as supervisors to their staff, especially in mastering the capability to maintain a good working environment with their colleagues. Moreover, he mentioned that he is hopeful for the success of the training, particularly in handling difficult conversational situations. Lastly, he reminded everyone to have an open mind as they embrace new knowledge as they go through the training and in applying the learnings in their work functions.

As mentioned, Dr. Emely D. Dicolen, professor and the college secretary of NTTCHP, was requested as the resource speaker for this training. She began the event by giving a grounding exercise to the participants, allowing them an avenue to open their thoughts and feelings in understanding the training topic. In the activity, she advised the participants to write a continuation to the phrases, “Today I feel…”, “I am grateful for…”, and “I worry about…”. This activity, a kind of reflective writing, was done to help the participants reflect on their own thoughts and get in touch with their emotions.

Afterwhich, Dr. Dicolen continued to provide an activity about self-introduction, talking about their passion, strength, and mission in life. This particular activity intends to measure their self-awareness wherein if one knows how they feel, they can manage their feelings better. This is congruent with what the participants shared while doing the activity, some saying that it was hard due to self-questioning if that was exactly how they think others perceive themselves, while some says it was easy for them to be aware of who they are as a person. Moreover, the activity allowed the participants to feel validated and affirmed of how they view themselves, nurturing their feelings of empowerment and asserting their definition of self.

In relation to this, what if the employee has no talent in expressing their feelings about their supervisor’s actions towards them? Dr. Dicolen responded that there are always opportunities to correct and validate affirmations that are more deliberate and conscious by being able to see the situation using one’s lens and seeing it in another person’s lens. Hence, communication would entail a lot of high emotional quotient or EQ.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth. Following Goleman’s Model of Emotional Intelligence as explained by Dr. Dicolen, one’s self-awareness and social awareness enables them to recognize and further regulate their emotions and behavior. In short, by knowing how you feel, you can manage what you are feeling, so that you cannot let it affect your relationships in the workplace and in your organization, in a more macro-perspective. However, to be an impactful leader-communicator, Dr. Dicolen also highlighted the relevance of knowing one’s social battery capacity, one’s empathy, one’s spiritual quotient or ability to harness spiritual values for well-being, and one’s adversity quotient or the ability to overcome challenging moments in life without succumbing to the dilemma.

Leadership communication, as the title of this training suggests, is also discussed during this training; knowing how to inform about decisions and inspire others. A self-assessment about leadership communication was given to the participants to make way for this discussion, underscoring its importance, particularly in building credibility, trust, and motivation. Elements of leadership communication were also tackled, especially on empathy and active listening which may affect when communicating with one another. As a dynamic workforce, it is crucial to discuss the intergenerational ratio of existing employees within the institution. Dr. Dicolen emphasized that “the employees we have now are a product of a totally different environment than us” and that we should not take it against them. Knowing their communication preferences as well as persisting generational issues would assist them in managing communication effectively through an intergenerational leadership. As Dr. Dicolen noted, “generational diversity is not a weakness, but a strength.”

Moving forward, as government employees, translating UP Manila’s vision and values to ways of communicating to others should also be included in what it means to communicate effectively in leadership. The values of Honor, Excellence, and Service served as a guide for their exercise which they can apply to their daily work functions. As Dr. Dicolen reiterated, communication also happens in written and non-verbal form, not only in verbal communication.

Crafting impactful leadership messages in communication was the pivotal concept of the training, merging impactful messages with impactful leadership. In this session, elements of impactful leadership messaging were outlined, giving importance to compassion and consistency, along with appreciative storytelling that leaders could utilize in driving action, building trust, and creating strong connections with the unit. The CLEAR model of impactful leadership message was also discussed in this part, allowing participants to have a guide in applying this topic through an activity.

Lastly, but a very crucial part in communication is the art of giving and receiving feedback. In this session, Dr. Dicolen tackled different types of feedback and the effect of feedback according to Social Cognitive Theory. Moreover, the concept of appreciative feedback was brought up to encourage participants to use it the next time they communicate with their staff. Other common feedback such as the sandwich method was also highlighted. She also took this opportunity to provide a guide book she personally published entitled, “Straight from the Leader’s Heart,” in which she tackled leadership communication in detail.

We, the Learning and Development Section of the UP Manila HRDO, strive to deliver training programs and caravans that are both conducive and beneficial to our fellow UP Manila constituents. Look out for more exciting updates on events that we’ve got for you here at our website!