I'm not sure that 'Why are some managers better at communicating...' is a question I'm qualified to answer (maybe it's history, childhood experience, education, environment, EQ....) but I can certainly respond by suggesting what managers can do to become better at communicating in the workplace.

Here are some of my thoughts..

1. Recognise that communication is a 2-way, interactive process: managers can be good presenters and good speakers but poor communicators - because they don't listen, check understanding and value the response they get to the great messages they give out.

2. Understand the difference between the communication system and the quality of the communication within it - I see great communication systems in organisations, full of poor content.

3.Learn more about how important careful choice of language is and how there are many different ways of presenting the same messages to different audiences.

4. Understand that the quality of the communication is measured by the response it gets - don't blame the listener!

5. Learn to use better questions - I hear too many managers using questions that shut down communication, rather than open it up. Questions are a manager's key tool - experiment with different questions in order to draw out different types of response in different contexts.

There is little to add to 2 great replies that you have received from Dymphna and Ann. In support of No4 on Ann's list, a great skill for managers is the use of peripheral vision and the ability to pick up all the non-verbals (especially the subtle ones) that their recipient is giving. If they can find out what is happening inside the person, they can change their style of communication or message.

Another thought is that the better managers may well be listening with more than their ears.

Here are more ideas:

1. Different Thought Processes

1.1 Extreme Left brain meets extreme right brain - which causes people to think and communicate differently. e.g. in Sri Lanka I am coaching an hotel general manager. He is a structural engineer and looks at everything by the metric system - which makes communication difficult.

1.2 Past experience and conditioning. e.g. I am coaching hospital managers in the Maldives who talk to lab machine operators not as medical people but computer operators. However they are very highly qualified medical lab technicians.

1.3 Age. e.g. I am coaching pilot boat crews in South Africa. The older, more experienced pilots are much more formal than their younger counterparts, who want to converse as friends, which is a real barrier.

2. Fear

Some managers may not be honest and direct in the way they communicate, because of:

2.1 Fear of being found out - that the line employees know more than they do

2.2 Fear of failure, as I am the manager and I am responsible

2.3 Fear of their age, sex or any such factor that might make them less of a manager.

3. Old habits die hard

3.1 I am coaching 3 ex - air force guys who got the best out of their trainees the hard way. Now as training managers of a commercial airline they communicate the same way.

3.2 I am also coaching 3 army doctors who are now working in a regular hospital. They behave very differently in the theatre.

Communication is my #1 topic to train on --- so let me add a few thoughts to these already great answers...

Some additional things that might not have been addressed:

1. Generations

We have four generations in the workplace today -- first time in history. So...the Veterans and Boomers were brought up taught to communicate verbally. X's and Y's -- electronically. (there are always exceptions -- these are just "predominantly speaking" perspectives). So if you are a veteran or boomer trying to communicate to X's/Y's -- you are probably not communicating well with all the "chatter" --- give it to them electronically. And the opposite is true.

2. Personalities

We all tend to talk, train, lead, motivate and reprimand to our own personality style. Problem is -- we are directing these conversations to potentially 3 other styles. The key to personality profiling isn't just knowing what YOU are -- it's being able to walk through the office and quickly recognize what your team members are by the way they decorate, talk, dress, etc. -- then talking their "language" instead of your own to better reach them.

3. Making Assumptions

The biggest mistake of managers!!!! If you enter into management saying to yourself --- "These are grown folks...I shouldn't have to tell them they have to come to work to keep their jobs! --- I shouldn't have to tell them..." that is your first mistake. You must tell your team members what your expectations are in order to get results. Employees complain consistently about not having a clear understanding of what is expected of them.

Those are my add on thoughts!!!