I once heard a great philosopher (I think it was Jerry Seinfeld) say that research has shown the #1 fear people have is public speaking; #2 is dying. “That means,” he said, “that most people would rather be the guest of honor at a funeral than the one giving the eulogy.”

A bit extreme? Perhaps. Pretty close to the truth? You betcha.

Many, many people spend their lives avoiding standing up and speaking, and as they get older, the lack of practice earlier in life really shows. They may reach a point in their careers where they are expected to get up and speak, and it’s painful to watch them do it. On the other hand, they may never even rise to such a position, being held back by their lack of confidence and ability and being passed over in favor of someone who can take an abstract idea and explain it as something practical.

I had some great opportunities in my younger days that were fun enough in themselves, but which have had a far greater payoff than I could have imagined. When I was in high school I stumbled my way onto the debate team with a couple of coaches who provided me some excellent challenges, and who offered the right teaching to meet those challenges. While a university student I participated in military officer training, where I had tons of speaking opportunities that forced me to get up in front of a crowd of my peers. That sort of preparation came in handy early in my military career, when I spent most of my first four years as an instructor in my specialty, and later became a professor at a military academy. Not only were those positions fun and impactful, they also opened the door to many other opportunities down the line, opportunities that would not have existed if I had not been able to stand up and speak comfortably in front of 5 or 500 people. I realize not everyone had those opportunities, or may not have taken advantage of them even if they did. If that’s the case, though, the time to start making up for it is now, not later.

The ability to communicate is essential for a leader, and it’s not a skill that is developed overnight. It takes practice, and it takes getting things wrong so you can learn what to do right. If you have reached a leadership position without the ability to communicate effectively, the smartest thing you can do is get working on it now, before you cause damage to your company and your career. At a minimum, you need to be able to explain senior leaders’ priorities and company goals to your employees, and communicate workplace concerns up to senior leaders so they have a chance to respond. You cannot afford to be the weak link in your internal communications.

Communication skills in the workplace are even more important today because ideas are becoming more complex and new concepts often require some explaining, and probably some convincing. You and your employees can have an amazing new idea, but if you cannot communicate it to others, it will never go anywhere. It’s not enough that YOU understand it; as a leader, you have to make others understand it, too, and if you are not able to put things into terms that others can comprehend, you will never be successful.

Of course, communication is not just about speaking. It’s also about writing, and one trend that began with PowerPoint, grew with texting, and is now facilitated by Twitter, is the idea of short-line writing. Whether it’s bullet points on a slide or 140-character limits on tweets, many of us are used to writing in short bursts rather than fleshing out our ideas. While brevity is good, and concise writing will hold readers’ attention better, we can lose the skill to build a case and make a point if we focus instead on just providing the bare minimum. Whether it’s writing an email, a report, or advertising copy, we need to be able to communicate complex ideas through the written word.

You need to be able to make a point and support it; that’s the simplest way to describe communication. The greatest ideas don’t matter, and the greatest challenges will go unaddressed, if you are unable to speak and write effectively. There’s no point, in other words, if you cannot make a point.