Leadership communication is typically viewed from a classical, or bureaucratic, orientation where the focus is on information exchange, positioning, or effective persuasion. However this misses that communication is constitutive of interaction. Communication is not simply delivering messages but is a way of working out the content, direction, and outcomes of activities such as meetings, speeches, purchases and negotiations. The current paper proposes a model of leadership communication competency that is founded on the capacity of an individual to design interaction though communication. Using the basic design elements of designer, material and situation, three steps are described that are meant to guide leaders on how to construct preferred forms of interaction and stay away from others. The focus on communication as constitutive of interaction offers great potential to help us shift the context and purpose of leadership communication. The model shows how leadership communication generates the grounds for interaction as well as arises in response to and anticipation of the demands for interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]