It has its leaders, and that's encouraging (5)
I believe the answer is:
cheer
'encouraging' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to communication as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'it has its leaders' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'it' could be 'e' ('e' can mean 'electronic' which is similar to 'IT') and 'e' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'cher' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'and that's' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cheer that I've seen before include "Shout hooray" , "Shout of encouragement" , "Merriment" , "Buck up" , "Perk up" .)