Effective Employee Communication

How to Communicate Effectively with Your Team

by J.B. Stran

 § To quote George Bernard Shaw:

  "The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has happened."

 In his book "The Three Big Questions For A Frantic Family", management guru Pat Lencioni made it clear that managers spend lots of time and energy to develop and implement very specific and strategic plans for our businesses. 

 At home however, we tend to fly by the seat of our pants with our family members.

 A similar phenomenon occurs within many businesses: We plan and strategize tirelessly to best engage external audiences such as customers, investors, media, and community, while too often forgetting to invest in our most valuable constituency, the employees who have the most control over the future of the company.

 "You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere"      ≈ Lee Iacocca

  Employees have a significant impact on the final outcome of any work project.
 They want to know where the company's heart is, it's vision and values. Your team members will engage or disengage based on the effectiveness of local management's ability to convey these core principles, along with clear, timely and effective updates.

Regular Communication Practices:

  Develop a plan to regularly communicate with employees without making it tedious, especially if you have a younger workforce who tend to find routines difficult.

 Regular meetings don't need to be weekly, but they will be necessary from time to time.

 Pepper in the occasional one-on-one meetings to touch on recent successes and shortcomings.

> Avoid feedback that criticizes the employee rather than their actions.

 Some members are more sensitive to criticism than others, just as some managers may have a personal presence that intimidates or 'rashes' certain employees.

> Ask if employees would like to receive feedback alerts to their smartphones.

 Younger and more tech-savvy team members often prefer to get simple notices from and about the team the same way that they get their news: In small casual bites, and at their own pace.

> Employ social media for company alerts and workforce updates.

  * Tip: Start a Facebook page for employee 'Weekly/Monthly News' updates to foster a feeling of engagement. The team can catch-up with their phones, tablets or computers at their pace, and show up the next day feeling briefed and up to date on the latest happenings that affect them and their goals.

( Now that most teenagers are moving away from Facebook, mainly because their parents have joined and are able to easily monitor them, team communication via this medium can have a more professional flavor.)

Bonus: This could help to eliminate the local rumor mill, and you can delegate the authority for this mission to an entry-level manager or to a particular employee-level (shift managers,foreman, department managers, etc.) whom you feel will remain professional, avoiding local gossip or any other unauthorized 'news'.
  You and your management team are the editors, and they the reporter(s).

 

Feedback in the Workplace:

   Solicit an active system of feedback from your employees.

 This facilitates two-way communication and lets employees know that their ideas are important.

 For managers, this offers the opportunity to gain new ideas, as well as offering some detailed insight into the employee's evolving jobs and skills.

 As an example; While one employee is responding to complaints regarding a company policy or process, another employee may actually have a simple solution to the problem causing said complaints.

 >  Give feedback to encourage continued effort.

  Respect the time and effort of the employee, and take note of specific areas of any shortcomings and  training gaps that will need to be addressed at a future one-on-one meeting.

    "Never miss a good chance to shut up"   ≈ Will Rogers

 >  Listening can be your most valuable communication skill.

  People begin to heal the moment they feel that someone is listening.  Your "open door" policy means very little if you're glancing at incoming emails, or answering the phone, or any of the other subtle and often unconscious ways that managers show a lack of personal interest in what's being said. 

“The most successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.”      ≈  Bernard M. Baruch

  The stronger your reputation as a good listener, the more comfortable employees will feel when they have information to share. This could easily relate to your being apprised of a potentially costly problem long before it has brewed to that stage.

 > Coaching is the best Feedback.

  Coaching is based on mutual respect, strict confidentiality, and trust. Your employees first need to know that you are credible, so only promise what you can deliver.

Managers can create credibility by admitting when they are wrong; never taking credit for another employee's ideas; never denigrating an employee for their ideas, especially in front of others; always indicating a willingness to communicate openly.

 Match actions with your words. If you say you will address a situation in a certain way, then follow through. Anything less, and you are undermining your own credibility.

 Remain objective. Never "spin" or assume how a piece of news will be interpreted.

Questioning effectively is key to the coaching approach. The coach asks questions to achieve:

 - an accurate assessment of where the employee may need additional training,

 - the proper response by management to meet mutual goals,

 - the best path to help the employee find answers for themselves.

“When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.” 
≈ Abraham Lincoln

> Negative Feedback 

 Some situations may cause undue tension on the part of the employee if they are made to feel as if under a personal attack. There are a few steps you can take to avoid this when the time has come for handling a difficult situation and you feel momentarily anxious about finding the right words.

  

 - Prepare yourself. Check facts and positions, and deal with feelings, both yours and theirs.

 - Approach the situation constructively. Humiliated employees will be reluctant to change.

 - Deal with excuses respectively. Accountability is ideal, but some may need more time to get there.

 - Ensure that people can accomplish what they said they will do. Support is always appreciated, and in most cases you will find it reciprocated.

  “We have two ears and one mouth and we should use them proportionally.” 
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

≈ 2015  Leader Hacker   /   JB Stran