Introduction
Leaders need to seek better communication skills not only for themselves and their leadership teams, but as part of the organization’s culture. Successful change management requires getting everyone moving in one new direction.
People will be talking with one another while you’re trying to drive change. As a leader, you want to make sure those conversations are out in the open so that objections can be addressed and people will grow confident in your leadership.
Better Communication Skills at the Organization Level
What do we mean when we talk about the communication skills of an organization? At the individual level, we know how to describe communication skills. We talk about someone’s style, their subject matter knowledge, their ability to adapt their message to their target audience, their preparation, etc.
In an organization, better communication skills are something we seek to build in the culture. To be specific, we’re seeking to create a cultural norm of frequent, open dialogue. When that’s the norm, people feel safe in raising concerns and objections, knowing that they will be heard.
They also recognize that they are obligated to participate in dialogue, whether in meetings or less formally among their peers. It’s part of their job, making sure they are contributing not only their labor but their expertise, insight and ideas whenever possible.
Leaders need to look out for the two biggest barriers to better communication skills in an organization: silence and violence.
Recognizing Silence
Very simply, silence means people are not participating in the dialogue. Said another way, important conversations are not happening because people are choosing not to engage in them.
Why is silence a problem?
Hopefully you’ve hired smart people. It only makes sense, then, that you want and need the insights of those smart people when you’re leading a change program. Smart people always have thoughts and opinions. When they go silent, you lose the benefit of knowing those thoughts and opinions.
Besides not having the input, when people are silent you don’t know where they stand. Do they understand what you are trying to accomplish? Are they committed to working with you and your team, or do they have reservations? Without clear understanding and commitment, how will you bring these people along with you?
Addressing Silence
First and foremost, make sure you’ve created an environment where it’s safe to speak out. Many people who turn to silence do so because they feel they may be ignored or worse yet criticized for speaking up.
Examine your behavior — what do you do when you are challenged? Do you fight back right away? Or do you give considered answers and act respectful when you disagree with the challenger? Check the same behaviors in your leadership team, and within the organization in general. You’ve got to make it safe for people to engage. Your behavior will set the tone.
If you’re sure it’s safe and you see individuals are still reluctant to add their input to the dialogue of the organization, coach them individually. Let them know how much their input is valued and needed, and thank them when they open up.
Recognizing Violence
In this context, violence can be described as the tendency of one or a few individuals to dominate conversations. When there is violence, there is no chance for open dialogue. The dominators, if there are more than one, may argue their points without effectively listening to one another. And those who are not dominating the conversation will end up going silent, out of frustration or boredom.
So in the end, violence begets silence. How do you address violence?
As a leader, maintain your own objectivity. You’re a participant in the conversations taking place, but you must also be an observer. Learn to step out of the discussion from time to time and assess what’s happening. If you observe individuals dominating to the point where others are checking out, you need to intervene.
The degree of intervention depends on just how “violent” the dialogue is getting. It can be as simple as reminding someone to ease up a little and open themselves up to push back from others. Or it can go all the way to having to call a time out and taking people aside to help them see that their passion is overwhelming others and suppressing good dialogue.
The Result of Silence and Violence
One of two things is going to happen when you don’t have open dialogue in which everyone is actively engaged.
You’ll stall. Some strong people will argue and debate ad infinitum, while others check out. And your change strategy goes no where.
You’ll move forward. Not everyone will be participating, but strong people will drive and dominate the dialogue and the resulting actions.
Stalling will be very clear to you, and you’ll need to intervene to create safety, get people engaged, help break logjams, etc.
Moving forward might not seem so bad, but beware. Depending on just how many people have gone silent, there may be a time bomb in your implementation plan. When things go wrong, as they do in any change initiative, there will be a number of people who will have effectively positioned themselves to wash their hands of all responsibility.
As we noted earlier, just because they go silent doesn’t mean they don’t have input and opinions. When the plan goes forward and they’ve been shouted down, or chose not to engage because they felt it wasn’t safe, they will be in a position to say “that wasn’t my idea”.
Even though such behavior should be unacceptable, it happens way too often. Prevent it by setting expectations around organizational communication, specifically creating a shared value for open, honest dialogue without repercussion or disrespect.
By: Tom O\’Dea
Better Communication Skills — Silence and Violence
January 28th, 2010 by Admin No comments »Assess Your Commitment to a “Culture of Customer Service”
January 27th, 2010 by Admin No comments »What is an organization’s “culture?” It is simply a critical mass of the attitudes and behaviors of its people and groups. The fifteen statements below each reflect an important “cultural” reality impacting customer satisfaction and loyalty. They have shaped our customer service program’s success. Do they shape yours? How is your customer culture?
1. T / F: In our organization we operate under the assumption that customers view customer contact persons as “the organization” and representatives of what the organization means to them personally.
2. T / F: We communicate regularly the importance of realizing everyone in our organization has customers: external (“paying”) customers and internal (work group/ inter-work group) “customers.”
3. T / F: We design our processes and train our people around 2 things customers want to know: (1) Do you do what you say you will? (2) How do you handle problems?
4. T / F: Realizing that organizations choose, consciously or unconsciously, to be financially driven and/or customer-driven, we make decisions remembering that organizations working from a short-term, financially driven philosophy are not as effective in service situations.
5. T / F: Since front line persons make most customer service decisions on a daily basis, our top management understands their key role and allows them to inform the organization about customer needs.
6. T / F: We promote the status of front line customer contact people to a position of value and respect—they are not considered the least educated, trained and paid.
7. T / F: We allow our customer contact personnel, not management, to control the quality of the service product.
8. T / F: Management believes in the importance of good service and actively supports it.
9. T / F: We measure customer service results in a way that leads to greater focus on the importance of individual efforts.
10. T / F: We emphasize that customers perceive service to be “good” when positive individual interactions occur—crucial encounters that can be considered “moments of truth.”
11. T / F: “Customer first” behavior is rewarded and encouraged to be repeated.
12. T / F: Customer service skill training is wall-to-wall.
13. T / F: Our corporate culture supports continuous improvement of customer service processes.
14. T / F: “Customer first” attitudes, along with results communicated continually to all employees in simple terms create a climate for quality customer service in our organization.
15. T / F: Corporate goals, policies and procedures reflect a “customer first” mind set, while we foster a rewarding service-focused climate.
YOUR CUSTOMER CULTURE STRENGTH…
13-15 “TRUE” — You are likely experiencing customer (and employee) loyalty and advocacy.
10-12 “TRUE” – Do you have good customer satisfaction scores, but customer loyalty is strained?
Less than 10 “TRUE” — Are you struggling with customer satisfaction, loyalty and brand reputation? Do you have low employee morale and high employee turnover?
By: Bob Davis-Mayo
Internal Communication – at the Heart of Every Business
January 24th, 2010 by Admin 1 comment »Internal communication is an effective tool for handling many problems at the workplace. It is also known to decrease absenteeism, alleviate grievances and reduce turnover of employees, thereby improving productivity and profitability of the company.
Designing an effective internal communication system depends on various factors, the most important being size of the organization. In a smaller set up, the head of the company could draft an internal communication strategy by himself or herself as most operations are under his or her direct control. When it comes to a big organization, other personnel like senior executives, managers and the HR department play a vital role. Another consideration is the flow and level at which internal communication must happen – should it be downward, upward or horizontal?
If you are struggling to communicate with employees, the following process will ease your problem.
Identify a common culture: Decide what type of culture you would like to adopt in the organization. Set forth the values, principles, procedures and behaviors that are considered desirable. This also has a great impact on the mission and vision of your company.
Use communication tools: Identify the means by which you can communicate with employees. The different communication tools at your disposal are:
• Paper-based tools like memos, newsletters, brochures, performance appraisal documents, slogans, pay packet enclosures, etc.
• Oral communication in the form of general meetings, division and branch meetings, team addresses, one-on-one manager to staff communication.
• Electronic tools like e-mail, website and intranet.
• Training sessions designed for teaching special skills, or team building activities.
Match tools with goals: You need to determine which tools are best suited to the goals of the company. For instance, a memo might work when a manager wishes to communicate specific work related instructions to a limited number of subordinates, but a newsletter is the thing to use when you want to talk to all the employees about the company’s achievements.
Prepare yourself: The next step to ensuring effective internal communication is to know what to communicate and how to go about it. For example, criticism is best offered face to face, in private, while praise must be publicly proclaimed.
Think creatively: Like any tool, those of internal communication also wear off with time and overuse. Infuse creativity and change to keep the interest alive.
Now that you understand the process, let’s look at the attributes of a good internal communication strategy:
Well-timed: Any communication or message from the company should be passed on to the employees before they get to hear it from outside sources.
Unambiguous: It should also say everything clearly – that means the message should be comprehensive and easily understood.
Crisp and informative: Remember to keep your message as short as possible. Also, the key message should be relevant to the reader.
Exciting: Keep the communication interesting if you’d like it to register. In a world of information overload, most of which is boring, the last thing you need is to add to the burden!
Remember that developing and implementing strategic internal communication can benefit your organization immensely. Books like “Effective internal communication starts at the top” and “Making the connections: Using internal communication to turn strategy into action” .“Effective internal communication”
By: Akhil Shahani
