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A good rider is in constant, almost intuitive, touch with the horse. The horse and the rider understand each other so well that they can act and think as one. Sometimes this means the "manager" is the one doing the listening, because often the horse knows the best. It may know the way home or it might sense danger before its rider does. And it certainly knows when it is thirsty or hungry or needs a rest or wants a good hard run. The wise manager always listens to the horse. I guess it is no surprise that great leader are great communicators—or that organizations with high levels of achievement always seem to do a lot more and clearer communication than the average. After all, everything you do and say carries some message. When you ask employees what they value most and have the least of, they often say communication. Most employees do not seem to have a clear idea of that their leaders expect of them, nor do they have enough information about their work and workplace to satisfy their needs. Leaders who put creative effort and care into their own communication fint it far easier to have a positive impact. Even more, a healthy, vibrant work group has good communications in all directions. Each individual has ready access to the ideas and information of the others. Managing the communication flows and making sure they are healthy and accurate and rich in useful facts and inspirational ideas is an important calling for all leaders. Write Your Own Rumors Rumors fly whenever employees are worried or a change is under way. Rumors usually exaggerate the problem abd spread misinformation. Rumors are bad for morale and often lead to lower productivity and the defection of good employees. But not at Shaw's Supermakets. During a tumultuous acquisition of another supermarket chain they started an in-house newsletter called the Rumor Buster in order to make sure employees received accurate information. It is issued when necessary to share vital information and "bust" any inaccurate rumors that are circulating. Now the company's leaders get to write their own rumors, which means they can be sure the latest rumors are right. Follow the 24-Hour Rule for Sharing Bad News Howard Guttman, an executive coach, recommends asking your employees to tell you about any bad news or problems of any kind within 24 hours. Setting a time limit on negative feedback helps employees overcome their natural reluctance to pass bad news up the chain of command—and thereby increases the likelihood that the leader will actually find out what's going on. Perhaps the best way to present the 24-hour rule is as a principle of good communication and something that the leader does too, so that everybody can trust everyone else to share bad news instead of hiding it. Model the behavior yourself by sharing anyone bad news you get that might be if interest to the people you manage. Then they'll see that you are serious about it and begin to do the same themselves. Birthday Breakfast Meetings This ideas comes from Cisco Systems, whose President and CEO, John Chambers, holds a monthly "birthday breakfast". Invited: Every employee with a birthday in that month. They are encouraged to ask him anything they want—the tougher the question the better. Chambers find it an excellent source of candid feedback from his employees. But perhaps even more important is the fact of the invitation itself. Employees know that they are invited and that their senior leader thinks them important enough to ask for their opinion—even if only once a year. In a company as big as Cisco, that is a good feeling for employees to have. The Real Language of Leadership The Jaguar company newsletter ran an article asking "What shadow do you cast? Being a good role model will encourage others to do the right thing. Our children will always do what they SEE us do, and not what you TELL them to do." The Stump-the-Leader Prize A GI, an Illinois company, holds monthly meetings in which employees have a chance to question the CEO about anything they like. To make it clear that anything ca be discussed, the employee with the toughest question is given a prize at the end of each meeting. It's a fun way to break down the barriers with your audience and signal that you are aware you are only human, and it encourages more active, intelligent involvement. Recognize the Bear For a fun way to recognize employees who come up with ways of improving quality, one leader started giving out a humorous award called the Koala T Award—which of course takes the form of a stuffed koala bear along with a certificate of appreciation. Humor adds a rich dimension to communications. Sometimes it pays to horse around a bit. Put It in Stone Would anybody remember the ten commandments if they had been communicated by e-mail? To make sure employees remember an especially important message, hire a firm to etch it in stone and give each employee a copy of the stone message. Stoneworks Gallery of Tuxedo, New York, offers moderately priced etching over smooth, oval, palm-sized stones, and so do an increasing number of companies that take advantage of new laser cutting technologies. So leaders can now use stone to communicate a really important message. For instance, one small business owner and manager was facing new competition from a major chain that had opened in his town. He knew the only hope for survival was to cut costs and increase efficiencies, but his employees were used to the old ways and found it difficult to stay focused on the problem. By giving each of them a stone with the message, "Cut Costs Now" carved into it, he made sure his point was taken to heart. Communicating a Vision Vision, missions, purpose, direction, plan of action... call it what you will, it's still an important part of leadership. As a leader, you need to have an idea of where you want to lead your people. The you need to communicate that idea clearly and well. Industrial psychologist Andrew DuBrin recommends "reinforcing" the message using lots of simple communication methods like printing a short mission statement or description of your goal on plastic wallet-sized cards, post-it pads, small plaques, or coffee mugs. Not Into Visions? Practical Plans Are Fine Too! If you don't feel confortable standing up and advocating for some exciting new vision of the future, that's okay. The key is that you ought to have some idea of where you want to go, and you need to share it with your people so they can help you get there. Any plan that seems likely to produce healthy growth is sufficient as a leadership vision and your people will appreciate having something to shoot for. In fact, the more practical and down to earth the vision, the more likely everybody will be to support it and make it real. The Tower of Present Tense Leadership What is your business? What does it do? What is it best at? Sometimes simply stating who you are in a positive light is more effective than a vision of where you want to be in the future. Helping your people see your organization's strengths in a positive light can motivate them to use those strengths and build on them. Unlike some future-tense vision, a present-tense description is clearly something everyone needs to live up to right now. Write a "Recognition Notes" This is a remarkably simple but powerful leadership communication technique. The idea is to try to thank your people, praise them, or otherwise let them know you are aware of their actions, effort, or accomplishment by giving them informal, quick written feedback. Whenever an individual has done anyhting well or responded to a specific request or need, try to get them a quick written recognition note. Keep your recognition notes very short and simple and use easy, informal media like sticky note pads, the back of business cards, the bottom margin of a memo from the employee which you return with a recognition note, or of course e-mail. Use Your Business Card for Appreciation Notes The back of a business card has just enough room for a quick message like "Thanks for your help with the research, I'll let you know how the project turns out", or "I appreciate all the hard work your department is doing, thanks!" It is also a great place to scribble a quick thought-provoking question, like "How could we get in touch with lost customers to see what we did wrong?" See That Everyone is Thanked When the organization works hard toward a difficult goal, this collective effort needds to be recognized with thank-you's to everyone. Yet, most often, leaders recognize the more prominent or higher-ranking contributor to the effort, or simply those who happen to be around and are easiest to thank. To make sure everyone felt appreciated, one insurance company insituted a program they dubbed PEET, which stoof for Program to Ensure that Everybody is Thanked. To implement it, managers spent little time coming up with appropriate ways to thank people for their hard work and made sure thay didn't overlook anyone. Book, $10.95, signed by the author, reg price $19.95  |
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