If you’re a manager, whether that be vice president of a multinational corporation or someone responsible for supervising two office cleaners, your ability to communicate effectively will have a vital bearing on your success.
Communication is a fascinating and rewarding subject for anyone to study.
Why?
Well, for one thing, although it is a complex field, it’s certainly not rocket science to master.
And, crucially, there’s a direct connection between the quality of a manager\’s communication efforts and the quality of his/her results.
[box type=\”shadow\”]“To communicate effectively, we must realise that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.”
– Anthony Robbins[/box]
If you’re a manager of people (and even if you’re not) there are a few simple things you can do in the communications space to up your game significantly.
Embrace the fact that you’re in the employee engagement business
The word ‘engagement’ has thrust its way into corporate terminology of late. Many communications divisions have been rebranded as communications and engagement divisions. And for good reason.
Old style company communication was top down in nature. Messages were crafted and sent out from on high and the people receiving those messages were expected to sit up and take notice, whether they liked what they heard or not.
If you’re still communicating this way with your team, think again. People want to feel engaged or involved. They may not be responsible for taking important decisions but they sure as heck want to give their opinion and feel like it counts.
So, view communication as a two way street …
There are important messages you need to convey but to do so in a way that they produce the best results you must take time to make your employees feel connected, involved and acknowledged.
Understand your audience
It’s a fact that people unconsciously filter incoming communications through their own unique belief and value systems. So no matter what the message is you want to get over, it’s very likely that it will be interpreted differently from the way you intend it.
You can limit the ‘distortion’ that occurs with your communications by taking time to understand the people you are aiming them at.
The best way to do this is to put yourself in their shoes. In other words, try to see the world from their perspective. What is it they would like or need to know? Why is this? How could you communicate in a way that would most appeal to their values and beliefs?
Apply the ‘Power of One’ to your communications
Appreciate that people are unique individuals and that ‘big group’ communications will land differently with everyone concerned.
It’s not always possible to communicate one on one but look to do so whenever you possibly can. By specifically tailoring your message to each individual concerned you will form a far better connection and will get improved trust and buy in.
Walk your talk and talk your walk
Perhaps the most demotivating experience for people in the workplace is to see management saying one thing and doing another.
Two of the attributes people want most from their leaders are honesty and consistency. That way they know where they stand.
Take great trouble to act – and be seen to be acting – in accordance with the way you expect or tell your staff members to act.
Communicate with purpose
Take care to plan your communications. Think about what you want to achieve. What results are you looking for in terms of the way your staff will think, behave and act?
Use the most appropriate medium
If you need to communicate information that your people may find sensitive, such as downsizing programmes, restructurings and so on, for heaven’s sake make the effort to do so in a way which shows you really care about them.
Face-to-face communication is the most personal form of communication and, as I mentioned earlier, if you can communicate one-on-one that is first prize in situations where you have important or difficult news to share.
The key is not to shy away from communicating or hide behind technology. Email certainly has its place but only for day to day communications that are operational – and not personal – in nature or impact.
Keep it simple
As a manager, you’re likely to be involved in meetings with your boss and your peers in which jargon is thrown around quite freely. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that the people who report to you will understand the acronyms and corporate-speak that you do.
Remember, it’s not clever to talk in high falluting terms that may confuse your staff. It’s clever to keep things simple and understandable because that leaves people feeling more engaged and therefore gets the best results.
Keep to the point
In any communication that you initiate, whether written or verbal or both, always keep in mind the critical need to stick with the point of the communication.
At school and university we are taught to write lengthy ‘backgrounds’ before getting into the meat of an essay or report. In the business world, this is likely to ‘switch’ your audience off before you can make your point.
Always start any report, speech or presentation by summarising the most important information that you want to convey before diving into the background and other detail.
If you need to convince people of something be sure to sell the benefits of what you are proposing.
Stay true to you
Whatever you do, don’t try to be someone you aren’t. People will quickly find you out if you try to imitate someone else, put on a false accent or act in a way that they are unaccustomed to.
This will only cause mistrust in you and what you are trying to communicate.
