Communicate With Clarity

[tconnor]

Management Tips #173
Communicate With Clarity

Every corporate client I have worked with for over 30 years has had communication problems somewhere in their organization. Some have been critical issues that cost them dearly off their bottom line, while others were nothing more than annoying inconveniences. And there was a lot in between. Regardless of the type of communication challenge you face I will bet that it is costing you corporate productivity, sales and profits.

Communication is the movement of information from department to department and/or person to person. There are five directions that information moves in an organization: top-down, bottom-up, side to side (lateral movement), inside the organization to outside and outside the organization to inside (customers/vendors to employees)

I would like to ask you six simple questions. If you can answer all of them with accuracy you are in touch with your organization’s communication issues. If you can’t I suggest you spend some time and energy discovering the answers. It might just improve customer satisfaction, employee performance, profits, sales, etc.

1. Do you have a communication problem in your organization?
2. If yes, which direction (s) is it the biggest problem?
3. Why does the problem exist?
4. How long has it been a problem?
5. Who is responsible for the problem?
6. Why hasn’t it been solved yet?

Poor communication is the biggest cause of poor performance, bad decisions, poor employee behavior, morale issues, sales challenges, lost profits and anything else you want to throw in. It doesn't matter whether the message is top-down, bottom-up, dept. to dept., inside the organization to outside or outside the organization to inside, this lack of clear communication is costing you money, market share, good employees and successful growth, not to mention the stress it causes you and your employees.

To improve communication in your organization I suggest you consider any or all of the following.

1. Conduct a confidential employee survey of perceptions, problems, issues and concerns.
2. Inspect what you expect when it comes to messages that are being sent throughout the organization.
3. Create systems of moving information from person to person or department to department.
4. Find the areas where communication seems to be breaking down and develop strategies to improve them.
5. Have a greater concern with what the message is rather than its source.
6. Check with the people who will implement, enforce or carry out a decision before you make it.
7. Delegate authority with responsibility.
8. Foster a culture that encourages the honest sharing of information.
9. Don’t shoot the messenger who brings bad news.
10. Don’t confuse disagreement with disloyalty.
11. Conduct regular staff meetings and encourage a discussion of reality.
12. Remember you get the behavior you reward. If you have negative behavior anywhere when in comes to communication, look first at the reward system that is in place.
13. Assume nothing.
14. Inspect everything.
15. Find the source of the problem (person, policy, procedure etc.)
16. Determine what the problem is costing you directly and indirectly.
17. If it is a recurring problem ask yourself why.
18. Get closer to the problem.
19. Ask the people who are closest to the problem what it is and why they think it exists or persists.
20. Don’t shoot the messenger.
21. Encourage upward feedback of accurate information.
22. If you are a senior person in the organization, take full responsibility for the problem.
23. Conduct a confidential employee attitude perception and/or communication audit or survey
24. assume nothing

Remember, you get the behavior you reward. If you have a communication problem (s) it is because the culture management style in place permits, tolerates or even encourages this on-going problem.