CEC members ask us questions about improving internal communications on a daily basis. They want to know about communicating new strategy, cascading new company values, reducing e-mail volume, improving employee engagement, implementing a culture shift, etc. etc. etc. What’s interesting is that we don’t hear the question that is perhaps one of the most important of all – “How do we enhance our line manager dialogue?”
Employees need to talkwith someone who grasps both their world and the bigger picture. Senior leaders, communications, or anyone at the corporate center can never have the proximity, credibility, or understanding of employees that managers have. We’ve found that effective line manager communications is not only employees’ preferred source of communications, it’s also the most effective way to create a personal connection between employees’ day-to-day jobs and company goals.
So what’s the problem? Most managers are not natural communicators. They don’t understand dialogue’s importance and they don’t feel comfortable holding dialogue. More often than not, managers will forward on an e-mail or read talking points from a corporate memo and go back to their jobs thinking they have just effectively communicated with their employees. Is that effective? Absolutely not. Here are three ways you can improve internal communications by enhancing line manager dialogue:
Prepare Managers for Difficult Conversations
It’s no surprise that managers face difficult conversations when changes occur in a company. With difficult conversations come difficult questions. With this uncertainty, managers are reluctant to hold dialogue because they know they won’t have all the answers. Nordea addressed this issue by creating “dialogue prep sessions” where managers work out concerns in a low pressure environment. With any major event, they bring their managers together and have them brainstorm questions that will likely field. More often than not, managers had not thought of all the potential questions that might be asked. They then practice handling these questions and communicating new information with each other making dialogue more approachable. Not only can managers practice answering difficult questions themselves, but they can learn different approaches by listening to their peers practice.
Run a Dialogue Training Workshop
Telling managers, “you need to hold more dialogue sessions with your direct reports” wont’ get you anywhere. That’s too fluffy for the average manager. You need to teach managers the power of effective dialogue and a relatable, repeatable process they can apply to any situation. That’s how Shell approached dialogue training. They created a linear, step-by-step planning process that any manager can use to plan for dialogue and then provide a simple framework for managing discussions. In other words, they placed structure behind a seemingly unstructured activity.
Perhaps the coolest trick in this best practice is what Shell named the workshop. From a manager’s perspective, attending a “dialogue training workshop” might as well be a “Three hour waste of time workshop”. Shell purposely left “communications” or “dialogue” out of the title and named the workshop “Getting the Right Results” instead. That way, the session isn’t about the company, it isn’t about employees, it’s about becoming a more effective manager.
Don’t worry about creating a similar workshop, we have the facilitation guide right here.
Use CEC’s Online Manager Dialogue Training Module
This is a no-brainer. The module is less than 30 minutes and it’s by far the easiest way to scale dialogue training in your company.
We cannot stress the importance of dialogue enough. If line manager dialogue isn’t a priority for your company, make it one. If your senior leadership doesn’t agree, we’ll help you make the case. Company strategies often fail because of poor execution and that’s what dialogue is about. It’s not about sitting around a campfire, singing “Kumbya” and making everyone feel good. It’s about increasing employee performance and driving business results.
Here are a few other CEC Manager Dialogue Tools:
on May 3, 2012
Respond
Totally agree that supervisory and managerial communication in most organizations needs significant improvement. Most companies do a sad job of 1) telling managers that communication is part of their role, 2) equipping them with the skills they need to communicate effectively, 3) providing them with enough information to communicate to their teams, 4) measuring their communication effectiveness or 5) rewarding the managers who communicate well.
Many studies show that managers are key links in the communication chair, often the preferred source of information. I’ve even conducted such studies. As my measurement guru friend Angela Sinickas points out, it’s a logical conclusion derived from a bad question. When you ask the simple question “Where do you prefer to get information?” the answer is “my manager.” When you ask “Where do you prefer to get benefits information?” or “Where do you prefer to get company financial results?” or “Where do you prefer to get competitive market information?” rarely (if ever) is “my manager” the first choice.
Managers today are rarely the preferred source for information because there are much more credible and more efficient ways to convey information. Managers can be extraordinarily effective in putting information into context … translating its relevance into actionable steps for a work group.
We definitely need to improve managerial communication effectiveness across the board. But not to become sources of information, but rather as translators and interpreters.
If there’s truly an untapped communication resource in organizations that’s being ignored, it’s the non-formal network (read “grapevine”) that is extraordinarily effective and usually credible. There are great ways to use the grapevine as a communication asset, but that’s another topic for another time.