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Communicate Successfully!from Kraig's 12 Seasons 'Tis the month to kick-start one of the most powerful "12-Seasons" areas for a manager: communication. It's the number one thing employees say they don't get enough of, and when done well, your productivity and profits rise dramatically! Time for a "wow" realization about communication: lack of communication can create catastrophe in your results -- a great example is when we fail to tell people there was "no news" when they're expecting some news -- they wonder and worry and don't work! And, lacadaisical or not-thought-through communication can do the same -- best example is a distributor who incentivized his people to reduce damaged goods in the warehouse, so they shipped them to customers! Damaged goods dropped but so did customer happiness in a much bigger way, and it actually cost the company plenty. How do you improve your communication to avoid such undesired results? More importantly, how do you use communication to create results? First, draft your bigger communications and "run them by" your direct reports first. Test special or unusual communications in a smaller environment. Try sleeping on your communication overnight after drafting it. And always tell people something when there's something going on, especially if there is "no news" at the moment. For bad news, Michael LeBouef says it best: "Make sure that bad news travels quickly to those who can do something about it." Here are some tools for better communication: try walking the four corners (W4C) for 20 minutes each day -- just stop and ask fellow employees for input on any business area, ask how to improve things. Other communication helps: try the CEO's or manager's monthly letter to all employees, have weekly half-hour 1:1's with your direct reports and encourage them to do the same with theirs, try "quarterly priorities sharing" with your staff. Take a look at the Chapter Highlights from the "CEO Tools" book at www.ceotools.com for these and other management tools that enhance communication. Hopefully, you can fit some of these communication and trust-building ideas into your way of doing things. Coach and encourage those around you to use the communication tools. That way your effort will be multiplied, and you don't have to feel pressured to do it all yourself. Once again, we hope this communication brings you the best results achievable! With warm regards, |
