Communication is vital for business success
There was recently talk in the media about teaching students work ethics and one of the examples given was telling them to ring up and speak to their Supervisor or Manager when sick and unable to attend work rather than texting. Unfortunately, though I think there are many in the workplace, of various ages that text rather than ring. If you are unable to speak with staff it is difficult to find out if they are ok, how long they expect to be off, what appointments are scheduled for the day, what work was to be completed and so on. I understand texting is a form of communication but certainly not the best one for the workplace.
I appreciate, observe and even experience how difficult some conversations as a Manager can be, particularly for those around,
- Performance appraisals
- Performance Management
- Workplace Bullying
- Grievances
- Negotiations
- Remunerations
You might be saying to yourself right now that you do communicate to your staff but really? Can you really tell me that you haven’t put off, delayed or avoided the more difficult conversations?
So what makes it so difficult? In my experience it is if a negative message has to be sent and or emotion is involved. I believe it is the fear of the unknown, the fear of not knowing how the individual is going to react. After all individuals are human beings, they will all react differently and at times unpredictable so it’s a fair reservation.
I don’t think however we stop and think about worst case scenario enough to take away the fear. What if they get angry? – well let them let off steam and move on. What if they resign? – well you don’t want them there anyway and you will be able to replace this person in the role. I am sure you will be able to think of a corrective action for any question you may ask yourself.
I understand that maybe some of the responses to those questions you need to ask may not be that attractive but you know you can manage them BUT what you should be more concerned about is NOT having the conversation about whatever it is you expect, observed, believe, decided and so on. You should fear the consequences of not having the discussion more than the reaction of the individual having the conversation as it is far worse and costly.
I have seen the effects when communication doesn’t happen and therefore issues and people are not managed time and time again over my 20 years of working in Human Resources, for example,
- Poor Culture
- Poor Performance
- Resentment within team
- Turnover, Absenteeism
- Poor productivity
- Poor change management
- Unfocused direction
- Unfair dismissals
and the list goes on and they all cost your business money!
It get worse. Imagine the leader at the top exhibiting this behaviour of not communicating and the flow on effect to his direct reports and so on. As a result it starts to create a culture of, ‘It doesn’t matter, nothing will happen’ and that’s both from the individual behaving or performing unfavourably and those victims of the behaviour or lack of performance. So before you know it you not only have people not communicating, or leaders not leading, managers not managing but a negative culture and the impact on work, customers / clients, innovation is huge. The rate that new employees fall into this culture and behave in the same way is quick. And it sometimes surprises individuals that they have actually fallen into the culture and behaving in a way that they wouldn’t normally – the power of strong culture, imagine if it was positive!
Communication can be hard enough but don’t make it harder by having to have more serious conversations (or decisions) from not doing it at all.
To finish off, I loved this saying. On the today show there was a story called ‘pole position’ and the lady being interviewed said, ‘….TALK it’s not rocket science!. Say no more……..
At HR Business Direction we can assist with developing strong leadership in your organisation. Contact us here.
Leisa Messer BBus(HRM); GradDipIR; CAHRI; IRSQ
HR Strategist
leisa.messer@hrbd.com.au
07 3890 2066
www.hrbd.com.au
