By Angela Kambarian, Founder, Essential Communications
Let’s face it: In addition to encouraging a strong work ethic, team work, and smart problem solving, today’s executives should make an effort to break out of their silos and engage with their teams. In fact, savvy executives should PURPOSEFULLY create opportunities for their employees to voice a candid opinion, make suggestions or express discontent about a particular issue. After all, who do you think may have the answers to some of the most crucial questions in the workplace?
I hope you will take the time to review a few suggestions below briefly explaining how business leaders should connect with their team members on a deeper level, establish impactful communication channels, and create a healthy, highly productive and successful work environment.
Put Knowledge, Hard Work and Creativity Over Hierarchy
Smart and savvy executives are well aware that the team member with the “right” answers may not work in the C-suite…or anywhere near it. In most cases, it’s usually those closest to the process or project that have all the critical details at their fingertips. Interestingly, these folks may not be invited to weekly status meetings or feel comfortable speaking up and sharing their thoughts – even if they are in the room. Pretty astonishing, isn’t it? If you think that’s the way it is in your organization, it’s time to change this unhealthy dynamic and put everyone on an equal footing.
Ideally, when executives pose questions to the entire team, the right person should provide her or his perspective, without any inhibitors and without feeling intimidated by a higher up. It means that breaking away from the hierarchy may result in increased transparency, better initiatives, and a deeper commitment from employees. In other words, every team member should be encouraged to speak up, share information and voice their point of view which may boost morale and significantly improve team productivity.
Consider Launching an Executive ‘Ask Me Anything (AMA) Channel‘
In my professional opinion, every executive should establish some sort of an open forum where she or he could field questions from employees. Recently I have read an article about an executive heading a fast-growing medium size company who implemented the aforementioned suggestion and was very impressed by the employees’ willingness to step out from behind the curtain of anonymity, go for hard-hitting questions and ask something they really wanted to know…not something they thought was politically correct at the moment.
Take the Time to Clearly Articulate Your Expectations
An executive who wants to see results, should invest an adequate amount of time and effort into outlining her or his expectations. Some communication experts maintain that setting expectations is key to effective communication. You certainly don’t have to respond to all messages coming your way. Well…you don’t really have the time, do you? What you can do is ask employees to bring some of the most urgent and critical issues to your attention and tag you in the channel. If and when you are tagged, you can jump in to help. You can also set a deadline for addressing employee questions. More likely than not, you will be pleased to find out that their inquiries may be very well thought-out, so in order to thoroughly answer the questions, you need to let them know that a complete response will arrive in 72 hours or so.
Encourage Transparency
Contrary to popular belief, workplace conflict may not necessarily be a bad thing…if handled the right way of course. Disagreements and debates may be a sign that employees have the confidence to express their point of view and speak up their minds without fear of being penalized. That can be accomplished when executives put a lot of emphasis on building trust among their team members.
When an executive communicates via direct messages or through various channels, it legitimizes the form of communication and signals to employees that they don’t necessarily need to request a formal meeting to ask questions. The more emphasis executives place on open communication, the greater the trust they will build with employees.
Create ‘Employee Personas‘
Creating personas for employees is common practice in marketing and Public Relations, but should be part of every internal communication toolbox. Here is why. By creating personas, you begin to understand who your employees are. What do they value the most? How do they contribute to the success of the organization? How do they receive information? And what type of content they have access to? Keep in mind that personas should be created for all levels of employees and across different departments.
Results Matter
When you spend a great deal of time and effort learning what your employees want and need from their leaders, you should take the time to measure and evaluate results. It is crucial that you measure the success of your strategy and find out if you are achieving your goals. If your communication channels allow you to evaluate engagement, analyze the data and see if more employees are reacting to your content. In case you can’t see open / watch rates, I suggest you conduct pulse surveys to understand if your team members have really noticed the change in leadership communication and if the messages are truly making an impact. You may also ask frontline managers if they feel the effect of frequent and intentional communication from leaders.
Final Thoughts
Without a doubt, the global pandemic has changed the world we are living in, creating a great deal of stress and anxiety for so many people. Therefore, in my opinion, 2020 should be defined by the word “humanity”- it’s power, its fragility, its impact. Leaders, executives and communication professionals should step up their game and explore the behavioral sciences (i.e. psychology, sociology, behavioral economics, etc.) to ensure their actions, strategies, decisions and messages remain as humane as possible in 2021 and beyond.
Ready to to start the year off on the right foot and reignite your PR and marketing campaign? Please email: angela@kambarian.com, visit http://www.kambarian.com or call (516) 724-4372 today. Let’s connect and find new ways to build your business. Looking forward to speaking with you!
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