It’s your company versus the competition. You both have equal talent, equal intellectual capability, and a competitive product/service set. The only difference between the two companies is that the management team at one of the organizations is far superior at communicating and at facilitating cross functional communications throughout their organization.
Assuming this is the only difference between the two competitors, who do you think will win in the marketplaceω The answer is: the enlightened workforce.
The enlightened workforce
The employee team is not a crop of mushrooms meant to be kept in the dark. The enlightened employee team is the reason one company is more competitive than the other when, in fact, both companies have equivalent intellectual capabilities, and equal opportunity to win in their marketplace.
When management communicates effectively with their team, the team becomes fully engaged and passionate about the business and about winning. I see it all the time, employees at some companies just go through the motions doing the minimum just to get by and to collect a pay check. Conversely, employees of companies where management has achieved mastery as it relates to corporate communications are fully engaged and frequently excited about their role as a member of the team. As a result, you will find a significantly more engaged, more productive and a more effective work force.
What face is showingω
What face is your employee team showing your customersω In fact, how comfortable would you be in letting your customers ask any member of your employee team what it’s like to work for your companyω Would your employee team say they are excited to be part of the teamω Would they know the key themes that impact customer satisfaction and retentionω Would they be able to articulate the key performance measures that are used as an early warning detection system to alert them to the fact that a course correction is needed in order to stay on courseω Can your employee team talk about the key industry trends and challengesω If your client asked your employees what the top challenge is facing your organization today, would every employee have the same answerω
The disconnected workforce
In some companies, you will hear employees say:
• “We don’t know how our company is doing.”
• “Business is a little slow and we haven’t received any information from management regarding our future prospects or pipeline.”
• “We really don’t know how management feels about our performance.”
• “We only hear from management when we are doing something wrong. We usually don’t hear anything when things are going well.”
If you were reviewing the effectiveness of management’s ability to communicate with their employee team based on the above employee responses, what kind of grade would you give this management teamω Now ask yourself, would any of your employees make any of the above comments based on their experience with the management team at your companyω
Think it through
Bad communication doesn’t usually occur because people wake up, come to work, and decide to throw a wrench in the middle of company communications. I acknowledge there are subversive and dishonest managers out there. But, usually when communication is not working properly within an organization, it is because management hasn’t developed a company-wide plan for achieving a high level of consistent and meaningful communications. The goal is to develop systems and processes for communicating relevant information to the employee team.
I’ve got a number of clients that have recently purchased other businesses and integrated the two to create a larger and more competitive offering to the markets they serve. While facilitating their quarterly operational planning meetings, it is common to hear people from the acquired companies comment on how pleased and excited they are to be part of an organization that has processes in place to ensure consistent, reliable communications. The quarterly operational planning process is an example of a deliberate act of operational planning (the execution side of things), but it is also an intentional process that enables consistent and reliable cross-functional communications to occur throughout the organization.
Complete and meaningful communications occurs as a result of creating processes that are designed for and enable meaningful cross functional corporate communications.
Remember good management communications with the employee team is never by accident. It is always a deliberate act. In addition, poor management communications is more a function of not taking the time or not knowing how to create communication processes, as opposed to deliberately withholding vital information.
He can be reached at (262) 662-4646 or pmydlach@mydlachmanagement.com.
