A prospect recently reached out looking for help. He said he sucked at communicating at work and desperately wanted to change that. So, here’s a summary of our conversation and Action Plan strategy that might help if you think you also suck at workplace communication.
Interpersonal Communication
Communicate Corporate Culture Clearly
As hard to do is it is to say three times real fast. So, let’s simplify the process for entrepreneurs who need to communicate the culture of their organization to prospective employees. Break it down into smaller chunks.
Brainstorming Brilliance
When was the last time you held a team brainstorming session to identify a name for a new product, solve some problem or even a come up with a location for the next staff volunteer day… and you got nothing? You asked for input, but only a few spoke up and others criticized or made fun of those ideas. Most people just sat there silently starring at their blank sheets of paper … or, phones. One person had enough courage to tell you that you’re the boss and you’ll do whatever you want anyway, so why bother with this waste of time?
Hmmm … doesn’t sound like a very empowered or dynamic team, now does it? But, not to worry. These five simple Brainstorming Brilliance strategies can improve your results the next time you need creative input from your team.
Five Simple Phone Tactics to Overhaul Your Image
Most small businesses facing the challenge of improving their image in the marketplace are starring at major investments of time and money. Properly planned and launched, those investments can earn significant positive results.
But what about the rest of us with similar needs but no deep pockets to pull all that off? Are we doomed to endure the mediocre or amateurish image we’ve created by what we’ve done or not done since we started our businesses?
Make One-on-One Meetings Work
Management-staff one-on-one meetings should be a regular component of any organization’s Performance Management system. They allow for maintaining professional relationships and providing constructive ‘Plus/Delta’ feedback.
‘Pluses’ are an employee’s specific tasks, accomplishments or behaviors that are working well and adding value that should be continued or even expanded. ‘Deltas’ are not negatives but specific changes in activity or methods that will improve results. Usually the change is doing less of something that isn’t working or stopping it completely, or doing more of something that would work better.
Listen on Three Levels
Listening? What does listening have to do with your job as hard-working and dynamic business leaders or entrepreneurs? Well … a lot, when you get out of your own box and view your role as a workplace communicator and problem-solver for your internal or external customers.
You spend a large part of your day verbally communicating important messages to important people – customers, staff, colleagues, bosses, suppliers, partners, etc. And listening is a critically important part of that verbal communication process. Yet, we tend to be terrible listeners, remembering very little of what we hear.
Embrace the Platinum Rule
Many business professionals diligently attempt to practice the ‘Golden Rule’ at work that we all learned as youngsters. A workplace communication version of that philosophy would be ‘Communicate with other people the way you want them to communicate with you.’ While a nice warm and fuzzy concept, a quick reality check indicates two serious flaws in the logic: the ‘Golden Rule’ assumes ‘everyone is the same and that ‘everyone is the same as you.’
While the ‘Golden Rule’ doesn’t work at a certain level of specific application, the ‘Platinum Rule’ does. Rather than communicating with other people the way you want them to communicate with you, it stresses communicating with other people they way they want you to communicate with them. I first learned about this strategy from Dr. Tony Alessandra in the 90s. It is 10 times harder to do well, but 100 times better than the ‘Golden Rule’. So, you do the math and see how much value you see using it.
Create Positive Ties With Former Employees
A business reporter recently asked for my thoughts on building positive ties with ex-employees, so I turned my interview comments in to the piece below. As you’ll see, the answer is simple to understand, but complicated to accomplish.
The solutionis to create positive relationships with all employees from the moment they accept your job offer. This concept must be a credible core value and a visible part of your workplace culture:
- Also maintain a positive employee performance culture. Clearly define expectations, regularly evaluate.
- Create a proactive employee communication commitment from the top down and be one of its champions.
- Also maintain a positive employee performance culture. Clearly define expectations, regularly evaluate performance and fairly reward results.
- Be more than their boss; be their Success Coach and Mentor. Embrace the philosophy that you can’t succeed in your job until you help all of your team to succeed in their jobs.
Communicate with Style
(A reader recently commented that her written style and verbal style are often different. My reply … )
Lots of people feel that way and communicate accordingly. However, that doesn’t need to be the case in the contemporary and more casual business culture many of us work in. If you view workplace writing as ‘people talking to people on paper’, then you value and use a more conversational style.
You’re Not Listening!
(Looks like it’s time for my annual rant about poor listening skills in the workplace.)
As workplace communicators, we obviously spend a lot of time each day communicating verbally. Therefore, we spend a lot of time listening … or should. Problem is, we don’t listen very well. Especially those of us Type A Driver Entrepreneurs. Sound familiar? We regularly fall victim to one or more of these seven Barriers to Listening:
1. Ruling out the speaker – “He is of no interest to me.” She has nothing to say. Why listen?”
2. Reaching a premature conclusion – “I’ve heard enough to know where he’s going with this argument. I’ve heart it before and it’s all wrong.”