If you are a manager or leader who thinks that team meetings are for cascades, you’re so 19th century.
Cascades are almost always a one-directional, keep-quiet-and-listen leadership practice that gives you the illusion that communication has taken place. Maybe it did, but there’s a big—and risky—possibility that either you or your team came out of that interaction with different, even contrasting, interpretation. And you wonder why your people aren’t so engaged?
Open, two-way discussions during team huddles are the way to go. This approach fosters better working relationships within the team, and also helps improve employee engagement. There’s research to prove this.
The recent Watson Wyatt Communication Return-on-Investment (ROI) Study showed that firms that communicate effectively are:
- 20 percent more likely to report lower turnover rates,and
- 4 times more likely to report high levels of employee engagement than firms that communicate less effectively.
“Workers’ frustration with an absence of adequate communication is one of the most negative findings we see expressed on employee attitude surveys.” –David Sirota in the article “Why Employees Are Losing Motivation” published in the Harvard Management Update
A study of more than 1,400 leaders and managers by global consultancy Ken Blanchard Group supports this. The research showed 41 percent felt that inappropriate use of communication or listening was the biggest mistake leaders made when working with others.
So let’s avoid making that biggest mistake by improving our communication style. To start, here are seven questions to ask—and answer.
1. What’s the matter?
It’s not so much about how much you should say, but what your message really is. Sometimes we get lost in worrying about too much or too little information that we forget the key point. What’s your key message?
Managers are in the best position to put context and background to information coming from the top for their team. We have to translate macro information to something relevant to our people. What does the corporate information mean to your department?
2. So what?
The meat of the matter is essential, but have you communicated why your message is important? Some managers follow a 60-40 rule:
- spend 40 percent discussing the “what”
- the 60 percent discussing the “why”
The percentage doesn’t really matter; the point is not missing out on talking about “what’s in it for us?” Not doing so increases the risk of people speculating on the real reasons, or worse, concluding based on incomplete information.
Why is that action plan important? Why is the idea worth embracing? Why does the company need to focus on that strategy? Why that choice over another? Why now?
3. Now what?
We sometimes focus too much on the information that we forget what we want our people to do. Before starting out any communication activity, you can write on a piece of paper, your central ideal statement separate from your results statement.
Central idea statement: “This (memo/speech/discussion) is about (your key message).”
Results statement: “After reading/hearing my (memo/speech/discussion), I want my staff to (what do you want them to do?).”
The American Management Association goes even further with its Results Matrix format:
- you first tell your people what you want them to know (facts),
- then what you want them to believe (beliefs),
- then what you want them to feel (emotions),
- and finish it with what you want them to do actively (actions).
4. Are you done yet?
One misconception in leadership communication is that managers must do all the talking, being the most informed. Please pass the mic, so to speak. Encourage your team to raise questions, voice their concerns, share with you their impressions, give you feedback. This is one way for you to know if they understood your key message and what you expect of them.
A team huddle, afterall, must be a dialogue, a discussion, not a monologue. It’s not information dissemination; it’s facilitating common understanding in your team so you can, as one, move forward.
5. Can you really hear me?
Opening the lines for feedback or bottom-up communication is futile if you only pretend to listen or pretend to really care about what your team shares. Such pretentious behavior shows, by the way, no matter how much you play up the performance—your people can sense if you are merely hearing them out or really emphatically and actively listening to them.
Do you notice the nuances in the manner of speaking? Are they telling you something they aren’t openly saying? Do you notice the fear in the tone? What about the excitement in the voice? Do they look bored? Words are not your only best source for feedback.
6. Can you really hear yourself?
Being authoritative is necessary, but when you overdo it by talking down on your people or making them feel stupid, they might fight back by talking about you behind your back. You become tagged as the monster boss.
But who gives a damn about labels, right? We can be a monster, alien, ugly old wart all rolled into one, but we don’t really care because we know what we are mandated to do as leaders. The labels might seem harmless, but these are surface indicators of deep-seated issues with long-term effects: your people withdraw support, they avoid initiating, they clam up during discussions, they don’t give their all, they don’t give their best.
7. Say that again?
When there is inconsistency between what you say and your non-verbal cues, your people believe the nonverbal cues more than your verbal message. So mind your manner, or better yet, be transparent. People can see through lip service or an attempt to appear authentic, and result is: they lose trust in you. And we all know the result when trust is broken, so do we need to say more?
We can’t be perfect managers or leaders, but we can be more effective communicators so we can better engage our team with our idea, action plan, decision, vision, and ultimately, with the organization.
So when is your next team huddle?
**This post also appears in this blog.
Open and honest communication is the key. I don’t like the unreasonably long meetings. I don’t mind spending more time though to discuss about actions. I’m thankful the group I’m in is driven and non-traditional.
loong meetings are a killer, specially when it’s direction-less. i’m glad you find your group productive in this sense.
I’ve never attended a staff meeting that went as planned or solved/found a solution to a problem.
In my first job in the US, we used to have those ulcer-inducing looong meetings that went around and around one topic. In the end, nothing was solved and we got paid for sitting listening to the boss lay out his plans then contradict it, then re-lays plan B, etc, etc.
sounds familiar! hahaha. some meetings can really be a waste of time, and the worst part is, the boss doesn’t realize it!
something i learned in school but never witnessed in the workplace.
Great advice !
The art of listening is something that most people have underestimated. I heard that women love actor Richard Gere not only for his looks but his listening skills
Something worth emulating I guess 
in my company, meetings are short and to the point. i know that some employees would prefer longer overanalysis, but i don’t care. i cut everything short.
if there’s one thing i learned about being boss, it’s that i don’t have to be liked. i just have to be respected.