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Home > Management Training Articles > Corporate Message Communication
Communication Doesn't End once the message is delivered
Communications Doesn't End When You Finish Delivering Your Message!
by Eva Jenkins
Seeking success, companies spend millions on fine-tuning their corporate
message, but often fail to train the messengers who deliver it.
Business Growth Consultant, Eva Jenkins explores how effective communication
bridges the gap between corporate intention and employee action.
You can get an education, work hard, and dress for success, but
without carefully cultivated ‘people skills,’ it’s
unlikely that you’ll get very far in business…or in
life for that matter! Professional success depends primarily on
human relations skills, including effective communications. Many
times, it is a superior skill in communication that propels careers,
boosts productivity and ensures customer satisfaction.
Communication – the ability to be heard and understood by
listeners -- affects the outcome of relationships, products and
systems within a corporate structure. It’s the mortar that
ensures that every brick is in place as a company grows and expands…the
‘essence’ of a firm foundation. This important skill
set has seismic impact on organizations, and yet the pronouncements
of the bean counters – financial officers, analysts, and the
people on “The Street,” -- have resulted in communications
training being demoted to the bottom of the balance sheet.
Can You Communicate?
Communication – the ability to be heard and understood by
listeners -- affects the outcome of relationships, products and
systems within a corporate structure.
In A Guide to for the Perplexed, E.F. Schumacher wrote, “We
tend to see ourselves primarily in the light of our intentions,
which are invisible to others, while we see others mainly in light
of their actions, which are invisible to us; we have a situation
in which misunderstanding and injustice are the order of day.”
It’s easy to translate this thought into the world of business.
Without clear communication, a corporate environment becomes a swirling
vortex of “Why didn’t you do what I told you?”
and “You never told me to do that.”
Finger-pointing
and blame-shifting break down individuals and destroy any sense
of team or unity.
Once Is NOT Enough
Despite the fact that communication of company goals and processes
is essential to success at every level of business, ineffectual
leaders allow daily activities and tasks, as well as unexpected
distractions to sidetrack communications. Convinced that ’once
is enough’ when information has been conveyed, many managers
allow any distraction as an excuse to put regularly scheduled communication
on the back burner.
However, while managers busy themselves putting out small ‘fires,’
they fail to realize that inferno misinformation and employee dissatisfaction
threatens to engulf the company.
Great Expectations
A key element in leadership is the ability to give clear and accurate
directions when setting expectations. This sounds easier than it
is. We often think others understand us better than they do. Bad
leaders believe their message has been heard and processed by employees,
so they don’t bother to confirm that with the employees themselves.
Communication doesn’t end when you finish delivering your
message!
American businesses spend hundreds of thousands of dollars sending
employees to training classes and still find their companies failing
miserably. The ‘students’ may learn skills and ideas,
but their ability to put their knowledge to work and communicate
what they’ve learned to their staff and supervisors is never
addressed. How come? If communications is key, why do employers
fail to foster the essential skill that can inoculate a business
from a wide range of problems?
Let’s talk about that!
Losing Focus
Management training programs do focus on communications, exploring
the different types of communications and the wide variety of communications
media. Their message to the managers is a good one: “Create
a climate of open communication to increase your team members’
motivation, commitment, and productivity.”
Intellectually, the communication training programs that
are out there…many of them are very good…have hit the
nail on the head. Practically speaking, however, they fall short.
Why? Because there is no follow up! The focus on communication is
lost once the training session ends.
In nine cases out of ten, you’ll find no real accountability
built into the administration and ROI of training programs. Training
is delivered to a select few in organizations large and small. There
is very little follow-through from HR or Training and Development
or outside Consultants to see how well the participants able to
incorporate various soft skills or have they been able change their
own behaviors.
The answer is that H/R and training functions should include ongoing
follow-up throughout the entire year. There should be a continuous
effort to gather statistical information from participating departments
as well as feedback and commentary from managers and workers. Reviewing
the numbers and feedback one month after training, three months,
six month and a year later is critical to enable the ROI of training.
If managers do not want to cooperate, make them. Get it done!
Without follow up, an analysis of the training and its effectiveness
is impossible.
The Blame Game
When companies fail, it is likely to be because of a breakdown in
communications, concern about reprisals, political silos, and a
lack of accountability. All these things create a fear-based environment
that inevitably leads to a lot of defensive posturing. Everyone
blames someone else: managers blame staff, staffers indict managers,
and everyone gets on the bandwagon to point a finger at ‘useless’
training. Since no one wants to take responsibility for a communications
failure, everyone gets bogged down in their own inadequate internal
processes. This is true at every level of corporate life, including
the halls of senior management, management, H/R and T&D. Many
of today’s leaders are so focused on positioning ‘someone
else’ to take the blame for a mistake that they fail to identify
the real cause. This, of course, makes it impossible for problems
to be corrected and a company ends in and ruins.
In large corporations, particularly Federal contractors, training
is seldom included as a line item in a division’s budget because
clients do not want to pay for communications training. And they
shouldn’t. Companies, themselves, should budget for communications
training as a cost of doing business. In the long
term, this short-term investment in will pay off with improved communications
throughout the company and with all clients, as well as with improved
productivity and increased profitability.
Despite its proven hard-dollar rewards, communications training
continues to be a second-class citizen in corporate life. Instead
of a self-protective stance, “I won’t get my next promotion
if I spend money on training,” division heads should be thinking
proactively: “A financial investment in training and good
communications will ensure that my department is profitable. Managers
need to realize that they are the winners if they can keep track,
and show how well they are able to develop their own people, and
create a more efficient and successful team.
The ability to communicate effectively needs to be measured and
monitored on a continuous basis. Organizations change, people come
and go, and a variety of internal and external forces can affect
a company’s ability to function well. To keep up with change
-- and hopefully stay ahead of it -- internal processes, performance
management reviews, reporting structures, and the like should all
be consistently reviewed and monitored.
Communication starts at the top. Leaders, themselves, must then
have the skill to communicate clearly so that superiors and subordinates
alike follow their lead. CEO’s, directors, managers, and department
heads must understand its value and make it a priority in all exchanges
– verbal, written, etc.
A Commitment to Communications
Effective communications has a positive effect on employees and
the corporate bottom line. CEO’s who understand the significance
of having and promoting open, clear communications are better positioned
to create successful organizations at every level. These CEO’s
hold their direct leadership accountable to make sure the company’s
DNA reflects a commitment to communication.
Managers who communicate well and foster good communications in
others create an environment where people enjoy their work and produce
more. In turn, those happy, productive employees drive a grassroots
effort where internal referrals power the recruiting processes,
cutting down the time and money lost to hiring and training
A high level of production, low levels of employee churn, and bigger
profits as the end result. This is a winning ‘trifecta’
for any business.
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