ONE of the things people forget is that different levels of the organization require different ways of communicating. You cannot talk to your team in the same way you talk to your manager, or even to other departments in your organization. One of the pitfalls of new managers is thinking that they can talk to others in the same way they do to their colleagues. When you frequently talk to different people from all levels of the organization, you need to understand that who you talk to will significantly affect how you communicate.
Communicating effectively to people in different levels of the organization begins with how you talk to yourself. Intrapersonal communication involves the way you process events that happen to you and the lenses you use to perceive others. This includes your biases and assumptions which you might not be aware of and could hinder you from communicating properly to other people. To be mindful of these filters, you need to take the time to reflect. A journal where you can write points for improving how you communicate might help.
Self-reflection helped one of my former colleagues with the way he handled a member of his team. He was new to the group, and he dealt with the office administrator regularly. There were so many times he would get frustrated because the office administrator did not do her job to the point that he would just do it himself. It turned out he expected her to act the same way as his previous office administrator. When I asked him if he sat down with her to set expectations, that was the only time he thought of the situation. If he had taken the time to reflect on his actions sooner, he would have thought of it even without my help.
Once you have identified your biases and assumptions, it becomes easier to formulate your message to be easily understood. A common pitfall of leaders is to repeat their instructions when they are not understood. Often, you need to modify the way you communicate because messages are understood differently by different people because of their own biases and assumptions. Effective interpersonal communication happens only when your message is understood by another person as you intended it to be understood. If they did not get it, try another method.
To do this, you need to understand where another person is coming from and how their experiences have influenced the way they receive messages. I had a former colleague who was supervising a new team member and they were not getting along well. One time, he was giving instructions to her and all the while, she kept frowning and sighing. She did the revisions but later on asked me to be included in the review. After the review, I discovered that she wrote better than her supervisor and I discovered that she did corporate communications in her previous organization. I talked to her supervisor but he insisted on what he wanted. In the end, she asked to be transferred to another team. Understanding where people are coming from and knowing their strengths can help you position yourself better and find opportunities to maximize individual team members.
The way you address individual team members will not be the same as when you address the whole team, nor other teams in the organization. Rather than look at individual perspectives, the challenge with a group is to ensure that they understand what you are communicating. You develop a certain familiarity when talking regularly to your own team. The challenge is when you have to meet with other groups, or when you do presentations for the entire organization.
In these instances, the audience is the single most significant factor in identifying the message and the manner it will be delivered. In a previous organization, we were looking for the best way to launch a web site for online courses and we invited several representatives from different departments so they could provide insights on what would work. The meetings helped us develop a plan and a list of materials for a roadshow. By consulting, we received immediate input on our plan but also got their buy-in as early as the planning stage.
You also need to look at how other teams in the organization communicate with one another, and the acceptable mechanisms for communication. I have been to several organizations—from companies whose communication channels needed to be formal and documented, to companies that adopted an open-door policy where anyone in the organization could talk directly with the CEO. This is dictated by the culture of the organization and, to a degree, your organization’s industry. The sooner you discover the prescribed mode of communication, the easier it will be for you to coordinate with other teams.
Part of understanding the communication style of your organization is identifying the culture and subcultures in the organization. This can be learned by observing attendees to cross-functional meetings and how they interact with one another. In a previous organization, the CEO would schedule a monthly townhall for managers and up. This updated us on critical issues that might prevent us from hitting our targets for the year. It was an effective way for us to develop a culture of accountability for what we contribute to the organization, and at the same time get in touch with other groups and know their challenges. This helped us appreciate their work and let others know what we contribute to the organization’s growth.
Communication will always be the foundation of a harmonious relationship with others regardless of position. It starts from within and takes deliberate actions to nurture and expand. With good communication, you will reduce conflict and elevate your leadership skills.
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