Jul 24, 2013 | Blog

5 Best Practices for Fostering a Culture of Communication

Engage Your People
Develop Your Workforce

Current and Future Leaders—Take Note

 

Lately, I have been immersed in a new research project on leadership skills.

  • „  What types of leadership competencies do organizations need to succeed?
  • „  How are current trends such as technology and globalization affecting leadership?

One of my initial observations is that communication appears to be a leadership competency that is growing in importance. I am not talking about the type of leadership communication with which many of us are most familiar: centralized, controlled, top-down, and directive. Instead, I am referring to leadership communication that is multi-directional, in which all workers participate, and where questioning, challenging and listening are encouraged.

 

In his July 12, 2013 Harvard Business Review (HBR) Blog Network post, “Rethinking the Work of Leadership,” Dan Pontefract, author of the book Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization, describes this type of leadership communication. He writes, “This is the work of leadership today: asking questions, involving people, connecting them to each other, creating a platform for their insights and ideas to make a real impact — in other words, unleashing leadership behavior everywhere.”

 

The leadership research that I am working on will test these and other observations. Until the findings are available, I have culled some best practices from past APQC research projects which leaders today can use to encourage cultures of communication within their organizations.

 

What do you think? Is communication growing in importance as a leadership competency? Is the type of leadership communication that organizations require changing? How do you encourage communication within your organization?

 

 

5 Best Practices for Fostering a Culture of Communication

 

  •        1. Give employees choice of a multitude of communication channels.

Give employees a wide variety of communication channels to choose from so that they can express their thoughts in their own ways. Communications channels can be: formal and informal, in-person and virtual, print and online, live and on-demand, mobile and desktop, group-based and one-on-one, as well as employee-generated and company-generated. Variety ensures that the broadest possible assortment of employees will share thoughts and ideas.

 

  •        2. Use social media to build a sense of community.

Use social networking tools to build a sense of community that spans culture, geography, and job-level. Employees who feel that they share a sense of purpose and that they are part of a larger community will be more likely to share and to do so candidly. Corporate social media tools can take the form of private Facebook groups, internal blogs, company wikis, expertise location databases, knowledge sharing repositories, instant messaging systems, and more.

 

  •        3. Say something. Do something. Say something again.

Take notice of what employees are sharing. But don’t stop at listening. Share with employees what you are hearing and how you plan to take action. When feasible, involve employees in crafting and executing any changes. Frequently update employees on the progress being made. And if you will not be taking action, explain why.

 

  •        4. Be authentic and stay authentic in your intentions.

Be explicit with employees regarding how the organization will be using the information shared via each communication channel. Then, stay true to your word. If your intentions change, share this information with employees immediately. Explain why the change is being made.

 

  •        5. Answer the “what’s in it for me?” question for employees.

In communicating how the organization will use the information that is shared via its various communications channels, be sure to explicitly tell employees how communicating might benefit them. If you struggle to craft this explanation, reconsider whether the communication channel is a good fit for your organization.

 

Elissa Tucker is a research program manager at APQC. Her focus is on uncovering and sharing human capital management benchmarks and best practices. Elissa has more than 14 years of HR research, writing, and consulting experience. Prior to joining APQC, Elissa worked as a research consultant at an HR consultancy. She led large-scale quantitative and qualitative research studies and authored research reports, white papers, and presentations. Elissa co-edited and contributed to the book: Workforce Wake-Up Call: Your Workforce Is Changing, Are You?, John Wiley & Sons, 2006.