Communication skills often define the success or failure of a manager. It sets them apart from the average person and gives them the right to lead others. Great managers are constantly on a lifelong mission to develop and improve communications skills and habits. They know that there is no endpoint in the journey of increasing the effectiveness of communication. With every promotion to the next level of management, the standards in communicating well increase. In any job position, there are a number of duties and responsibilities that a person must hold. That goes for managers as well, but, managers must care about how they carry out their duties and responsibilities if they want to be effective and productive. Communication is part of that “how.”
Communication is critical component of how a good manager plans, operates, and makes decisions. They are constantly reviewing their actions and plans to see if communication within their team is effective or not. While many organizations already have a rigid communication protocol in place, managers must go beyond this simple protocol and become more active and involved in implementing good communication within their team. They must identify specific communication challenges in their team and adapt to it.
Being a great manager doesn’t require superhuman skills, but it does require managers to act independently and stand out in the organization. The way they present themselves and communicate is at a higher standard and success is determined by their competence in these areas. It is a good idea to identify common mistakes managers make and eliminate them to increase effective communication.
We evaluate some of the mistakes that hold managers back and offer ways to make improvements.
Table of Contents
1. One-size-fits-all communication
One of the biggest mistakes an organization can make is to use a one-size-fits-all approach to communication. This mistake is compounded in its negative effect the higher up the chain the message comes from.
Communication comes in many different ways. The message, the word choice, the channel, the details, etc… must be carefully selected to fit the right audience. Each person will respond to communication in different ways as well. This difference is largely influenced by people’s habits, behaviors, and motivators. It is important to tailor conversations for each individual person or group to fit them. When an executive makes a decision and communicates it to managers, the message sent shouldn’t be tossed to the employees like some hot potato game. The communication approach changes because the understanding of what needs to happen and why, is diverse across an organization.
Behaviors and motivators play a big part in conversation and each person has a different, unique personality that should be considered to maximize effectiveness of communication. The simple matter of fact is that one way or form of communication is not interchangeable with another when it comes to different people. An easy way to validate this idea is to consider how you might bring bad news to your best friend versus how you would bring bad news to a child. Would you suddenly bring up bad news to kid and expect the child to brush it off? Probably not. They need to be eased into it. With your best friend, it could be a matter of being blunt and to the point. This analogy is a bit extreme but it does illustrate why changing the way one communicates to each person is necessary.
When motivating team members to increase performance, a manager must also tailor their message to each person. One common point to make is what’s in it for them. Why should they do it? Or, more importantly, what would make them want to do it? It’s all in their motivators. Some people thirst for knowledge so they want to see new things and some tasks might fulfill this desire. Other people might be motivated to create and tasks that are tailor towards being creative and artistic make them highly desired. Not every task is going to be glamorous, but a good manager will know how to present something in a good light. They just need to adjust that light according to the person they talk to.
As a manager, it is your responsibility to understand the different personalities of your team and adjust your communication accordingly. Behavioral and motivational assessments for team members are a great way to understand who they are and how you can communicate with them. ThinkPlanLaunch provides assessments with specific guidelines on how to communicate for each person based on their individual characteristics.
With a communication approach adapted to each person, the effectiveness increases which makes a team and manager more successful.
One-way communication
Many managers are guilty of making their communication one-way. It is an easy habit to fall into where there are many tasks at hand and little time to devote to communication. One-way communication leads to mistakes being made, people being alienated, and opportunities being wasted.
One of simplest ways to boost the communication flow is to encourage others to speak. A lot of times people have a lot to say but feel like they don’t have an opportunity to say it. Others hold back out of fear of repercussions if they have something negative to report. Good managers must allow others to feel comfortable. One way to help others speak is to constantly ask questions and prod them, politely, to reveal important feelings or information.
Also, managers must confirm if their team has understood what was said to them during a meeting or presentation. A simple, patronization-free approach of confirming if an employee understood what happened during a meeting or conversation is a good start. Often, many frustrated managers will quiz and ridicule their employees if they feel like they are forgetful or disengaged. Disengaged employees who face these kinds of managers suffer from anger and embarrassment when their managers try to single them out. It doesn’t work, especially in the long run. In this situation, one way to boost understanding is to involve the team and engage them during meetings and presentations. This will give them a sense of participating rather than just listening and following orders.
Communicating like a jerk
There is a whole range of communication errors that make someone a jerk. It can be simple and perceptibly harmless to serious and illegal. In high stress jobs, the slightest mistake can cause offense.
Unprofessional communication is offensive and can include behaviors such as communicating carelessly, sloppily, or even rushing a conversation. In written form, grammatical errors, spelling errors, and informal salutations and greetings can demote a manager’s level of respect and appearance. These bad behaviors also shows that a manager isn’t respecting the person they are talking to.
Other rude ways to communicate include interrupting others while they are speaking. It is always a good idea to let people finish their sentence and only interrupt in cases when timing is critical. For most conversations in the office, there is usually enough time to spare someone to finish their sentence. Of course, letting another person ramble on and rant is a poor use of time, but there are nice ways to handle this without coming off as a jerk who doesn’t care about the other person’s ideas or comments.
Making assumptions is another way to communicate like a jerk. It also wastes a lot of time to when assumptions turn out to be mistakes and a conversation needs to be restarted. If in doubt, it is better to ask someone politely as soon as possible about the subject in question than to make assumptions and look unintelligent. In the case of disciplinary communication, it is never right to bring up someone’s personality and make assumptions of wrongdoings based on that. Only their actions should be highlighted and discussed.
Privacy and comfort should be part of a manager’s communication plan. There should be certain off-limit areas that shouldn’t be talked about. No one ones to talk with someone who is nosy. Striving for maintaining privacy and comfort is necessary to build trust which makes communication better.
Of all rude ways to communicate, one of the most frustrating and mentally draining offenses is trying to “win” during every disagreement. Good managers are quick to apologize, admit fault, and listen to the other side when fining a correct solution.
Under-communicate
People are bombarded all the time with messages, social media, emails, phone calls, and more. It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with it all and because of this, managers must make sure that their words are not only getting through but become persistent and frequent enough so that people don’t accidentally forget. Distractions are plentiful and can make anyone forget thing. A system of reminders in place will work well, but for important things, face-to-face communication is best.
The most effective way a manager should communicate is to start from the top. This is the “why” communication. What is the vision of the organization, the product, the team, the project? This needs to be reiterated on a weekly basis at the very least. When people understand the “why” and the vision, everything else makes more sense and is easily retained. It gives people a greater understanding of what is going on and how their role is affecting the progress. It isn’t just some random task that is being requested, but an integral part of something bigger.
Another way managers under-communicate is to wait until things are too late. Instead of tackling issues at the first sign of distress, a manager might purposely wait until the issues grows before giving it attention. The hopes of this is to shock the employee into correcting their behavior next time. This is unfair for the organization and for the employee. The manager must tirelessly communicate any concerns as early as possible before they become a big problem that leads an employee to low confidence and self-esteem, not to mention unnecessary damage or loss.
Not acting like a leader
Good managers need to act like a leader. This is comes from both the inside and outside. Perception is everything. Body language, tone, word choice, and professionalism are some of the ways that leaders communicate effectively. It allows them to command attention and be assertive and confident.
Good body language can’t be emphasized enough. Managers must look like a leader. Good posture, confident poses, openness, eye contact, gestures and related body language habits should be on display at all times in the office. Employees are quick to spot weak body language and some might even try to take advantage of this. No one wants to follow a weak person. They want to follow strong, confident people and body language communicates this far better than words.
In addition to the strong, confident body language, signs of openness will add to the effectiveness of a manager’s communication. They should show openness by not crossing their arms or legs and giving grimaces. Instead, they should appear receptive to listening. A good smile will encourage others to speak up.
Voice is another area that shouldn’t be overlooked. Weakness can be easily spotted when someone has a quiet soft spoken voice. Also, the speed of talking is also critical. There is some debate as to whether speaking quickly or slowly is best, but a larger consensus sides with slower speech. It adds to the confidence of a good leader.
Word choice should also be considered. A must for any leader is eliminating those useless words of low confidence such as “umm,” “hmm,” “uhh,” and the like. These detract from the speaker and makes communication less effective. The level of vocabulary and terminology should be reflective of the audience. It is not good to throw in words that people don’t know or understand in an attempt to appear intelligent. It becomes a waste of breath and lowers the level of respect and attention someone is willing to give. Inappropriate and offensive words should be eliminated as well. There is never a place for them. Swearing on the other hand, may or may not be effective depending on the organization and the workforce. For most situations though, it is best to avoid it altogether.
Lastly, leaders should always be looking for opportunities to train their employees. Good communication through asking questions or having discussions will reveal areas of opportunities. When a team member respects a manager and feels comfortable to talk about any issue, they also look for ways of making themselves more effective in the company.
Communication is one of the single most important skills of a manager. Avoid making these mistakes and you will become a better leader and a more effective person in your organization.