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June 08, 2006

What executives want to say, not what employees want to hear

You know that feeling you get when something’s happened to you, or you’ve accomplished something, and you’re bursting at the seams to share it? You pick up the phone or run down the hall to tell someone. And as you’re communicating, you don’t give a single thought to the audience’s needs: This is so all about you.

Unfortunately, too much of internal communication is just like that. The senior management team or a group leading an initiative is eager to share something with employees. And they insist that the communication be created to focus on what they want to say, ignoring what the audience needs to hear.

This needs to change. To get started, remember that employees, like any audience, really only cares about the answers to these interrelated questions:

So all that other junk that’s being communicated—the process the team followed, the options considered, how this relates to best-practice companies, who was on the initiative team, what management consulting firm was hired, etc. etc.—is just noise. It’s internal public relations, in the worst sense of the term. It’s vanity press.

Worst of all, it makes the executives in question feel really good—“We told them!”—but often has a negative effect on employees, leaving them anxious, disrespected, or just bored. Their time has been wasted. Their questions (see above) haven’t been answered. Their needs haven’t been met.

Can this practice be stopped? At many companies, but I’ve got to tell you the truth: Not everywhere. At some organizations, senior manager egos are so dominant that they’re an immovable force.

But the good news is, most executives will listen to good counsel, especially if you bring the evidence to back up your advice. Conduct research to demonstrate what employees want to hear. Use quantitative data to demonstrate how to effectively reach and engage your workforce.

Stop the madness.

Posted by Alison Davis at June 8, 2006 12:39 PM