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February 09, 2009

They're just not that into you

The top movie at the U.S. box office this weekend was a new romantic comedy, He’s Just Not That Into You (starring Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Ginnifer Goodwin and others), which tells the story of attractive people looking, often in vain, for love.

Part of the premise is that women misread men’s signals, trying to find meaning (and commitment) where none exists.

These days, unfortunately, a similar problem exists for senior leaders, who communicate as if employees are hanging on every word—when, in fact, employees are just not into what leaders are saying.

So leaders send e-mail messages to all employees, “write” (or have ghost-written for them) blogs, talk for 40 minutes during town hall meetings, and participate in web meetings, conference calls and other information-sharing venues.

Meanwhile, a percentage of employees may be facing the stage and opening the message, so on paper they’re on board, but the reality is that their minds are elsewhere. They’re worried about losing their jobs, or meeting their goals, or their boss’s increasing anxiety, or their customers’ increasing elusiveness, or a million things other than what the CEO is saying.

How do you know if you have this problem—if all that communication is falling upon deaf ears?

First, you must stop assuming that communication delivered has resulted in increased understanding and agreement. You need to use measurement—surveys and focus groups—to determine what’s happening with employees.

Second, once you know for sure that you’ve got a problem, you’ve got to change the way leaders communicate (which, by the way, is long overdue in any case). The leader’s communication role is not to deliver information—it’s to provide the focus and context so employees know what to do to help the company succeed (or survive). That’s very different than a 44-slide PowerPoint deck.

I haven’t seen the new movie, but I’m seeing the “they’re just not that into you” problem in almost every organization. Time for a change.

Posted by Alison Davis at February 9, 2009 01:24 PM