Articles tagged "Communication in the Workplace"
Communicate Changes Before Implementing Changes
Managing change has become a never-ending but essential part of every leader’s job. It’s become ubiquitous. It’s something we, as the ‘recipients’ of change, are begrudgingly accepting more and more often, and it’s therefore something we, as leaders and often the ‘instigators’ of change, need to improve upon. Why? Because we’re still too often forcing our team members to ‘just deal with’ the never-ending changes instead of helping them absorb and adopt the changes.
It’s Not ‘Return to Work,’ It’s ‘Return to Us’
You have no doubt heard or read others proclaiming: “Stop saying: ‘Return to work’. We’ve been working this whole time! And, we’ve been working longer, harder, and in more challenging ways than ever before!” You know what? They’re right. If there is one thing we can all agree on, it’s that this past year, regardless of industry, profession, etc., we’ve all had to work harder and more creatively than ever before. So it’s simply wrong to now focus on how to ‘return to work.’ Instead, we need to focus on how to work productively and collegially again whether it’s in-person, in a hybrid format, or in a refined remote format.
Piloting Change Communication
As you well know, the most brilliant change initiative will fail if it’s not implemented well. A brilliant change initiative will also fail - or at least not go as seamlessly as it could - if there is no intentional communication strategy - before, during, and after the change. With clear communication before, during, and after, the likelihood of team acceptance and implementation improves drastically. Without clear communication, acceptance and implementation is much more difficult.
What Happens When a Leader Spells Team with an ‘I’?
We’ve all heard the old saying, “There is no ‘I’ in team.” When you hear it, you probably want to roll your eyes as you think to yourself, “Ugh! That’s so cliché and corny!” Yeah, well I felt the same way too until I recently experienced a board chair figuratively spell the word team with an 'I' at least six times during a board meeting. During that one board meeting, I observed 16 highly-experienced, professional, and articulate board members shrink from their responsibilities and limit their individual input, questions, and concerns. Why?
Uh Oh. I Can’t Access What I Need
When we needed to rapidly move to remote work status several months ago, for many of us, it was just a matter of working more from home than normal. We had the capability to access all or the bulk of our work files and systems remotely. For others, it was a matter of grabbing what files and equipment you thought you’d need for a few weeks and then heading home to then figure out how to: serve your customers while using your personal devices, identify ways to access the company’s network of digital and possibly some paper files, get information from colleagues also working remotely who have poor internet connectivity, while also integrating any new company equipment provided to you into your remote work worlds. In the immediacy of the need to work remotely, you made it work. However, as more and more of us are anticipating a permanency to either a completely remote or a partially remote work environment, it’s now a priority that we, as leaders, get control of where our organization's files, equipment, and knowledge is being housed.
