The LETTER:
Official Report Of The L Group

The Power of the Word:  
Straight Talk About Employee Communication
By Lee J. Colan

What’s the one thing we do more than anything else, but typically do it less effectively than anything else?  Communicate.

Every CEO with whom we have ever spoken, regardless of the company’s size, growth rate or maturity, wanted to improve communication.  Here are some reasons to pay attention to your employee communication:

• Watson Wyatt Worldwide conducted a recent study that links effective employee communication with a 7.1% increase in market value.

• Kip Tindell is co-founder of The Container Store, the top ranked company on Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For”.  The guiding mantra for Kip and his team is “Leadership is Communication.”

• Deloitte & Touche, also on Fortune’s list, conducted a study that found communication was the best predictor of employee commitment.

• Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, argued, “You have to communicate until you are sick of hearing yourself and then communicate some more.”

The bottom line - If you want loyal, committed, high-performing employees that demonstrate ownership behavior, you must talk with them about your business.

The Power of Words

Words are the most powerful tool invented by human beings.  Since you cannot change what you cannot see, words allow the mind to see what your eyes cannot.  With the rise of various forms of long distance communication (e-mail included), the words we choose are more important than ever. 

Words have propelled our greatest achievements, prevented opportunities to create great companies and triggered many wars and loss of life.  Words create passion, energy and focus around a common goal for people who share the same words.  When people share the same words a community is formed, whether it is around the arts, religion, sports, a profession or your company.  In fact, the word “communication” stems from the word community.

Ask yourself, “What five words do I consistently hear and see in my company?”

Your response to this question will reflect your company’s real culture versus the culture you may desire.  The words your employees use create the behavior, responses and assumptions that shape your culture.  We will refer to these five words again later relative to creating an employer brand.

Message Tree

The Message Tree helps describes the four rings of employee communication.  The inner two rings represent the private arena of communication and the outer two rings represent the public arena.

Intrapersonal Communication

The most important conversation you will ever have is with YOURSELF.  These conversations help you mold the lenses through which you see the world.  These lenses (AKA: assumptions, paradigms) directly influence your view of:  employees’ trustworthiness, your own capabilities, your control over the external world, other’s need for information, risk of sharing information, etc.

In this intrapersonal ring of communication being a good listener is a double-edged sword.  Effective listening is great if the messages you send to yourself are constructive, reality-based and result in leadership responses that serve your company’s best interests.  On the other hand, if your self-talk is maladaptive then effectively listening to those messages can start a destructive cycle for you and your company.

Using behavioral/personality assessments can help build self-awareness, reduce blind spots (weaknesses that others see, but you do not) and create more constructive conversations with yourself.

See our Leading the Way Through Tough Times: The Power of Assumptions report to see our “Power of Assumptions Model” and how your personal assumptions impact your company.

Interpersonal Communication

As a leader, it does not matter what you say, only what your employees hear.  Since only 7% of the meaning from interpersonal communication is derived from words, even the most beautifully crafted message can be missed if many other factors are not consistent with your words, including:

• the communication channel you use,

• your confidence and conviction,

• sincerity,

• pace,

• eye contact,

• gestures,

• fluency, and

• the vision you create with your words.

Since the most critical and influential communication occurs between a manager and his/her employee, here is a simple three-step process for using your interpersonal interactions to build employee commitment.  The parentheses show the degree of employee engagement at each step:

1. Explain (observation)

2. Ask (participate)

3. Involve (commitment)

Explaining things like what level of performance you expect, where the company is going, how the company is doing and what the employee’s role are great starting points for engaging employees.  If you do this you are ahead of many leaders, but that this is only the first step in building employee commitment.  Some leaders say, usually to themselves, “They don’t really need to know that.” or “They won’t really understand.”  Remember, those who underestimate the intelligence of their employees generally overestimate their own.

Asking employees what they think engages them one step further.  Now they are participating in the discussion.  The key here is to LISTEN.  Don’t ask if you don’t listen.  Asking without listening only builds cynicism, and ultimately disengagement – the exact opposite of commitment.  Here is the paradox:  if you don’t listen, you don’t learn.  That goes for any area of life, but particularly in your company.  If you don’t listen to your employees, customers, vendors, etc. you gradually create larger organizational blind spots.  These are areas of apparent weakness to others that you are not aware of – a precarious position for a leader.  The higher you are in the organization, the more that information you receive is filtered.  Therefore, it is critical to build in mechanisms for unfiltered upward communication.  These will prevent you from being “the emperor with no clothes.”  

Involving employees in creating solutions to problems, areas for improvement, new opportunities, etc. is what creates a sense of commitment to you, the company and to the solution.  Many leaders feel threatened by taking this step.  Some lack the skills, but most leaders feel like they are giving up control over how they will achieve their goals (it all goes back to their conversation with themselves about control and trust).  In fact, leaders have more control over the messages employees hear if they involve them.

Organizational Communication

Communication is historically the top concern for employees, but deeper analysis of years of employee attitude research reveals that employees want answers to these questions:

1. Where are we going? (Strategy)

2. What are we doing to get there? (Plans)

3. What can I do to contribute? (Roles)

4. What is in it for me? (Rewards)

Ensure that you are answering these questions before communicating about other topics.  Your employees are asking these questions whether or not you actually hear them.  When questions are not answered people tend to fill in the blanks with their own assumptions, and their assumptions are typically worse than reality.  As an example, a national retailer recently made costly aesthetic improvements to the grounds of their corporate offices.  These improvements were made on the heels of a workforce reduction.  Both surviving and terminated employees were extremely disillusioned as they saw the new landscaping being installed.  The company failed to tell employees that these improvements were required by a local city ordinance, carried substantial fines for non-compliance and had been planned for nine months.  Without this information, employees assumed the worst, and their commitment was significantly eroded.

Here is a simple tool to help you craft an organizational communication plan.

Your communication channels might include:  memo/e-mail, video, newsletter, home, mailings, intranet, meetings, town hall chats, training sessions, focus groups, company parties/celebrations/rituals, bulletin boards, paycheck stuffers, running banners on PCs, video conferences and many more.

Don’t get too fancy with your channels.  Select those that are perceived as most reliable.  The message is in the medium.  For example, if you are announcing an important new business unit, sending an e-mail might be perceived as matter-of-fact and that the new business unit is not critical to the business.  Alternatively, company-wide or departmental meetings with a presentation and opportunity for asking questions suggest to employees that the time, effort and preparation to hold these meetings is related to the importance of this new business unit.

Predictability is key when creating your communication plan.  Start with two or three reliable channels to support your key messages, and then build on them slowly.  Resist the temptation to create a myriad of channels and messages.  Keep it simple and stick to it!

Here are 7 Keys to C³ (Crystal Clear Communication).  Your organizational communication should be:

1. Aligned with the four questions employees ask (above)
2. Honest
3. Consistent
4. Multi-channeled
5. Timely
6. Concise
7. Three-way (downward, upward and horizontally).

External Communication

The outer ring of our Message Tree, External Communication, addresses capturing mind share and creating a workplace brand with prospective employees, customers, vendors, partners and local communities.  The external image you create may not always match the reality of working in your company, but it is best if it does. 

Trying to be all things to all people is a sure recipe for mediocrity.  Instead, focus on a few key features that distinguish you as an employer.  The five words you most commonly hear and see in your company are a good starting point for describing your value proposition as an employer.

A clear, concise message about who you are and what you value as an employer serves as an effective self-selection mechanism for recruitment. 

Once you have articulated the essence of your employer brand (e.g., product innovation, teamwork, operational efficiency, customer intimacy, having fun at work, intellectual challenge, etc.), weave those messages into your communication with your key external constituents, particularly with your prospective talent pool.

Communication Check-up

The following Communication Check-up will help you assess each ring on the Message Tree and enable you to focus your communication efforts. 

Here is the rating key for the Check-up:

• Red = take immediate action to improve.

• Yellow = keep an eye on this area and plan steps to improve.

• Green = this area is OK.

Joseph Pulitzer knew a few things about effective communication, and he reflected several of our 7 Keys to C³ when he said, “Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it, and above all, accurately so they will be guided by it.” 

Communication Check-up

Rings on The Message Tree		RED	YELLOW	GREEN
1.	Intrapersonal
	a.  Our executive team members are aware of their strengths, weaknesses and personal assumptions..
	b.  Our company has mechanisms for our executives to receive accurate information about the impact of their behavior on the company……...........
2.	Interpersonal
	a.  Our managers consistently involve their employees in finding ways to improve their work…...
	b.  Our managers listen effectively to their employees...........................................................
	c.  The grapevine is perceived as an unreliable communication channel in my company…………….
3.	Organizational
	a.  We consistently answer the four questions employees ask.....................................................
	b.  We have built-in communication channels to ensure we hear what employees really think………..
	c.  We have words (i.e., company language) that are commonly understood by employees……………
4.	External
	a.  We have a clear, concise message about who we are as an employer…………………………………
	b.  The words that are commonly used in our company are reflected in our brand as an employer………………….......................................
	c.  Employees experiences inside of the company are consistent with their perceptions of the company before they were hired……………………...

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