Communication: it ain’t happening
The 2015 news on colleges and universities is out. Salaries for graduates are up, and so is college debt. With those numbers, one would hope that universities are producing a labor force with the best communication skills ever. I wish it were so. We certainly have technological advances enabling information transmission across almost any conceivable medium. Our current reality is that good communication, producing alignment and understanding, is decreasing instead of increasing.
For all our advances, leaders continue to experience the pain of poor communication. Below are actual comments from clients in the last seven days.
“The biggest problem between the two men is that they do not communicate. And it is adversely impacting our business.” Business Owner
“Communication is really painful for him. He simply locks down when he has to do it.” Accounting VP
“We have great guys on our team. Nearly all of them are strong producers. We still need help with communication.” Business Owner
“While we need to talk about celebrating our successes, and embracing the challenges for the future, the biggest challenge for us continues to be communication.” Marketing VP
“For these two business products to succeed, better communication between the departments is essential.” Business Owner
Communication is not second nature among today’s workforce. Most agree that communication needs to increase. Still, the majority of my clients state the number one business issue they must conquer is ineffective communication. It is key to a successful work environment. You must make the necessary time, energy, and financial investment to change the unhealthy patterns.
Over the past few weeks I have noticed some common threads. Here is what we are now addressing.
Common reasons:
1. Fear
Insecurity about skill competency or personal confidence. Result: limited engagement, lack of trust.
2. Lack of Alignment
Unclear goals, unclear roles, unclear expectations. Result: silos
3. Lack of strong verbal skills
Reliance on email, text. Sarcasm replaces confrontation. Result: avoidance of accountable relationships, disengaged lone rangers.
I have noticed companies are producing acceptable results with unacceptable communication patterns. However, they fall short of the excellence they desire, and in many cases leave money on the table through decreased profitability. In order to achieve business excellence, aligned understanding must be a key component of the foundation. Excellence is not achieved without it. Many of us think we are better than we really are. “The single greatest problem with communication is the allusion that is has taken place”. George Bernard Shaw
Tags: alignment, communication, excellence, leadership, profitability, understanding