The Front Line Guide to Communicating with Employees

135 Pages·2007·1.34 MB·English

by  Woody Sears

The Front Line Guide to
COMMUNICATING
WITH EMPLOYEES

Woodrow H. Sears

HRD Press, Inc. • Amherst • Massachusetts
Copyright © 2007, HRD Press, Inc.

Published by:

HRD Press, Inc.
22 Amherst Road
Amherst, MA 01002
800-822-2801 (U.S. and Canada)
413-253-3488
413-253-3490 (fax)
www.hrdpress.com

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No
part of this material may be reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 0-87425-940-1

Production services by Jean Miller
Editorial services by Suzanne Ba y and Sally Farnham
Cover design by Eileen Klockars
To Victoria Loufakis, an exceptional teacher
and one of my most valuable mentors

Table of Contents

Preface .............................................................................. vii
Introduction..................................................................... ix
Part One: Communicating Is a Life-Support Skill...... 1
Chapter 1: The Fundamental Interpersonal Skill........ 3
Style Matters............................................................... 4
Primary and Back-up Styles....................................... 5
Communication Problems.......................................... 8
Actions Speak Louder Than Words............................ 10
Chapter 2: Communicating to Get Results................... 13
Communicate Your Commitment .............................. 14
Communicate Authority and Leadership.................... 16
Communicate Confidence.......................................... 17
Communicate with Each Other................................... 20
Chapter 3: The Communication Culture...................... 23
Negative Attitudes...................................................... 28
Use Your Imagination................................................. 32
Communication Contract............................................ 34
Wrapping Up Part One............................................... 35
Part Two: Communication Competencies.................... 37
Chapter 4: Listen ’til It Hurts........................................ 39
The Gift Only You Can Give ..................................... 40
The Major Listening Challenge.................................. 42
Look Closely............................................................... 46
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Communicating with Employees

Chapter 5: Giving Clear Information.......................... 51
A Focus on Outcomes................................................. 53
Be Clear About Your Messages................................. 57
Make Notes................................................................. 60
Chapter 6: Everyone Has a Point of View.................... 63
The Big Lie................................................................. 64
Impediments to Getting Clear Information................ 66
Above All, You Must Not Be Defensive.................... 68
Critical Reading and Listening................................... 69
A Strategy for Problem Identification........................ 71
Find a Workable Middle Ground................................ 79
Chapter 7: Communicating: Improving Your
Performance.................................................................. 83
Tools and Techniques................................................. 85
Won’t I lose my power?............................................. 90
Communicate to Motivate.......................................... 92
Appendices....................................................................... 95
Appendix 1: Corporation Questionnaire..................... 97
Appendix 2: A Quick Employee Survey.................... 109
Appendix 3: A Confidential Questionnaire for
Human Resources Staff Members.............................. 111
Recommended Reading.................................................. 117
About the Author............................................................. 121

vi
Preface

This guide is full of success-building advice for new man-
agers. Believe it or not, the major path to success lies in the
way you communicate with your employees, co-workers, and
bosses. The identifiable, observable, and replicable set of
skills and competencies that constitute effective communica-
tion is absolutely essential, particularly for managers. The
really good news is that if you want to become a good com-
municator, you can do it.
Good two-way communication is the key to helping peo-
ple perform more effectively, regardless of the task. It enables
and releases their potential.
In the pages that follow, we will put the subject of com-
munication in a larger perspective than is usual for books of
this type. I’m not taking a simplified approach, and I won’t be
presenting set after set of 1, 2, 3 steps. You will be prompted
to consider small developmental tasks that, collectively, will
help you improve the way you communicate throughout the
full range of your professional and personal activities.
I will share some powerful theories about working with
people that you need to know about, and add a few personal
anecdotes. You will be prompted to track down information
about some research-based competencies associated with
effective communicating at work, such as researcher Scott
Parry’s conclusions from a study of nearly 100,000 managers
representing some of America’s leading corporations and
government organizations. The abilities, skills, and practices
commonly associated with highly effective leaders identified
by this study, as communicative competencies, are the “back-
bone” of this guide.
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Communicating with Employees

Reading this guide is a statement of commitment on your
part to strengthen your ability to communicate. Don’t pass up
opportunities to participate in communication workshops and
courses on, say, how to write memos or make formal presen-
tations or speeches. Perhaps you will be involved in a mana-
gerial assessment and improvement program in which your
personal ability to communicate effectively will be evaluated
for development. Your learning and professional advance-
ment will always depend in part on how willing you are to
engage in self-assessment exercises (a few are included in this
book) and investigate and apply the suggestions you see here.
If you eventually participate in management training or com-
munication programs provided by your company or accessed
on your own, your experience will be richer because of what
you’ve learned here.
Your ability to communicate (and mine, for that matter)
can always be improved. The best thing about strengthening
this set of skills, especially if you are a frontline manager, is
that the payoff is usually immediate and obvious. There are
few instances in life from which you can get feedback so
quickly.

viii
Introduction

I entered graduate school as a 30 year old without a precise
vision of what I wanted to do, but I knew it would be some-
thing in the broad arena of adult education. I ordered a copy
of Behind the Executive Mask from an ad in The New York
Times, and after reading Alfred Marrow’s book, I decided to
become a human resource consultant. My immediate problem
was that I had never met one! Luckily, a colleague suggested
that I go see Dr. Edward A. (Tim) Murray at his office just off
the campus. I did, and it was a galvanizing experience. Dr.
Murray laughed when I told him I was in his office to meet a
consultant because I wanted to become one. We chatted for
about an hour, and as I was leaving, Tim handed me a small
book and said, “When you’ve read this, come back and we’ll
talk some more.”
I was enchanted by Tim Murray. I had never met anyone
who was so calm, so easy to laugh, so “together.” Had he
given me a text in Sanskrit, I would have found a translator.
But he gave me something that was equally surprising: Irving
J. Lee’s 1941 classic, Language Habits in Human Affairs. As
I read the book, essentially an introductory text on general
semantics, I began to make the connection between semantics
and Alfred Marrow’s premise that executives limit their
effectiveness by hiding behind “masks” that obscure their
authentic selves. My excitement was at an all-time high.
Could I really break out from behind my mask and help others
to do that too? And if I could escape my mask, would I like
the person I found? Could I become a more-effective individ-
ual? If I did, would it change my relationships with people
near and dear and help me become a good leader?
ix