When my husband announced we would have new hardwood floors & carpeting on the 2nd floor in our home, I was elated with the change. When my entire world was disrupted that Monday and had to re-arrange all my plans, I did not respond well. What happened? My husband communicated the change. He gave me the details of what to expect. He was frustrated we did not appreciate the process for which I felt really bad. The breakdown came because communication fails when we don’t have two-way understanding of the impact. Let me share more so you don’t make the same mistake in business.

Leaders cascade initiatives and deploy change agents so communications happen throughout the organization. The presentation is polished, videos are recorded and townhalls arranged in hopes that the organization understands the impact. The key word is “Hope”. Where leaders fall short is they invest the communication and not on the outcome of understanding.

A few ideas that can help a leader though this issue to avoid conflict, irritation and dissention among the rank and file.

Invest in Understanding as the outcome of what you’re trying to achieve. The communication is simply the vehicle towards understanding.

• Ensure you cascade in detail the change and the expected impact
• Ask people if they can articulate the impact to their work; confirming understanding.
• Ask people to raise issues associated with the event that were not considered and with open discussion, you can ease the tension.

It’s not rocket science, but when we ask people to think in terms of outcomes and impacts from the end user perspective, we realize we have a lot to learn about communication. Remember the telephone game where what starts out as one message is degraded by the time it gets to the last person.

As leaders we have a responsibility to assure that what we communicate is understood; else we fail to be leaders.

Getting back to my situation; I was banned from my office for two days and could not function in a noisy home that transcended all three floors. There was no escape, so I needed to adapt. I found work arounds, including my basement for which I was able to continue doing business. I later recorded a video thinking I had a virtual background that later failed and I was recording my basement background! How embarrassing, but it added to the humor of the situation and I might say a fun recording!

The next time you have to communicate, change your mindset that you’re in the business of effecting understanding for a better outcome!

If you’d like to discuss how we can build this competency into your team, let’s talk!

Until then, wishing you better Two-Way Understanding!

-Deb

“Managing Up” became my tool of choice to connect with this C-Suite Leader and align on the challenges and the treatment going forward.

Once we aligned on a go-forward game plan, they came into my ecosystem again and quickly realized we lacked some fundamental ways of working and accessible resources to move the initiative forward.

Once they could observe first hand the conditions were not conducive to getting the desired result, their leadership came through to address the conditions.

The change in their energy and the clarity that came to the team on next steps forward were magical!

By addressing the conditions that were barriers of progress, we may have solved this issue and many others; ultimately getting to more efficient, effective and sustainable results.

When I saw the clarity in the team and an action that made sense, I was starting to feel peace of mind we would get to a better place.

I can only hope that with time and “Managing Up”, this leader will also see and feel “Peace of Mind”, where barriers are broken down and the team can operate at top performance. In doing so, the customers will gain back trust.

So why do leaders still use the old playbook? Maybe they know no other way? Maybe they trust it so much that if they push harder, it will still work? That’s insanity as we know it and only the highly aware leader will pursue a different way of working.

In recent weeks, several of you have come to me, sharing your challenges. I am grateful for those relationships and trust. But when I called “BS” on their thinking, I jolted them into realizing they were creating their own chaos and could not see a better way.

In one case, I told the person that they are the CEO even though not in title. It was on them to act and behave that way because others needed their leadership.

In other case, the person was making course corrections in their career. They were pursuing the same line of work when I showed them it was not for them. They focused on the past playbook to deliver in the future. Instead I said to focus on what they’re amazing at and differentiating than the rest. Only then, will they achieve peace of mind in pursuit of purposeful work.

For those who don’t trust yourself or think they don’t need a partner, I wish you well living “Groundhog day”.

For those who are highly aware leaders knowing the old playbook doesn’t work, let’s talk.

I sincerely care about you and I want to see you succeed. Until then, I wish you well!

-Deb

When sales are down or complaints are up and leaders are given an urgent mandate to turn things around, often they make things worse in the process of trying to do good. Sound familiar?

Yes, there are power points that describe Why there is a sense of urgency, but behaviors such as rapid firing emails and assigning owners in such a short amount of time to show something is being done shows a lack of discipline.

In the process, you have disrupted the organization without consideration of current workload of the tapped resources and you’ve elevated the emotions of those you need to focus on the issue at hand.

What should have been taken care of all along because the issue is most like not a surprise. The waiting to pull the trigger and realize that things are going bad fast should elevate a different set of behaviors in an organization.

So I suggest leaders take a stern look at themselves and ask could the crisis could have been avoided. Also, could you have approached the crisis that you caused a bit differently?

Navigating with calm is the key to chaos management

Now, I could have called this crisis management, but there’s a distinction that I need to make. The drop in sales or the increase in complaints is the crisis that was caused due to lack of earlier action. The effect is amplified because you’ve imparted chaos on top of crisis, making what you are doing less effective.

Is there a better way?

As a leader, you are paid well and have the responsibility to instill confidence in the direction and in the people you lead. Bring them along in conversation so the engagement is two way vs. top down. When people are part of the conversation, their level of understanding is much deeper, you lessen the emotional whiplash and you share the action plan collectively.

Top down directives are the worse way to wear your team out in the process. You may prevail through the crisis and the chaos you created, but your team will think twice if they want to stay in such an environment.

Is this a real scenario that I’ve lived through? Yup! Too many times, so the issue needed to be raised.

While I wrote this in a tone directed to you, it was intentional to get your attention.

If you are one of those leaders, let me partner with you on a calm approach to mitigate crisis and instill confidence without the chaos.

If you know someone who is behaving this way, you have some tools to provide kind feedback to change their approach.

If you are someone who has experienced such an event, you are wiser now because when you are faced with a crisis, you can navigate with confidence and be the leader others will follow.

If you want to vent because of a bad experience, let’s talk. I’m a great listening partner and in the process, you learn the secrets of the C-Suite and become the next “CEO”.

Until we speak, be well

-Deb