Top Tips: Making managers better communicators
Speakers from Melcrum's London event "Bridging the gap: Making managers better communicators" share key tips on equipping your organisation's managers to become effective communicators.
1. Leaders are all powerful in internal communications
Bill Quirke, managing director, Synopsis Communication Consulting, told the assembled audience that effective leadership communication makes a huge difference because employees value what their leaders say the most, therefore they are the most influential channel of communication in your organization.
2. Upward cascade is key
Lynne Gray, group director of internal communications, Aviva, and Adam Hibbert, group communications manager, Aviva, looked at ways to help each function and division communicate more effectively with each other and the answer was upward cascade. They said that Aviva encourages senior leaders to ensure that a bottom-up conversation happens, and to focus on making sure that people are exploring the implications collectively. Therefore, when the decision is ready to be shared, everyone it affects should already understand the implications and feel significantly more confident about how to execute.
Be open and transparent – don’t be afraid of negative feedback
3. Be inventive with methods to engage line manager during communication training
Kate Jones, people and culture business partner, E.ON UK, and Stephen King, head of learning and development, E.ON UK, revealed that one of the tools their company used to engage line managers was to, during training, provide actors with different directions to showcase good and bad behavior – fully engaging them in the process. Also, they revealed that getting leaders to share stories and passions during comms sessions was another method that kept them engaged.
4. Cement training engagement through shared experiences
Angela Sinickas, ABC, president of Sinickas Communications advised that, during training sessions, internal communicators should ensure management are engaged by having them share their own best practice tips to others in the group, cementing their involvement in the session.
5. Simplicity and openness is the key
Clive Gunby, employee relations & internal communications director, Openreach (a BT Group Business) said that, when engaging with leaders, be open and transparent – don’t be afraid of negative feedback and do not over complicate everything – keep it simple. Additionally, keep the tone of voice simple and plain with no management jargon.
Have your say
What other communication characteristics do you think are important for managers? Are managers used as a communication channel in your organization? How do you prepare them for communicating with the workforce?
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