Can you Over Communicate in Tough Times?

Submitted by Cindy Flanders on Fri, 08/19/2011 - 7:59am

A recent Wall Street Journal article, Memo to Staff - Don't Panic by Joe Light, cited examples of how some  CEOs are communicating to their staff in these tough economic times.  As I read, I reflected on my experiences managing teams through five mergers and three recessions.  Though those weren’t good times, I learned some valuable lessons.

 

  • Hiding doesn’t help. I knew my company was going to have layoffs. As a new manager, I thought if I kept a low profile and essentially hid in my office, the bad news would blow over me and my team like tumbleweed in a dust storm.  Instead, it was more like a Mack truck. In the end, not only did Izero input to who from my team was let go, I lost the respect of my remaining staff.  As a manager, you must always be part of the decision.
  • Edit the company’s “Talking Points.”   Whenever there’s bad news, many companies come up with talking points to allay fears and keep people focused on their work.  Sounding just like C3PO from Star Wars, I would read these verbatim to my teams, which only added to their uncertainty. Too much corporate speak can make your teams feel even more uncomfortable.  Personalize the message and focus on your audience. What do all these words mean to them?  How will they really be impacted?
  • Tell the truth.  If times really are tough, don’t pretend everything will be hunky-dory.  Avoiding tough questions and acting as if your folks won’t be impacted is easy, but unfair.  If they might be affected, be honest.  Just be sure to balance the bad news with the fact that the more successful your team can be, the less likely they will be cut. Keep them focused on the job at hand as much as possible.

The bottom line is that you really can’t communicate too much during tough times, but if your message isn’t right or it’s delivered in the wrong way, you may do more harm than good.

We’d love to hear some of the messages you’ve been receiving or delivering during these tough times.

 

 

Comments

These are great reminders. I

Submitted by bmoreorganic on Sun, 08/21/2011 - 7:48pm.

These are great reminders. I keep forgetting -- it's hard to over communicate. We may get tired of hearing it, and our employees -- just like advertising -- need to be told several times before it sinks in.

My biggest sin is not following up. We'd have layoffs or furlough, but we should have come back a month or so later to give people updates on our situation.

Overcommunicating

Submitted by Laura Gamble on Tue, 08/23/2011 - 10:20am.

Early in my career I was with a bank that came within one day of failing and being taken over by the Feds. One of the many things that experience taught me was the importance of communication. Our Interim CEO had been promoted just to get us through the tough time and he did a fantastic job of communicating not just to us, his employees, but to customers and shareholders on a regular basis. He would gather employees together every couple of weeks when things were really rocky, and speak about what was going on. I was really impressed by his willingness to answer every question. I think his approach toward communication was one of the key things that kept the company going because people knew what was going on and didn't spend an inordinate amount of time wondering about it. Instead they did their jobs.