Part One of A Five Part Series on Communication and Cultures of Trust
In last week’s column, we talked about why building a culture of trust in your organization is more important than ever. It helps with retention, engagement, and employee well-being, and sets everyone up to do their best work. And as Dr. Katherine A. Meese and I discuss in The Human Margin, communication is one of the best tools we have for building trust. Because good communication has many different layers, I’ll spend the next five weeks breaking out various components and include tips on how leaders can get better at communication.
Great communication helps leaders create strong relationships, demonstrate alignment with our values, and show care and concern for our people. It helps us make sure that employees understand the reasons behind decisions, and it clears up misunderstandings that erode trust. A leader’s ability to provide consistent, values-aligned, real-time communication is fuel for everything else.
Research finds only 7 percent of U.S. workers strongly agree that they get timely, accurate, and open communication at work. This is concerning because research has shown that good communication results in greater engagement and intention to stay within the organization.
Good communication is not a nice-to-have. It’s an essential leadership skill and a necessary competency. Without it, much of our hard work and great ideas may never come to fruition. Yet while we may know how important communication is, focusing on it is not easy when a leader is dealing with a multitude of demands. In employee engagement surveys, communication is often identified as one of the top items that could be improved. This is true even when communication is quite good.
It’s important to note here that communication is not just the responsibility of leaders. It’s a two-way street. Employees have a responsibility to open emails, watch videos, and otherwise engage in communication. We’ll discuss more about this in a later column.
The good news is that when we’re able to identify and fix communication issues, we may see positive changes right away. Here are just a few of the benefits of great communication:
It creates clarity. People know what is expected. Clarity enhances performance, helps teams meet their goals, and prevents mistakes and misunderstandings. Communication about expectations of employees was ranked as the most important form of communication in Gallup’s research. Employees are 2.8 times more likely to be engaged when they speak with their manager regularly about their goals and progress.
It fills emotional bank accounts. It demonstrates empathy and understanding and shows that we care. When we handle communication the right way—even when we’re asking people to make incredibly tough changes—we can strengthen relationships and positively affect the entire organization. It keeps people engaged and connected—to one another and to their sense of purpose.
It reduces anxiety. No one likes vagueness and fuzzy boundaries. When we communicate in ways that make it clear what needs to happen next, what right looks like, and how performance will be measured, we remove the uncertainty that keeps people fretting and second-guessing and prevents them from doing their best work.
Along with skill development, it pushes responsibility and authority to the front lines. This is especially important in industries where people have to act quickly and decisively.
It closes the trust gap. As we discuss in The Human Margin, research shows a gap between what leaders are actually doing and what people think they are doing, which can lead to distrust. Good communication can heal this divide. Most leaders mean well, and when the communication flow is there, they can make sure their intentions are landing where they want them to land.
It stops misinformation. Communication shortfalls lead to a lot of speculation and gossip around what’s really going on. Misinformation spreads. When there is an information void, people fill it with worst-case-scenario thinking.
It is at the core of emotionally intelligent leadership. It better connects the leader with their team. It creates psychological safety, which in turn creates a culture where people feel comfortable giving honest feedback and sharing their ideas and opinions.
It keeps organizations aligned, nimble, adaptive, and able to innovate. Great communication is the oil that keeps the machine running smoothly.
Ultimately, the right kind of communication creates a place where people want to be. When we invest in training people on good communication practices, everyone wins: leaders at every level, employees, customers, and the entire organization.
Please check back in next week for the second column in our communication series on what keeps leaders from communicating well. As always, thank you for reading!
Quint Studer, Katherine A. Meese, PhD, and Dan Collard will speak at the 2024 ACHE Congress on Healthcare Leadership. Their session, “The Human Margin: What It Is, Why It Matters, and Why TRUST Is the Key to Maximizing It,” will be held on Tuesday, March 26, at 9:00 a.m. Visit https://congress.ache.org/ to learn more.
