Roland Salman says that when you get a group of people together for the first time, it can be difficult to get someone to speak first. And once people are talking, it can be even more difficult to get them to say what’s on their minds.
Salman, president of RW Armstrong, says that this can be a major hurdle to communication, and it’s a situation he tries to avoid at his construction management firm, which generated 2008 revenue of $77 million.
He’s done it by setting an example of straightforward communication for others to follow, an example he repeatedly demonstrates at every opportunity.
Smart Business spoke with Salman about how to say what you mean and how to set the stage for your employees to do the same.
Emphasize quality over quantity. A lot of people focus on the frequency of the communication. I focus more on the type of communication. You have to be very candid, very sincere and transparent. That opens the door for honest debate and working through things.
If you’re going to be a good communicator, many times, you have to make the first move. Communicating is a two-way street, but many people in business might be afraid to take things head-on. A lot of people want to be nice to each other.
My concern right now is we have been hiring people from the outside because we’re growing so fast. We can’t just promote from within.
Obviously, communication in a rapidly growing company is very important, and I find myself catching people communicating, but after the communication, there is a lot of frustration because the issue wasn’t resolved. They were just being nice to each other, talking superficially but not getting down to the issues.
So candid communication is the first advice I would give. Be straightforward, identify the issue and work toward resolving it.
Set an example. The challenge is to set the example and get others to do the same thing. When I communicate, I explain to others how I would do it and then show them by my own example.
When I communicate with people, I dig down and ask the tough questions in a straightforward manner. Recently, I called for a meeting with one of my partners because of certain things I’ve said that I could tell didn’t go over real well. I went to lunch with him and we talked. That is what you have to do.
You have to bring out the issue immediately and force the other person to talk about it. If you open up, the other person is going to open up, and if you speak in a candid way, they will speak in a candid way.
