On a subconscious level, in addition to communicating through your behavior, you also need to develop an understanding of the feelings you’re conveying with all types of communication. Depending on how a message is worded, it can have different implied meanings to different people.
Salinas says that because subconscious communication encompasses nonverbal communication and implied meanings, it is much more difficult to harness. But it’s something you need to learn to do, because every time you’re in the public eye with your employees, you’re communicating, whether you realize it or not.
“On the subconscious level, you have to make sure that everything you do is aligned with your values,” he says. “The way pieces of communication are worded is really important. The way things are said and how they make somebody feel is really important. Our core values make people feel a certain way, and the stuff I’m doing on a daily basis should be consistent with our core values. In other words, your behavior should make people feel the same way they do when they see the core values.
“That all goes back to how do you look, how do you carry yourself, are you making eye contact with your staff and smiling. Are you stopping and sincerely conversing with people you see each day? It’s a little more difficult, but you just have to doggedly pursue this whole idea of living the culture. It really does start with you and work its way down.”
Set up feedback channels
You can pay attention to all aspects of how you communicate, but the only way you’re really going to find out if your messages are reaching every person in your company is if you give your employees a chance to have their say.
Salinas has set up many of the feedback channels widely used throughout the business world. He holds quarterly all-staff meetings with a question-and-answer period. He makes himself as accessible as he can during his walks around the resort grounds. He answers e-mail.
But Salinas and his staff have taken things a step further at Barona. Salinas has continued to utilize a program that predates his tenure as general manager. It’s called the Barona communications team, and it comprises employee representatives from throughout the Barona organization.
The goal is to give employees in every area of the organization a chance to reach management in a formalized manner and to provide an effective top-down means of communicating messages.
“This team is comprised of 40 or so front-line staff members who meet weekly with the senior vice president of human resources,” Salinas says. “I try to attend those meetings when I can, and it’s purely informational. Those staff members on the team come from all areas of the operation, they do updates about what is going on in their areas and if the people in their areas have questions, they put those on the table. The representatives are then responsible to go back to their areas and communicate the information that they’ve learned at the meetings.
“A program like that allows you to get information on the grassroots level. It also allows you to get information to your staff that is accurate, that hasn’t gone through the rumor mill and com
ing out distorted on the other end.”
Feedback is a critical element in allowing employees to take ownership in the direction of the company. If they’re helping to steer the company, your employees will generally exhibit a more positive attitude as they work toward carrying out the company goals and mission.
Feedback is also useful as an idea generator. Even if a particular employee’s job centers mostly on manual labor, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to harness his or her brainpower. Ideas can come from anywhere.
“Every once in awhile, a staff member will surprise you with a monster idea that could make you a lot of money,” Salinas says. “But those big ideas are pearls that are few and far between. You also need to look for the small things that someone might be telling you about. Someone farther down the ladder that they have this cool idea, and you might not personally see the results, but it might be big for their department. So you make it happen and do it with as much fanfare as you would for a big idea.”
Though you might be more budget-conscious due to the state of the economy, Salinas says you shouldn’t hold back financially if the idea makes sense on every other level. Most of the ideas that you get won’t be million-dollar ideas that cost a fortune to get off the ground.
“If you keep encouraging it, you’ll get absolutely inundated with new ideas,” he says. “People will keep coming to you. If that happens, you might start to get some pretty wild ideas that you know you can’t use, but it really doesn’t matter, because at least people are engaged and they’ll be thinking about what they can do to [make] things better. That’s the all-important ownership piece that you need to build within people.”
