Assess your communication
You should never assume that just because you’re speaking, your people are listening to you. If you want everyone on the same page, then you better make sure that the communication is working.
“A lot of companies label themselves as being companies that have good communications,” Desjadon says. “But they often make the mistake of assuming that because they are talking, they assume someone is listening and that constitutes good communication.
“The organizations that really do have good communication don’t just offer lip service to it. It’s an environment where they talk down, they talk up and they talk sideways and they talk around. Sometimes they might talk about an issue and an employee feels open to discuss the pros and cons of that issue as openly as the leadership team and, in fact, is invited to do so.”
That only happens when you respond to communication with an air of approachability. Desjadon recalled a situation in which he was trading e-mails with an individual that runs part of the company’s claims department.
“We had made a change in a policy,” Desjadon says. “He had subsequently come back and said, ‘Look, I know we made this change. I know it was your idea. I know you think it was a good idea, but actually, I don’t think it’s going to work the way you suspect it’s going to work. Here’s why.’ So we’ve been going back and forth so I can better understand exactly why he’s saying that and what actions he might suggest need to be taken.”
You need to impress upon your employees that you want their input and feedback and will openly consider it in the running of the business. That is, if you truly want an open culture with employees who feel engaged in helping the company succeed.
“In this case, what I’ve done is now said, ‘You might have a point, show me,” Desjadon says. “Letȁ
9;s try to find a solution. By the way, get a few other people involved in it and let’s get their opinion while we’re at it.’ So now it’s not my solution, it’s not my problem. It’s a team of people that are now looking at it. I didn’t even see it as a problem. I still don’t necessarily. He may be right, he may be wrong, but he makes a valid point. Now we’re going to have several people looking into it and trying to figure out exactly what we should do, if anything. They feel like they have a stake in succeeding.”
To reinforce his approachability, Desjadon schedules regular breakfast meetings with about a dozen employees.
“It would just be a conversation,” he says. “What’s on your mind? What’s working? What’s not working? How do you feel we are doing? What do you think needs to be changed?
“By doing that, you accomplish a couple of things. You make yourself accessible in a no-risk environment. It’s just a conversation with people having coffee. If you also insist that department heads and supervisors and managers and everyone across the organization do that, too, you foster an environment that everyone is in it together.”
If you don’t get a lot of regular feedback from employees, assess how you interact with your people.
“No one wants to stand up to a fact and say, ‘Wait a minute, my people really don’t feel like they can share ideas,’” Desjadon says. “That’s somewhat of an indictment on you yourself. You start out by taking an assessment of you. Have you made yourself accessible? Have you worked more on one-way communication than multifaceted communication?”
If you don’t feel like you have had an environment of communication and it’s something you want to have, just say that’s what you want to do.
“Sit down with your folks and say, ‘Look, I’ve taken the time to think this through. I don’t think it’s been the most open environment. Let’s clear the air, let’s erase the blackboard, and let’s start over,’” Desjadon says.
Getting buy-in to an open culture often takes time and convincing that it’s truly something you want in your organization.
“It takes time because what happens is you can talk all you want, people believe what they observe rather than what is said,” Desjadon says. “Over time, as people feel more and more a part of management discussions and management meetings and they get drawn into them at every level, people observe that. People observe the fact that Tom had to go to the quarterly management meeting and discuss the process that he’s working on. Then you just start saying, ‘We’re going to do that on a regular basis. Everyone is going to have an opportunity to come into management discussions and to discuss issues that are strategically or tactically important to the organization.’”
How to reach: Florida Peninsula Insurance Co., (877) 994-8368 or www.floridapeninsula.com
