Be a communication catalyst
Providing opportunities for your employees to exchange ideas
becomes even more important in an organization that spans multiple continents, because in those instances, employees may not
even know their counterparts in offices across the globe.
Beale says setting a meeting is the most effective way to foster
communication and interaction between colleagues and the quickest way for them to gain respect and understanding of what their
peers bring to the table.
“Sometimes you have to stimulate that; you have to provide a catalyst to do it,” he says. “Sometimes you have to force communication, but it almost invariably flourishes informally as colleagues
who don’t know each other get to know each other and gain
respect and admiration for the skills their counterparts have.”
While you may occasionally have to provide a push for different
groups within your organization to meet, you must also be the catalyst for your own management team’s communications.
Beale and his management team meet formally on a weekly
basis, but they also keep in contact informally throughout the day.
This can help you stay in touch with how the organization is progressing toward its goals. Informal communication can provide
you with the most up-to-date data and input available. However,
you need to complement the informal communication methods —
e-mail, phone calls, quick conversations — with the more formal
process of getting together as a management team and taking
stock of where the organization is in relationship to its goals.
“The most effective way of communicating is always informal,”
he says. “Informally, there is a constant exchange of ideas and
thoughts. It’s all about, ‘I think I’m seeing this milestone; do you
think you’re seeing that? Are you seeing what I’m seeing?’ We continue to constantly challenge each other.”
Occasionally, being the catalyst of communication means you
have to be a sounding board for your team’s ideas. Sometimes you
need to take a position you may not agree with, but challenging
each idea instead of simply letting it slide through the process will
ensure only the strongest strategies will be implemented.
Challenging your colleagues’ ideas can be difficult. Beale’s advice
to aspiring devil’s advocates is simple: Be constructive, not
destructive. You have to remember that by taking a position, you
are encouraging people to look at their own position from a different perspective or a different angle.
“You have to help people test their own hypothesis, test their conclusions and test their strategies,” he says. “Depending on situations, you have to be able to ask the right questions — without
guiding, necessarily, because in the end, an effective devil’s advocate will allow the subject to arrive at their own conclusion.”
HOW TO REACH: Fuel Systems Solutions Inc., (714) 656-1300 or www.fuelsystemssolutions.com
