Build connections
To engage people as stakeholders in your company’s future, you can give them a financial piece of the company in the form of a stock plan or another type of profit sharing. But in order to really get ownership on an emotional level, you need to communicate and give employees opportunities to communicate with you.
At Deloitte, Weiner keeps communication personal through cascading messages. She wants employees to hear news from their direct managers — someone with whom they have a personal connection.
Wide-angle company broadcasts from the president’s or CEO’s office can be effective in disseminating information, but Weiner prefers to put a familiar face on her messages whenever she can.
“If they see that a message is ‘from the office of …’ and they know it’s going to be some kind of broadcast communication, they’ll get to it when they get to it,” she says. “In today’s world of information overload, we know that might be never. But when it comes from someone they work for or with, someone that they have a personal connection with, they open it immediately.
“That
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9;s one of the more difficult things to do, make sure you’re bringing back that personal touch, that engaged level of communication. Giving the person a name, looking them in the eye, listening directly to them. I am very firm on the idea that you do not build e-mail relationships with people. If you want to build a relationship, you need to meet with the person and get to know them. The virtual world is wonderful, it can enable many things, but it does not enable culture or relationships.”
Personal communication builds trust between employees and management, which is an essential ingredient in promoting and maintaining a long-term strategy. As a leader, the only way you can build trust with your work force is to communicate consistently and candidly on company matters, and see to it that your actions follow your words.
“Trust doesn’t just come because you’re declared to be trustworthy,” Weiner says. “It comes through your own actions. Are you genuine, do you have authentic leadership, do you lead through your own example, are the values you laid down the values you continue to demonstrate? The same holds true for you trusting others. I look for the same types of behaviors and considerations that I expect of myself as a leader. They need to be candid, transparent and authentic communicators, just like I expect from myself.”