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Organisation leaders have long been recognised as playing a pivotal role in effective internal communication. Speakers at the Active Leadership session discussed the form this should take, and the role of internal communicators in making it happen.
Synopsis MD Bill Quirke clearly illustrated the powerful influence of leaders on the internal communication environment with a telling statistic – 79% of the most important and influential communications, in terms of shifting employee behaviour, come from leaders, versus 32% from infrastructure and from formal media (Source: Tower Perrin and Tom Lee). And leaders are often most influential in informal situations, so it is important that they present the right types of messages in these circumstances as well as in more formal presentations. The organisation and its leaders need to be focused on ensuring that employees are willing to do what they are asked, and clear on what they are actually supposed to be doing. It is very common for individuals to be passionate about their work, but to have little idea what they are actually supposed to be doing in terms of organisational objectives. One of the major obstacles is management speak, which can obscure very simple, key goals for employees. For example, it would not be uncommon for an objective such as 'answer the phone in four rings' to be expressed in a more round-about way, and not infrequently professional communicators are implicated in using jargon-laden terminology. Professional communicators can help leaders by coaching and advising them so that they achieve greater impact. Where leaders are reluctant to listen to communication professionals, an important strategy is to understand what their key preoccupations are and clearly link internal communication strategies to what they see as the most important issues. Communicators need to understand leaders' styles, accept that they cannot be good at everything, and provide support in relation to their weaker areas. For example, where a leader is strong on vision but not so good on detail, it might be worth partnering them in a presentation with someone who is more at home outlining the specifics.
Thinking and acting systematically – they are able to think several moves ahead, and consider the options and repercussions arising out of specific outcomes. This broad characteristic means they think carefully about how to align staff personally with organisational vision, and about the specific approaches to be used in engaging people in change. They often mention the importance of change agents to their plans – influential people with good networks. Seeing people as the route to performance – they tend to be focused on conversation and generally cultivating relationships. A one-to-one review or team meeting would typically involve discussing how employees are getting on and their feelings as well as more formal issues such as objectives. Self as enabler – they have a sense of humility, understanding their role in releasing a sense of collective leadership. High levels of self-awareness and reflection means they recognise when someone is doing something particularly well, learn from this and adapt their own behaviour accordingly. They do not divulge all their own feelings to staff, recognising their own responsibility for creating and maintaining trust, and fostering team spirit. The Work Foundation report, Exceeding Expectations: the principles of outstanding leadership can be downloaded at http://www.theworkfoundation.com/
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Helping
leaders engage – Bill Quirke
Work
Foundation researcher Gemma Pearson outlined the findings of their
recent research which analyses what qualities add up to an
outstanding leader. This identified four key areas that make these
individuals stand out:
