Adding dividends with a culture of two-way communications
ByIn a recent New York Times interview, the chairman of a private equity firm stated that he tells everyone in his organization that he is always accessible by email and will always respond within 24 hours. He’s a leader who gets it: that a positive culture of communication will help to drive his company’s growth.
No matter what your work environment or industry, if communications with employees is “broken,” you will never realize your corporate vision. Broken usually means under-communicating with employees. Without being in the know, they feed negative gossip into the grapevine, which moves more swiftly than formal communications ever can. When employee satisfaction suffers, customer satisfaction goes down the tubes and there goes the bottom line.
Trust is the core component of a Culture of Communication. All communications must be reliable, truthful and contain the full story. At the heart of trust is:
Openness – there must be an unwavering commitment to and support of a healthy two-way communications environment
Simplicity – communications must be clear, meaningful and accessible
Consistency – messages should support the company’s plan and be communicated on a regular basis
Caring – you must foster concern for the individual
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? So why don’t more companies do it?
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