Communication is the life-force of efficient and effective social groupings. Where it flows, we thrive. Where it dries up, we wither. It’s that simple. From family and friends, through sports teams and orchestras, to businesses and countries – communication either enhances or destroys. Take stock regularly of all your relationships and the role communication plays in them.
Some years ago, after a delightful dinner in Graaff-Reinet, I ordered a Cappuccino. The eager-to-please waitress sped off with purpose into the back-end of the kitchen returning with a tray heavily laden with a steaming tea pot, cup, sugar bowl and milk jug”. “This is wonderful thank you, but how did we get to here?” In faltering English, she proudly replied smiling, “you asked for a cup of tea NOU”.
Even our best attempts go horribly awry. Now imagine communicating during a crisis to a deeply concerned and confused group of staff from different geographies, language, culture, race, religion and gender? You just have to get it right. Communication is important, proper communication is critical.
In around 30BC (Before Corona), I discovered that a number of staff resigned shortly after being on maternity leave. Their exit interviews indicated a pattern; spending months away from the workplace led them to feel disconnected and isolated, while many felt their position under threat as work had been reallocated internally. They had all lost their passion for the company and their job.
In short, we had failed to communicate effectively and regularly with them. Often the problem with communication is the belief that it has taken place. In this instance it hadn’t. But more importantly the umbilical that kept them informed, connected, and someone of value – had been severed.
We remedied this by creating a “buddy-system” aimed at communicating with staff while on maternity. The number of resignations dropped dramatically. It’s a simple system to implement, self-managed, and costs nothing. But most importantly through communication the employees felt connected.
Today many of your staff are sitting at home experiencing similar feelings – what’s going on? what does the future look like for the company and for me? You have two options. You can wait until everyone is back at work and carry on as if nothing has happened – not advisable. Or you can take the Franklin D Roosevelt approach by using this crisis to display clear reassuring and inspirational leadership – strongly advisable.
Roosevelt used his “fireside chats” to take millions of Americans into his confidence. Boy did they need it; the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II were just a few. He carefully crafted these chats to stifle rumours and clearly explain what he was doing, why he was doing it and what it meant for his people. He used a confident and reassuring tone building hope during times of uncertainty and despair. When he was called on to lead, he didn’t hide, he led. Communication was his most powerful tool and defined his success as President.
In your company, are the internal communication platforms that traditionally keep employees informed about developments affecting the business lying dormant? If so, informal communication leading to misinformation and rumours will fill this vacuum. The longer the silence, the less information staff receive, the less connected they feel, and the more dangerous the situation becomes. You need to remedy this immediately and be very clear that internal communications are not simply reinforcing policies, procedures, and reporting on weddings and births.
Internal communications are the single most powerful tool for establishing and reinforcing company culture.
Without sounding like the great Steven Covey, here are our 7 reasons for an effective communications strategy:
It enables the CEO to set the tone;
It allows the executive to direct the narrative;
It allows the executive to “create peaks” and tell the stories that reinforce company culture. The book Powerful Moments should be next to every leader’s bed. It will transform your organisation and your life;
It allows the executive to maintain and reinforce values by reinforcing positive behaviour and attitudes;
It allows the executive to reinforce the mission, and remind staff why we are here and what our greater good is;
It allows the executive to execute the vision of the organisation; reinforce the shared understanding of who we are;
It allows the executive to reinforce the strategic plan highlighting the common goal;
By doing this, the executive keep staff informed, keep them engaged, while all the time uniting the organisation and forging strong collegial bonds.
So how do we go about this?
Technology has collapsed time and place. You can communicate with staff wherever you are. Stay in contact with ALL your staff, there are no exceptions, and no excuses. It takes 5 minutes to set up your Companies WhatsApp group, so communication really does create communities.
“Just today Meshack sent me a detailed voice note to remind me that Wednesday is mowing day. The lawnmower requires petrol from the red cannister while the weed-eater being two-stroke, gets the premix from the white cannister. Was I aware of this? (no, I wasn’t!)”
The following steps will ensure that you communicate effectively with your staff:
Have a set time and format – this creates certainty and routine;
Prepare what you want to say – be clear as to your why;
Have a purpose – what do I want to achieve (inform, advise, encourage etc.);
Address staff with respect – respect is reciprocal and contagious;
Communicate openly, honestly and transparently – yes even bad news, staff will trust you if you do;
Tell stories of the organisation’s successes, of individual successes to reinforce your message.
Remain optimistic and positive – you are their weathervane, never lose hope.
Follow the 4 Cs;
Clear;
Concise;
Correct;
Ask for feedback, develop dialogues, ask for suggestions – you don’t know all the answers but collectively your staff might;
Be yourself – always.
Saige offers a complete organisational communication audit resulting in a detailed organisation communications strategy. From establishing your employer brand, creating or redesigning websites, maintaining websites, establishing and managing social media campaigns. Training on public speaking courses, communicating in a crisis and social media.
To find out more about leveraging the communication opportunities within your organisation, click on the link www.saige.co.za .
If you would like to learn more about Saige, we would be happy to conduct a free forty minute workshop with you and your company, email us at info@saige.co.za
None of us, not one single one, ZERO, have been here before. Ever. We’re making it up as we go, and that’s fine. Admit it and you’ll feel a whole heap better.
There is too much information, too many moving parts, too little certainty, and too much ambiguity. To make predictions with even mild conviction is an indicator of insanity or stupidity.
But here are a few certainties;
The lockdown will end.
You will go back to work.
You will need to pick up the pieces.
It will not be the same as when you left – not for you, not for your staff, not for your suppliers, customers, or your competitors.
Under these circumstances, whatever they might be, you will need to lead. You will need to lead in the biggest modern-day crisis the global world and your organisation has faced.
Your first priorities must be to revisit your strategic plan and conduct a complete organisational review ASAP.
We strongly advise that the day the lockdown ends, you invite your executive to a full organisational review to determine whether your business is fit for purpose. The business environment has changed significantly, not only do you need to reset your compass but you’ve got to find where the new true north is. Not only has someone changed the playing field, they’ve moved us to a new stadium. And remember, what got you “here” may not get you “there”. In any event, now’s the time to find out where “there” is.
For many companies the virus has simply exposed fault-lines as the fissures, chasms, canyons that they are. Take this opportunity to have a full service rather than kick the tyres. A full review must look at both the internal and external landscapes with the intent of creating a future fit organisation.
Can staff work remotely? If so who? How much office space does this free up? Do you still need all that floorspace and four floors of parking?
Do you need to strengthen your IT systems to accommodate increased numbers of virtual meetings? I was advised today that senior buyers at a major retailer will no longer be seeing sales people at their offices – ever, the new normal is an email followed by a Zoom call. Is your IT posed to cope?
How have your customers changed? Do you still have the same target market? How many of your customers have shifted to online buying? How many of them have stopped eating out? What is the impact of lower incomes on your target markets purchasing power? How does this effect you?
Do your numbers have integrity and are they real time? Do you have a dashboard for executives that measures liquidity accurately and swiftly? Do your numbers have integrity?
What opportunities exist for your company? Where are you vulnerable? And most importantly can you answer this one really important question, “what will success look like for us?”. What must we do to achieve this? Who will be doing it? How will we measure it?
The support services, the administrative services can all be outsourced. Now’s the time to look at your organogram. Review each each job, do a job analysis, see who can be outsourced. What options are there? Should you pay a fulltime employee as a fixed cost? Or pay a team with a proven track record – as and when you need them?
Saige has performed a number of successful organisational reviews restructuring them to ensure they fit for purpose, click on the link for testimonials https://saige.co.za/. Saige has also completed a number of successful business turnarounds which have included repositioning, developing strategy, restructuring, and repurposing – using the effective, proven Saige Activation Model, for more information click on the link https://saige.co.za/how-we-do-it/
Crucially, Saige has positioned itself to operate in the Gig Economy offering tailormade solutions for businesses. This allows organisations to focus on their core business. If you’re a school – educate. If you’re a manufacturer – manufacture. If you’re in financial services – look after your client’s finance.
One of the most powerful things a leader can say is, “I don’t know”.
Right now many of us are feeling a touch vulnerable and bewildered – if you’re feeling like this, you really need to partner with a team whose track-record of excellence and success speaks for itself – contact info@saige.co.za
Trust, trust, trust me on this – HOPE is the single most critical component for a content and fulfilled life.
HOPE is the yeast in our daily bread.
HOPE is our innate ability to trump despair with drive, doubt with belief, apathy with conviction, disinterest with desire, uncertainty with assurance, and hesitation with confidence.
HOPE is resistance and resilience in the face of adversity.
HOPE causes us to set the alarm at night. HOPE gets us out of bed in the morning. Again, and again, and again.
HOPE is the most important foundation upon which we build meaningful lives.
Without HOPE we are hopeless. When we lose HOPE, we create a vacuum which is quickly filled with hopelessness, despondence, despair, and depression.
Can we avoid this?
Victor Fraenkel taught us how, when everything had been removed from inmates in Auschwitz, they were still left with the option to choose. No one can ever, ever, ever take that from you. The survivors chose HOPE. We can too.
As I write we are in an extended lock-down in response to the Corona Virus. People are being infected. Tragically, many are dying. Businesses are filing for insolvency. Staff are being retrenched. SMEs are closing their doors, many for the final time. Landlords are terminating leases. Tenants face homelessness. On Friday, with impeccable timing, Moody’s downgraded the country to junk status. The Finance Minister informed us that the country has run out of money. The Reserve Bank began buying the government bonds no one else wants. It is an extraordinary time. A time which threatens to drown us in despair. The best antidote is HOPE.
HOPE is the belief that tomorrow will be better than today, that the rest of our lives will be better than what we have already lived.
HOPE is the most effective currency leaders have to deal with the current situation. Leaders have the choice to create a vision, desire, and dream of what our future is going to look like.
How?
Leaders must start by caring for their people. With the wind at our backs we can all be great leaders; bullish and buoyed with bluster and hubris. Now with a force-ten gale head-on; we get to see who can lead in adversity – leaders who deal in HOPE.
So how do we use HOPE as a strategy?
Whether you are a parent, a sole proprietor, or CEO of a listed company – be kind, be considerate, be compassionate. Now is the time to look after and out for people.
Yes, revenue streams are important, liquidity is critical, as is surviving an extended lockdown and managing a slow, protracted recovery. Do all this but first put people at the centre of the process.
Think about it, where does your money come from? Your customers – take care of them. Nothing happens in business until someone sells something, who does this? Your sales team – take care of them. Who manages the cash flowing in and out of your business? Your administration department – take care of them.
By now you’re getting the idea.
The businesses that survive and go on to thrive will be the ones with people-centred leadership. Your staff don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Show them how much you care.
Your people are panic stricken and afraid. Keep in contact and reassure them by speaking frequently and honestly using tone, language and intent that are positive, optimistic, reassuring – in short hopeful. You are their umbilical cord of HOPE that we will get through this.
When the President sent the armed forces into our communities, he urged them to, “be kind and take care of our people”. How much better than the Minister of Defence who answered a question with, “there is no skop, skiet and donder – yet”. Words are important they can inspire or demotivate – use them carefully.
As parents at home you need to be the reassuring hand in the back, the tranquillity, and the reassurance. As you and your family try and make sense of this unusual time in history be kind, breathe slowly and deeply. Be hopeful – it’s infectious.
Should you wish to consult us with regards to developing a strategy, coaching, mentoring, business development based on assertive enquiry and positive psychology email info@saige.co.za to set up a free zoom session to learn more.
In my last article I examined a number of options for organisations responding to the Corona Virus. Since then, events have moved at an astonishing speed, and we now live in a state of emergency. I’ve had calls from clients ranging from requests for information on, whether to pay an employee who is quarantined because their spouse was in contact with a person diagnosed at his workplace, to if I consult to my client via Zoom, can I still charge my normal hourly rate or must I discount?
Technology influence
Here’s the thing, the world has changed forever and with it the nature of the workplace. Technology has made the notion of place irrelevant for most skilled jobs – one can just as easily access communication, resources and information from the slope of Mount Everest as in the office. You can draft your strategic marketing plan, complete an excel budget and communicate this with the team instantly. But still we cling to the standard employment relationship – sign a letter of employment, agree to comply with working hours and get measured by how frequently you are at your desk.
Well the most progressive, efficient companies I know have loosened their grip on the employment relationship. Much of their work is now being done by individuals other than full-time employees. Think about it, does it make sense to go through an expensive recruitment process, induction, training and have a fixed cost when you can pay a contractor or consultant an hourly rate for the best possible advice, assistance as if they were on your payroll. The beauty is no laborious labour disputes IR difficulties managing industrial relations, pay disputes, poor discipline and poor performance. You simply have a 24-hour termination clause.
Over the years as a consultant I’ve worked in a wide variety of industries at every level from middle-management to board level. It allows me to work from wherever it is I choose to be. If I’m on holiday and you desperately need a disciplinary hearing chaired, we do it via Zoom. It gives me increased flexibility, the ability to craft my life as I see fit and the freedom to choose the “gigs” that give me pleasure, reward and satisfaction. For your business, it allows you to draw on a global pool of talent and experience when you need it, rather than an under-resourced talent in your office daily, weekly, monthly, annually, forever.
Technology has created incredible opportunities for both business and those looking for an alternative to fulltime employment. The cloud, mobile apps, collaboration platform, collaborative workplaces provide just about every type of business function needed to provide an excellent service to clients at virtually no cost. And to business, the cost is an hourly rate that can be negotiated and capped allowing you to budget accordingly.
But it’s not just in organisations I’ve experienced this phenomenon. If you ever have the joy of organising a mass participation event, you will experience the many moving parts that come together to prepare and host the event disband and move on just as quickly. From fencing companies, road signage, outdoor marketing, traffic control, disaster management they are paid for the event. Now imagine if it was your business and you had the employees for 12 months of the year?
As one of my favourite authors Mark Manson explains it,
“Throughout history, the biggest and most necessary changes typically come in the wake of crises, much like our most important personal changes often come in the wake of our traumas. There’s always growth in pain. And there’s always opportunity for creation in destruction.”
Here’s your chance to do the things you’ve wanted to do but couldn’t find the urgency to do. Any significant change in my life has usually been preceded by an unexpected significant event.
For further insights and consultation contact us at info@saige.co.za
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