Relationships between employer and staff members are the foundation of forming a microclimate within any organisation. Many CEOs fail to grasp the principles of effective employee communication and believe that they naturally possess effective communication skills. Let's not forget that we live in ever-changing and dynamic times. The modern job market is teeming with confident and competitive representatives of various occupations. In the past, employees were expected to silently endure unprovoked aggression, bias, penalties and reprimands. Nowadays, even workers who aren't the most qualified carry themselves with respect and change jobs on a whim without the fear of being unwanted in the job market. Many experienced employers know just how challenging it is to find qualified, honest and loyal employees. That is why well-tuned organisational communication plays an essential role in any company. For a business to run seamlessly, both employees and employers have to compromise and consider every word uttered and heard while maintaining a level of courtesy. Let’s attempt to discern the appropriate ways of communicating with staff members and the measures that should be implemented to make your team the most effective workforce you have ever had the pleasure to manage.
Most commonly utilised internal communication techniques
Being the head of a company is not the simplest task. Financial liability and the employees themselves are areas of your responsibility. A top company manager has to be wise, flexible, constantly assess their decisions and understand the proper ways of delegating power. There are numerous team management seminars, webinars, and training sessions, where you can acquire the necessary knowledge and skills. Any self-respecting employer has to attend at least one of these seminars to keep up with the latest trends in hiring and managing staff. One must also work on their own style of employee management.
Generally, there are several internal communication techniques discussed during various professional training seminars:
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Authoritarian. All important decisions are made exclusively by the employer. They impose strict systemic control over the execution of all assignments. Under this management, all initiatives and individuality are severely suppressed.
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Anarchistic. The employer tries to stay out of the company's daily business and employee work as much as possible, letting things run completely unrestrained while abandoning all responsibility for results.
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Democratic. An employer aims to increase the role of employees in decision-making, gives them an opportunity to voice their opinions and make decisions of secondary importance on their own. Furthermore, all new solutions, collective goals, and company objectives are regularly discussed, with each worker having the right to vote.
Additionally, employers can utilise joint creativity in employee management. The core of this style lies in achieving positive results, set goals and tasks through the combined efforts of employees and employer.
Each of these methods is beneficial in its own way and appropriate under certain circumstances. The authoritarian approach yields somewhat decent results due to constant control but should be used only in critical situations. The democratic method can be implemented when the company lead is highly intelligent and possesses good managerial skills. Without this, it is practically impossible to derive a good result from the democratic internal communication technique.
An experienced company owner must have a certain degree of foresight. First and foremost, they must analyse the behaviour and character traits of all team members, determine the potential of all employees, foresee the possibility of various situations emerging. All these factors must be taken into account when seeking the right style of organisational communication.
Feedback is a valuable skill in communicating with employees
The ability to establish proper feedback is considered one of the most important communication skills necessary for effective employee communication among company leaders for quite some time. Even the young and experienced CEOs have to be able to talk to employees, address any inaccuracies, praise or point out areas that could be improved, properly delegate authority, and offer advice on various tasks. Communicating with staff members should not be a problem for a CEO. The head of the company must be able to communicate with any workers, even the most unruly and capricious ones, as proper feedback is the cornerstone of mutually beneficial communication. At first, it appears that calling in a worker to discuss issues is the easiest thing to do. It turns out it's not easy at all. The majority of psychological and sociological research conducted by hundreds of companies worldwide shows that feedback is the most problematic aspect of employee-employer relationships. Many workers are stressed during poorly handled face-to-face conversations with their higher-ups and due to the absence of a properly established feedback process. They are too scared to speak their minds, feel underappreciated, worthless and humiliated. A non-existent or poorly set-up feedback system disorients workers within the organisation and decreases their willingness to strive for the common goal. A talented and wise CEO must understand that feedback is a useful tool that allows one to:
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Correct an employee’s behaviour within the team
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Guide an employee towards growth and development in a specific department
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Express gratitude and underline the importance of an employee
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Motivate workers towards new achievements
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Identify the reason for an employee’s misconduct
Now let's explore some of the internal communication techniques that will help you establish a proper feedback system. Following these, you will be able to communicate with your employees with ease.
Rule N1: Be precise with goals
Before meeting with an employee, understand what goal you are pursuing and write it down on a piece of paper. Ask yourself: “What do I want to achieve during this meeting?” You will simplify the conversation this way.
Rule N2: Have a time and a place for talks
It is vital to discuss only recent events when talking to the worker. The best practice is to contact an employee and discuss an event that recently occurred. There is no point in bringing up the time when he was late for work 3 years ago if he was coming in late last week. When you notice that some employees are having problems with the project yesterday or a couple of days ago, it's time to discuss this issue and provide some advice.
Rule N3: Involve employees in discussions
All employees across all companies wish to be needed, important and heard. Let your employees express their opinions. First, it's a good way to foster worker independence and responsibility for decisions you will make during the discussion. Second, by denying staff the right to voice their opinion, you may deny yourself useful information and even put yourself in an awkward position. You can also learn about the true potential a particular employee has, get a couple of good ideas and even gain new experience.
Rule N4: Praise in public, criticise in private
This is a very important rule! There are plenty of reasons for this. Public criticism humiliates and deeply demotivates employees. There can be no proper communication if the head of the company allows themselves to publicly criticise employees with a hint of mockery. Understand that if you do this to some employees, you will do it to others, which will instantly put you on their bad side. Praise should be delivered sincerely, whether publicly or privately.
Rule N5: Discuss events and actions
It is unacceptable to get personal and label people under any circumstances. When talking to your employees both privately and collectively, only discuss events and actions, not workers. It is easy to label or offend people, but it may take months or years to re-establish team communication.
The manner in which you communicate with your employees and the communication style you use entirely depends on you. You can ignore our advice and fail to establish feedback with workers, but that way your career will be very short-lived. As a CEO, you should understand one simple thing: Both you and your employees have to be focused on achieving common goals and tasks as well as making the team atmosphere as pleasant as possible. Good luck, dear employers. Don't give up on improving your skills and you will achieve everything!
