Relationships between the employer and staff members are the basis of creating a microclimate in any organisation. Many CEOs fail to grasp the principles of effective employee communication and think they naturally possess these skills. Let's not forget we live in ever-changing and dynamic times. The modern job market is full of confident and competitive individuals from various professions. In the past, employees were expected to silently endure unjust aggression, bias, penalties, and reprimands. Nowadays, even less qualified workers carry themselves with respect and change jobs on a whim without fear of being unwanted in the job market. Many experienced employers understand just how difficult it is to find qualified, honest, and loyal employees. That's why fine-tuned organisational communication plays a crucial role in any company. To make a business run smoothly, both employees and employers must compromise and consider every spoken and heard word while maintaining courtesy. Let’s explore the best ways of communicating with staff members and the measures that should be put in place to make your team the most effective workforce you’ve ever had the pleasure of managing.
Most commonly used internal communication techniques
Being the head of a company isn't the easiest thing. Financial liability and employees themselves fall under your responsibility. A top company manager must be wise, flexible, constantly consider their decisions, and know the right ways to delegate power. There are numerous team management seminars, webinars, and training sessions where you can gain the necessary knowledge and skills. Any self-respecting employer needs to attend at least one of these seminars to stay updated with the latest trends in hiring and managing staff. You must also work on your style of employee management.
Typically, several internal communication techniques are discussed during various professional training seminars:
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Authoritarian. All important decisions are made solely by the employer, who imposes strict systemic control over the execution of all tasks. Under this management style, all initiatives and individuality are severely restricted.
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Anarchistic. The employer attempts to stay out of company daily business and employee work as much as possible, letting things run loose while abandoning all responsibility for results.
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Democratic. An employer aims to increase the role of employees in decision-making, giving them an opportunity to voice their opinions and make decisions of secondary significance on their own. Furthermore, all new solutions, collective goals, and company objectives are regularly discussed, with each worker having the right to vote.
In addition to this, employers can use joint creativity in employee management. The essence of this style lies in achieving positive results, set goals, and tasks through the combined efforts of employees and the employer.
Each of these methods is good in its own way and suitable under certain circumstances. The authoritarian approach can yield reasonable results due to constant control, but it can only be used in critical situations. The democratic method can be implemented when the company lead is highly capable and proficient in managerial skills. Without this, obtaining a good result from the democratic internal communication technique is practically impossible.
An experienced company owner must have a degree of foresight. Most importantly, they need to analyze the behaviour and character traits of all team members, determine the potential of all employees, and anticipate the possibility of different scenarios. All these factors must be considered when choosing the right style of organisational communication.
Feedback is a valuable skill in communicating with employees
The ability to establish proper feedback has been considered one of the most crucial communication skills needed for effective employee communication among company leaders for quite some time. Even the young and seasoned CEOs need to be able to talk to employees, resolve any misunderstandings, offer praise or point out areas for improvement, properly delegate authority, and provide advice on various tasks. Communicating with staff members should be straightforward for a CEO. A company head must be capable of reaching out to any workers, even the most unruly and capricious ones, as proper feedback is the cornerstone of mutually beneficial communication. Initially, it may seem that calling in a worker to discuss issues is an easy task. It turns out it's not easy at all. Most psychological and sociological studies conducted by hundreds of companies worldwide have shown that feedback is the most challenging aspect of employee-employer relationships. Many workers experience stress during poorly conducted face-to-face conversations with their supervisors and due to the absence of a properly established feedback process. They are too afraid 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 motivation to strive for the common goal. A talented and wise CEO must understand that feedback is a valuable tool that enables you to:
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Correct an employee's behaviour in the team
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Encourage an employee towards growth and development in a particular department
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Express gratitude and highlight the importance of an employee
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Motivate workers towards new achievements
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Determine the cause of an employee’s misbehaviour
Now let's explore some internal communication techniques that will help you establish a proper feedback system. By following them, you'll be able to communicate easily with your employees.
Rule N1: Be precise with goals
Before meeting with an employee, understand what aim you're pursuing and write it down. Ask yourself: “What do I want to achieve during this meeting?” This will make the conversation much easier.
Rule N2: Have a time and a place for talks
It is crucial to discuss only recent events when talking to the worker. The best practise is to contact an employee and discuss an event that recently happened to them. There is no point in bringing up the time they were late for work 3 years ago if they were late last week. When you notice some employees having problems with a project yesterday or a few days ago, that's the time to discuss this issue and offer some advice.
Rule N3: Involve employees in discussions
All employees across companies want to feel needed, important, and heard. Allow your employees to express themselves. First, it's a good way to foster worker independence and responsibility for decisions made during the discussion. Second, by denying staff the right to voice their opinion, you may deny yourself useful information and even end up in an awkward position. You can also uncover the true potential of an employee, get a few good ideas, and even gain new experience.
Rule N4: Praise in public, criticise in private
This is an essential rule! There are many reasons for this. Public critiques humiliate and deeply demotivate employees. Proper communication can't exist if the head of the company publicly criticises employees with a touch of mockery. Understand that if you do this to some, you'll do it to others, instantly putting yourself in a bad light. Praise should be given sincerely, whether publicly or privately.
Rule N5: Discuss events and actions
It’s not okay to get personal and place labels on people under any circumstances. When talking to employees, both privately and collectively, only discuss events and actions, not individuals. It's easy to label or offend people, but it can take months or years to rebuild team communication.
How you communicate with your employees and which communication style you choose entirely depends on you. You can ignore our advice and fail to establish feedback with workers, but that might lead to a short-lived career. As a CEO, you should understand one simple thing: Both you and your employees must focus on achieving common goals and tasks, as well as making the team atmosphere as pleasant as possible. All the best, dear employers. Don’t give up on improving your skills, and you will achieve everything!
