Fear of Communication

There is fear deep in the heart of many organizations.  It has become worse over recent years due to the economy, but it’s not new.  I’m not referring to the fear of layoff, but rather the fear in middle management that speaking up or bringing bad news will lead to punishment in one form or another. 

It’s difficult for those at the top to see this, but it exists, and it damages the organization’s ability to innovate, improve, perform, and have strategic discussions. 

Effective strategy implementation and execution requires an organization culture where discussions can be honest and candid – sometimes even brutally candid.  I once worked for a Frenchman whose passion for excellent work could offend consultants and cause staff to cry, whereupon he would suddenly become consoling and say, “It’s only business, don’t take it personally.”  On the flipside, one could tell him anything and he’d actually listen and give you credit. 

But blunt honesty is much different than punishing someone for expressing an idea or providing feedback.  Just one incident of such punishment will damage important communication for years.  And there are still managers, and even presidents, motivated by their own insecurity and need for control who will punish people who have thoughts, opinions and ideas that differ from their own.  In doing so, they prevent entire organizations from being their best.

Senior leaders need to work hard to establish a productive culture, one where the walls are taken down between those with power and those with knowledge.

Strategy and communication problems

Many leaders are simply not good at communicating their business strategy to the people who will execute it.  That can be fixed with good coaching.  But when your senior managers and middle managers don’t communicate the strategy, you’ve got a serious problem.

The top leader plays the most important part in setting direction and articulating the strategy to the organization.  But it must be effectively communicated throughout the organization by managers who can apply it local challenges.

Many managers are like black holes:  they suck in all information and it never comes out again.  One of the problems is that they do not understand, or value, their roles and the responsibilities that come with managing people.  Peter Drucker wrote that when you need to improve organizational communication, don’t work on the pumping station, work on the pipes.  A lack of effective communication is a clear indication that the management development needs improvement.

Managing By Opinion

In some leadership groups, opinions appear to be more important than facts.  I’ve seen senior management groups where an executive’s in-depth knowledge and experience is over-ruled by opinions from other executives — opinions that aren’t based on fact, evidence or experience — just pure opinion.

Yes, there is always a need for new, fresh and different input, but that doesn’t mean that opinion and conjecture should take precedence over knowledge.  In some ways, it reminds me of dysfunction in today’s press — to much opinion, too much slant, much less professional journalism.  The result is that you reaslly don’t know what to believe.

When secretary of state Colin Powell took office, he gathered a large group of state department staffers together.  He said that he wanted to hear what they think, and what they know.  And he asked them to make sure he knew the difference.

Strategy execution requires consistently good decision making.  If you don’t know the difference between what people think and what they know, it can lead to very poor decisions.