Have you ever botched a communication situation with your co-worker? Of course there are… we all do, some of us have a lot of experience. But in a management role, this should be limited as much as possible. If communication has many errors and contradictions, and if you don't even have the courage to say what needs to be said, no miracle will happen. In other words, effective and timely communication goes hand in hand with successful management.
If you want to communicate better with your team members, it's important to know common mistakes so you can learn from them and avoid making the same mistakes.
Communication and behavioral errors that "inexperienced" managers often make
Avoiding or delaying communication for fear of being hurt
I used to think my presentation was excellent and considered it the benchmark by which other employee presentations were judged, until someone said it wasn't that good. When I asked the opinions of people who had seen the presentation, they also acknowledged it but were afraid to say it because they were afraid of making me sad. You can imagine, the whole sky seemed to collapse. I was quite upset that no one told me the truth and was very grateful to the person who gave honest feedback. Thanks to that, I corrected my mistakes and made my presentation 10 times better.
There are many managers who, in their desire to please others, try to avoid giving negative feedback or delay difficult conversations at all costs, even at the expense of performance. and high achievement. The risk of avoiding feedback is that the person who needs it will never figure out what they could do better and just get stuck there without even realizing it.
Delaying or hiding the news is even worse. Either way, the truth may get out and if you don't report it directly, your reputation will be significantly reduced. On the other hand, the longer something goes on, the harder it becomes to say. If you continue to hesitate to give feedback, frustration will increase and friction will deepen.
Telling employees about a wrong move can affect their morale, but it can also help them get to the exits. Therefore, I think there should be no hesitation in giving feedback. With the right approach like chatting face-to-face (not via email or phone), showing empathy, letting employees speak their minds, talking to employees before telling anyone else... will help. Build trust, strengthen employee engagement and you will see how strong you are.
Communication in a situation is always rushed
You are in a hurry to go to a meeting and see an employee, you quickly stop them to make a request and expect an immediate answer. You don't even have time to talk specifically or listen to their feedback or ask questions. You don't even notice they're in a meeting, don't care about their schedule for the day, and don't know whether they know how to do the work you assigned them or not. Employees just look dumbfounded because they don't understand anything, then you're disappointed because they can't complete the task in a timely manner.
Sounds very familiar, right? Many of us could be the boss or the employee in this story.
Communication is necessary, but if it's not done at the right time, it's still a wrong conversation, it's better not to have it at all. If you're in a hurry, you won't have time to hear their side of the story, negotiate a timeline, or come up with a solution together. You only focus on how to end the conversation quickly and cross it off your to-do list. When you don't give employees enough time to ask questions or fully convey something important and always push, you can be seen as superficial, uncaring, and the results will be merely mediocre. speaker, sketchy.
Don't "Eat quickly, sleep quickly and communicate quickly". Schedule conversations with employees at appropriate times and focus on the person in front of you rather than satisfying your need to talk. Sometimes if you want to go fast, you have to take it slow.
Impatient when employees ask too many questions
Do you remember how many questions your child asked when he saw an elephant in the zoo, from his ears like a fan, his 4 legs as big as a pillar to his trunk that constantly wiggled? Sometimes your employees will be like that too. They ask all kinds of questions, some are super detailed, some wander around until their legs get tired before getting to the main issue, sometimes they are questions that have been asked and answered many times before. You feel uncomfortable? I understand that feeling, but don't respond with body language or words that show impatience. You will lose respect from your employees.
What do we need to do differently? How well we answer questions will make the difference between encouraging employees to talk, being comfortable in communication , or keeping everyone quiet. So we need to be patient, even when we want to scream, “Find out for yourself. Why ask so many questions? And be as straightforward as possible. If you don't know something, just say “I don't know” but assure them that you will find out the answer and get back to them by a specific date.
Assume that group members have the ability to read minds
My old boss thought I had such outstanding abilities when in meetings he always said: You understand what I mean, right? Let me explain it to you in more detail. Oh boss, I don't understand what you want to say. Thinking like that but I can't say it out loud because it will embarrass my boss. If I pretend to understand and explain wrongly, I'll be the one to get into so much trouble. Don't put your employees in a situation where they can't move forward and can't retreat either.
Imagine you are the train driver and carry all the staff on that train. You sitting at the front of the train are definitely seeing a very different style from those sitting at the back. Likewise, in a management role, your topic every day in meetings or in email exchanges will be a completely different perspective than the employee who sits in the middle and at the end of the trip. ship; They are handling different tasks than you. They don't see what you see and they don't feel what you feel.
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