leadercommunicator blog

By necessity, organizations and employees transformed in ways they never imagined possible as the world endured COVID-19. Compelled to adapt to circumstances beyond their control, leaders and employees took action together, sometimes completing in just a few weeks major changes that had been pondered for years. They experienced what is possible with alignment around a common goal, a compelling case for change, and consistent communication about what is happening and how things are progressing on mission-critical endeavors.

While no one would wish for a repeat of what we’ve been through, we can learn from these experiences as we plan ways to more effectively lead future change. Illuminated by the success we saw in many organizations, we can reinforce the importance of alignment, leadership and consistent communications that are critical best practices in effective change management and related communications.

Here is our five-step process, including real-life examples and templates you can use as you plan and implement your next important change effort.

What is Change Management Communication and Why is it Important?

We’ve all heard of the 5 Love Languages… right? But how many career development languages do you know? If you’re like many, the answer is just one: Promotions!

But in most organizations, the time-honored tradition of defining career development in terms of promotions, moves, and/or title changes is dying or altogether dead. Hierarchies are flattening. Job bands are broadening. Work is more organic, organized around evolving needs versus entrenched structures. When opportunities do finally present themselves, competition is stiffer as remote work has removed the previous geographic limitations of who was within a reasonable commute to the workplace.

Employee engagement falling. People leaving their jobs in record numbers. Burned out employees seeking a new sense of purpose in their work. All these major trends can often be traced back to a lack of one key ingredient in work culture – trust in leadership.  

In our newly revised eBook, 7 Critical Traits for Building Trust Inside Companies, we offer new data, examine the trust problem and offer leaders a go-to playbook for how to reverse these trends and build a powerful new level of trust within the culture. 

One of the biggest lessons organizations learned during the pandemic crisis, and now as we navigate the “Great Resignation,” is the importance of having authenticity, empathy and humanity as we lead and communicate in the workplace. It’s one of the lessons I often try to reinforce with organizations, but there’s nothing like a crisis within an organization – and throughout the world – to drive the point home.

One of the bright spots, especially in the early days of the pandemic and surrounding events of social unrest, was that we saw leaders and communication professionals step up to the plate like never before. We saw the kind of focus and prioritization that most often happens in a crisis – ensuring that communication was timely, focused and clearly addressed the needs and top questions on the minds of employees. Likewise, we saw much more authenticity and humanity from leaders that really resonated with employees.

Welcome to my round-up of the best-of-the-best recent leadership and communication blog posts.

This Round-Up of Leadership and Communication Blogs:

• The Great Resignation Statistics Should Calm Some Concerns
  By Gail Golden (@goldencoach)
  
  When comparing these stats to previous years, they aren't quite as alarming.
  
  “For one thing, quitting data has only been collected for a little over 20 years. In general, when the U.S. economy is strong, many new jobs and opportunities are created. As a result, more people quit their jobs in search of something better. It’s very likely that the quit rate was higher in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In the late 1940s, when the postwar economy was exploding, available data suggest that the quit rate was even higher than today. So the current situation is probably not unique...”
  Read more >>

The trend of employees quitting jobs is like nothing seen before in history, with record numbers of employees leaving their roles for new opportunities today. No matter the reasons – including a desire for higher pay, better working conditions, or greater flexibility – the pain is real for employers. To quickly stem the tide, many leaders are now looking for fresh options to retain what they view as their company’s greatest asset – its people.

Hybrid work leads to a greater level of satisfaction but does not impact turnover, according to a new study. The findings also indicate that fully remote work has no link to increased job satisfaction but actually with higher levels of intent to leave a company.

Given those findings, and our experience with clients, it’s critical to examine how remote work affects the level of engagement among your employees, which is a key driver for your success. Leaders need to be mindful that remote work, at varying levels, is not a strategy in of itself rather a component of the overall corporate culture.

Savvy business leaders have seen firsthand the power of good communication with employees, and how it can drive business success from the inside out.

While good internal communication gets the message out, great internal communication helps employees connect the dots between the business strategy and their role. In other words, when it’s good, it informs; when it’s great, it engages employees and moves them to action. Quite simply, it helps people and organizations be even better.

Since you’re communicating with or without intention, you might as well get good at it.

10 Tips for Effective Leadership Communication

Welcome to my round-up of the best-of-the-best recent leadership and communication blog posts. 

This Round-Up of Leadership and Communication Blogs:

• These Companies Seem Immune to the Great Resignation. Here’s Why
  By Jared Lindzon (@JLindzon and @FastCompany), Fast Company
  
  Research shows these commonalities between companies that are able to retain their top employees.
  
  “According to a recent study, the companies that have held on to their best and brightest in the face of widespread talent shortages have a few things in common. The analysis, which was conducted by Hired, explored 650 of the job-matching platform’s clients that were looking for technology-specific roles across industries in the U.S. and U.K. between October of 2020 and October of 2021, and ranked each based on their success in doing so...”
  Read more >>

Celebrating jobs well done and thanking employees for extra effort are common ways organizations motivate and recognize their people, but it could be time to up your recognition game. When change is a constant and employees are looking for more from their employers, it’s good to have a meaningful recognition strategy that can support employees and help advance change.