One of the most important lessons Irv
Rothman learned from his 32 years of running customized leasing and
financing for HP, Compaq Financial Services and AT&T Capital, was
the importance of using communications to make the potentially unwieldy
company seem smaller and more interconnected. With rise of product and
service-specific branding as an organizing business principle, creating a
durable, attractive message that can be distributed widely internally
and externally is all important. The following prescriptive ideas come
from Rothman’s recently published “Out-Executing the Competition.”
Start with a broad internal communications strategy. Different
companies communicate in very different ways with their people. Some
executives share their thinking primarily through voicemail or by
e-mailing in the style of “note from the corner office.” Like many
companies in financial services, we are just beginning to stick our
collective toe into the social media pond. Moving away from
communication with big groups toward linking broader audiences in real
time is something we’re embracing. Our communications team is convinced
that the value of using new and evolving digital media to advance our
collective cause, is right on target. That being said, I still like our
quarterly town hall meetings as they afford me the opportunity to spend
quality time with the people who keep the engines humming.
Never sugarcoat the news. Certain rules always apply when
conducting meetings with employees. Never sugarcoat the news. Always
tell them the good, the bad, and the ugly. The “everything is great”
stemwinder should be avoided.
Always commend and salute your people. It’s easy when the
numbers look very good, but even in years when overall results weren’t
all that great, it’s important that somebody somewhere, was doing a
bang-up job that deserved to be highlighted and praised. It provides a
measure of uplift even when the news tends to be sobering across the
entire enterprise.
Try interactive. Try a new exercise to connect more
effectively with employees. For example, a chat room conversation with
the boss, ”Chat with Irv,” was something that was an eye-opener. People
waited for quite a while to participate. These interactive efforts are
not only enjoyable but extremely useful for a CEO. You find things you
can take away from each session. Employee ideas are genuinely helpful .
Of course it varies depending upon the audience. When I am in Malaysia
the audience tends to be more reserved. The Australians, on the other
hand, are just the opposite. It’s up to the CEO to handle the different
cultures accordingly. The main thing is that the message must be handled
consistently whether one is in Dublin or Kuala Lumpur.
Make certain members of the senior team are on the same page.
High quality executive communications isn’t just the responsibility of
the CEO. Your senior leadership team to a man and woman must fully
subscribe to the corporate mission and be able to articulate it
effectively. This isn’t about preaching or proselytizing, but having
everyone sing from the same hymn book.
Keep it simple. Show me a powerpoint slide with 50 or 75 pages
long, and I’ll show you a surefire way of putting people to sleep. If
you explain that there are, say, four things you want them to do, you
are more likely to get through. Leonardo da Vinci said that “simplicity
is the ultimate sophistication.” Who could argue?
Understand this well: not every plan you write down on the whiteboard
is going to work. That’s a fact of business life, and no one—not Jack
Welch, not Warren Buffett, not Bill Gates—is immune to the occasional
misstep. A lot of people don’t understand that basic precept. They may
believe that any sign of failure means the sun won’t be coming out
tomorrow. But the basic lessons of communicating with those who work for
you—deliverying an easy-to-digest message, repating it frequently as
possible, sticking to the facts and the truth and not sugarcoating
anything –provide an informational transparency that both illuminates
the issues and consolidates support for strategic and tactical missions.
Read: www.IrvRothman.com
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