Comments on: I AM Communicating, Now What?

By: The Lowest Hanging Fruit in Managerial Leadership - Effective Task Assignment | Mission Minded Management

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:32:13 +0000

[...] Holy Grail of Communication! We talked last week about the holy grail – communication.?? One the best forms of communication a manager can offer an [...]

By: Michelle Malay Carter

Michelle Malay Carter — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:04:34 +0000

Hi Scot,

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your philosophy. Yes, I think these are key levers for all employees.

I agree the phrases you “added on” to the end of line items number 1 and 2 are critical, “must haves” for people-oriented people.

I suspect they might be “nice to haves” for task-oriented people. Although being known and being relevant are important to all, I suspect task-oriented people might be OK with being known only in their work and with being relevant relative to the work. This is just a hypothesis. It would have to be tested.

Thanks for the comment.

Regards,

Michelle

By: Scot Herrick

Scot Herrick — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:01:52 +0000

I’m of the “Three signs of a miserable job” philosophy. Employees want:

1. To be known. Not just in their work, but in their personal lives by the management team. Anonymity is not engaging.
2. To be relevant. Their work has to be relevant to a group of people or a person. Not goals, not corporate missions, but people. If they can’t relate their work to helping people, they are not engaged.
3. Know their success by themselves. Employees need to know they are succeeding or failing by their own ability to measure the work. Not a review that might happen six months down the road.

Is communication part of this? Yes. But communication is the activity you do. This stuff is the objective of the communication.

By: Improving Communication with a Work Levels, Attractive Leadership Framework | Mission Minded Management

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:38:25 +0000

[...] my last post I talked about the elusive holy grail of leadership – effective communication.??I plan to throw a [...]

By: Michelle Malay Carter

Michelle Malay Carter — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:13:50 +0000

Hi Alicia,

Amen sister. That’s where I am going with this. Thanks for stopping by and for the comment.

Michelle

By: Alicia Parr

Alicia Parr — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:47:41 +0000

This red herring communication problem is a thorn in my side too. I can’t tell you how many times I see communication listed as a major problem on engagement surveys without a clue as to whether more frequency, different details, type of information, etc. etc. are what this person is really looking for. All this endless buzz about poor communication and the solution isn’t more or different communication, but rather getting the right people in the right places so information is shared naturally in the format and volume that is desired.

By: Michelle Malay Carter

Michelle Malay Carter — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:42:23 +0000

Hi Steve,

Thanks for stopping by and for your comments. I agree with you completely. More on this to come in tomorrow’s post.

Regards,

Michelle

By: Steve Roesler

Steve Roesler — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:27:48 +0000

(Whoops–I hit a key combination that entered the comment before it was finished.)

I think you were onto something when you touched upon the alleged low level of engagement. If people want to be engaged–and managers are the mediators of engagement–then the “c” word may be a substitute for “relationship,” which is a lot more difficult for people to discuss.

The communication thing drives me nuts…gotta think this through a little more.

Thanks for tossing the bone. . .

By: Steve Roesler

Steve Roesler — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:21:19 +0000

Michelle,

I feel your pain:-)

Let’s face it: most of the “presenting” problems we hear as consultants start off as “communication” problems. Probing questions uncover the actual issues.

So, I’m not surprised that “communication” has been miraculously discovered and actively marketed–no doubt, profitably.

By: Michelle Malay Carter

Michelle Malay Carter — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:35:31 +0000

Hi Bo,

Thanks for stopping by. Yes, whether a person values the behaviors necessary to be a good leader (one of them being communicating/working with and through others) will have a huge impact on the quality and quantity of their communication.

Thanks for the comment.

Regards,

Michelle