Renaud

Step 5: Over Communicate!

I tell my Romanian staff, ‘you will never get in trouble by over-communicating’. In other words making sure they sufficiently communicate with their peers, subordinates and customers rather than not communicating enough. Culturally speaking inter-peer communications is not understood as a pre-requisite for the job in Romania but its changing.

As a leader you have to lead by example.

Let’s face facts about stakeholders:

1) People are scared. Scared about losing their job, their livelihood and whatever else that may come along given this crisis - remember Romania has never had a recession so there are a lot of unknowns for staff.

2) Customers are concerned that you won’t deliver what you promised.

3) Investors are worried that their investment will be lost.

You have the obligation, in addition to running the business to alleviate these fears. When you communicate, rather over-communicate you dispel fears. When you dispel fear, people will turn around, pitch in and help. If you hide in your office - actually a better term is ‘hiding your head in the sand, expecting that these stakeholders will be fine, then you’re sadly mistaken.

I like to give practical tips. So without any Rocket Science, here is your game plan for the next two weeks:

1) Staff

Maintain vital links with employees: During a recession the trust level between you as an employer and your staff will break down. This affects productivity, morale and creates a tangent where staff are on the phone calling for other jobs. That is a tremendous waste of time and brain energy.

1) Prepare a communications plan for the staff. This will include a direct approach to what is going on, your concerns as the Leader and what are some of the possible outcomes - good and bad. If this goes well, this may happen… If things get worse, yes some of us may lose our jobs.

2) Be honest and sincere. Why? It only makes sense. People will feel that you hiding things and will respect you as leader if you communicate without hesitation what contingency plans are available. By being direct, employees will stop the rumor mill and concentrate on the next ideas I have below. By the way, You need to communicate! One of my clients delegated the delivery of bad news to the HR Director. It bombed and created more fear! Staff needs to hear it from you.

3) Remain focused on the task at hand. You still need to sell, serve or create something. Employees need to be reminded of the obvious - the job has to get done. Remind them that their individual contributions matter to the organization.

4) Be appreciative. If you have fallen in the trap of not thanking people then you better change your approach. I don’t care what cultural background you are from. In the eight countries I have worked in, saying Thank You goes a long way. I challenge you: If you speak to one of your line staff  and remember to say thank you, that person will go home that evening and tell his spouse or loved one that the boss thanked him/her…Imagine that!

5) Be open to feedback. Encourage feedback. Listen but remembering the most fundamental rule of encouraging feedback: You have 2 ears and one mouth…use them accordingly. Listen, acknowledge and don’t defend the idea/feedback since this is counterproductive.

6) Be consistent with your public messages. Sure, you have to cut back on staff but whenever you are approached by the media or outside stakeholders, remember to keep in mind that any initiative will consider the impact on employees. This way you are consistent internally and externally.

2) Customers

In a recent survey conducted by Unlock in Romania I was shocked to see how  Banks have lost the confidence from customers ( Mobile operators rated first in terms of high confidence level). Regardless of your industry, there will be a loss of confidence from your customers. You have to deal with this now. Here is how:

1) Communications plan to the public. You need to think about what messages will be communicated and tell “the rank and file’. Get your Marketing and PR team/agency involved in brainstorming and come up with key messages real fast. Once the messages are established, formalize them and convey to staff what external messages they need to give to customers when they call.

I know you are thinking how basic and mundane is that? If the messages are the same from the CEO to the Call center Rep this will avoid damage control when it comes to dealing with customers, the public or media. The best example of this is my meeting with Alpha Bank. The Branch Manager told me about the golden rule for banks during recessions.’ If you are having problems paying your mortgage or loans, pro-actively call and talk to the bank …before defaulting on payments”. Any expert on the matter of Recession survival will tell you that banks prefer pro-activity.

Lastly, you may want to get some market intelligence to validate what customers are saying lately about you and address it with a coherent communications plan.

2) Reassure your clients that we all feeling the pinch of this recession but as always, you want to remain close the customer and encourage their feedback. Encouraging them to speak to their sales representatives, re-looking at business practices to help them is a good idea and a CEO blog are only a few examples. Once again sending a thank you note for their business will go a long way. Think about it… when was the last time one of your suppliers thanked you for their business?

3) Honesty goes a long way. In these difficult times, customers will remember what you communicate to them and if your firm was open and honest in your communications.

4) Use the Leader (you in the case) of the organization for all outside communications. You probably have a policy of one or 2 people only that talk to the media or public. Re-visit that by making sure you take ownership. For the same reasons I mentioned in previous articles people want to see you, they want to be reminded of your strength on the market and want the reassurance that you and your company will be around in 6 months.

3) Investors

This should be of no surprise to you. When dealing with staff and customers the basics apply as well to Investors, however:

1) Once again, think and prepare a communications plan for the investors. At this point you must be getting good at it since you have prepared two communications plans already - staff and customers. Key messages should be simple,consistent and clear.

2) Maintain a dialogue with them. Your ownership structure will dictate who and when you should be communicating to, in the most effective way. By the way, waiting till the next board meeting for delivering key messages is similar to ‘putting your head in the sand’. Be proactive, call them up and you may get some good advice on some reading they have made or peers they have in other businesses. That is after all one of their inherent duties as an owner.

As a self-admitted Communicator, my friends laugh at me when I tell them that I am shy. I always get butterflies before a speech or uneasiness when I have to give bad news to staff.  I guess we’re all human!

It’s easy to hide in these times since there is so much negativity around. The most effective skills and tools that you have were directly responsible for putting you in that job. Over Communicate now since it is probably the most critical time of your career and your employer’s survival depends on your ability and courage to communicate. Use the tips above and reap the benefits.

Do it now.

Renaud Investments is committed to ‘doing something’ about this recession and helping Romanian business. Call us to see how we can convey these messages to you and your team through our free workshop.

Good luck and last of all… Be cool: This mess will end - history proves it!