Communications Key To Implementing Agenda

By Tom Neff and James Citrin

Richard Parsons, CEO of Time Warner says: “If your company or team doesn’t know what the direction is they won’t know where to go. The result: energy dissipates, momentum slows, morale plummets and the company drifts. To make sure everyone sees the same picture and understands what they are seeing requires more contact with people, more opportunities to meet them and more communication.”
However, communication is more than promulgating a message: it’s about gathering thoughts and information to help shape that message.

Effective communications

Most leaders agree that employees should be told as much as possible about the state of the business. If everyone has the same facts, they are more likely to pull in the same direction. This also applies to shareholders, the board, customers and suppliers.
Communicating properly takes time and you’ve got to remember that personal delivery of the message is more likely to reap results, the longer you spend communicating, the less time you have for doing.
How best then to use your time? Intuit CEO Steve Bennett says: “You need to do some one-to-ones but to be effective and leverage your time you need to manage one-to-many.”

Managing the message

How well you communicate is determined not by how well you say things but how well you’re understood. Know your audience — their background, mood, readiness — and tailor your message to them so that it is assimilated as well as appropriate.
Know your own strengths in terms of communicating and play on those. Be aware, for example, of which settings work best for you — large audiences or smaller groups.
When Steve Reinemund succeeded Roger Enrico as PepsiCo CEO, he was conscious of the differences in the way he communicated compared to his predecessor. “Roger is a terrific public speaker so it’s smart for him to capitalize on large audiences with major messages. That’s not my strength. I can do it and I may be getting better at it but it’s not what I love to do. I think I’m more effective in discussion in smaller groups where I can have a dialogue about the business and what’s on people’s minds.”

Communicating in a crisis

“In tough times, my advice is communicate, communicate, communicate. And when you think you’ve done enough, communicate again,” says EMC CEO, Joseph Tucci.
In a crisis getting information out quickly is advisable — it tends to leak out anyway. If you’re not the one to bring it to light or are seen to be sitting on damaging information you will have lost the opportunity to solve the problem and are likely to be fired — as happened to three Shell executives who failed to disclose that the company had been sitting on inflated oil prices for two years.
Once the information is out, tell the truth and acknowledge the issue rather than try to underplay it. Then, focus on continuous communications with employees, the board, customers, the financial community and the media.
When you’re in a crisis you have to show confidence and be visible. Your job becomes that of a shock absorber between events and your employees’ desire for stability.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to talking to the media during a crisis — those who advocate it and those who don’t. The argument for talking to the media revolves around the fact that something will be written anyway so treating reporters consistently and with facts is best practice. Talking to the media also allows a CEO to tell his or her story and to use the occasion to get across their perspective.
On the other hand, Lucent CEO Schacht is against media involvement arguing that during a crisis the only constituents he cares about are “the board, the internal folks and the customers”.
Be open, honest and straightforward with whomever you talk to — the press, financial community, customers and employees — because they ultimately execute your agenda.

Unspoken communication

Implicit signals carry a lot of weight and in the early days in particular, you’ll be watched for every facial expression and hand gesture as well as how you dress. Without a history of action on which to base their assessments, people will judge you by these signals. Whether it’s your attire, the messages you emit about timeliness and respect for others and their time or whether you’re an e-mail or voice-mail person, these subtle signals will work their way across the organization, communicating the new rules by which you operate.

Seek input from all levels

New CEOs are faced with a torrent of new information that is often difficult to manage and, while getting information directly from the field yourself is time-consuming it offers advantages in terms of boosting your credibility and building relationships with stakeholders.
Gary Kusin did just this when he became CEO at Kinko’s: “I took my case directly to the people and told them what we had to do if we were to survive. I didn’t do it through middlemen. I cannot overstate the importance of getting direct input from the rank and file about their thoughts and what the company needs. It is easy to became way too insular in the ivory tower of a corporate environment and not grasp the issues from the factory floor. The first 100 days is a political campaign. You have to win the hearts and minds of the electorate and you can’t do that when you’re sitting in a conference room with a consulting firm.”

Conclusion

Communications is central to leadership and to do it well requires listening, tailoring your message to your audience, tailoring your approach to suit your natural strengths and giving and seeking feedback. All these elements will help support your cultural and strategic agendas and help avoid many of the most common pitfalls new leaders face.