Most organizations use tools such as the intranet, emails from the CEO, Town Hall meetings and blogs as a means for the CEO to communicate with employees. However this focus on information tools whilst necessary in letting employees know the details of what is happening do little to engage employees with the reason for change. This is especially true when those changes relate to a merger or acquisition, a restructure of the organization, the announcement of financial results or other complex change messages. In these instances an engagement strategy needs to be designed to ensure that employees truly embrace the reason for change.
Transformational leadership is about engaging employees in changing behaviours to support the new business objectives. However whilst information is important, as part of leadership communication it only serves to provide information on what is changing and when, it is not an engagement tool.
These following 5 tips illustrate how you can ensure leadership communication will achieve desired business outcomes.
1. Step one is reviewing all the current tools and methods you use to communicate with employees. You need to scrutinize the content of that communication and determine whether it is one way information or whether some could be adapted as an engagement tool.
2. Step two is very important for transformational leadership because you want to create an "Aha!" moment for employees. This means you convey information in such a way that creates a paradigm shift in their thinking about a topic. The focus for employees needs to be that they finally understand what the change will mean to them, how they can contribute and why it is important.
3. This third step is about conducting focus group research to find out what employees actually think about a particular topic and then what information you have to counter their views and to create a change in how they think. The objective is to find out what information will make employees stop and say, "Aha! now I get it". Once you have the answer to this it is easy to design engagement strategies that will focus employees on the change to the organization and the work that they do.
Benefits of focus group research are that they are a good format for allowing topics to be explored further and frequently will uncover issues or ideas which hadn't been considered prior to the session. Focus groups generally are held for one and a half hours duration and in groups of 8 - 10 participants. The facilitator should lead the discussion but leave the actual dialogue to the participants, and steer them around to the main issue if they have gone off topic and to ensure that all the topics that you wanted to cover within the timeframe allocated are. Well facilitated focus groups identify the key messages to focus your leadership communication strategies on as they relate to specific business objectives.
4. In this fourth step you gather the information sourced from the focus group feedback. The key data you are looking for is what the opinions are of employees about a particular topic or issue that directly relates to the business issue at hand. Then if it is based on false information or assumptions you find the factual data to refute this and then present it in such a way that employees are engaged and understand the basis for change.
5. Step five is all about taking the information you have gathered from the focus groups sessions and with that identify a business goal that you feel confident that your leadership strategies will impact. Use of that research data forms an essental part of your leadership communication strategy that can be measured by business achievements.
When you have gathered all the outcomes of the focus groups you will then be in a position to identify the key messages and data to bring about change in your organizaiton. Transformational leadership is about understanding what is of concern to your employees and what they need to know to support your business objectives. Development of an employee engagement strategy that focuses on "Aha!" moments and information is the essence of transformational leadership.
Transformational leadership is about engaging employees in changing behaviours to support the new business objectives. However whilst information is important, as part of leadership communication it only serves to provide information on what is changing and when, it is not an engagement tool.
These following 5 tips illustrate how you can ensure leadership communication will achieve desired business outcomes.
1. Step one is reviewing all the current tools and methods you use to communicate with employees. You need to scrutinize the content of that communication and determine whether it is one way information or whether some could be adapted as an engagement tool.
2. Step two is very important for transformational leadership because you want to create an "Aha!" moment for employees. This means you convey information in such a way that creates a paradigm shift in their thinking about a topic. The focus for employees needs to be that they finally understand what the change will mean to them, how they can contribute and why it is important.
3. This third step is about conducting focus group research to find out what employees actually think about a particular topic and then what information you have to counter their views and to create a change in how they think. The objective is to find out what information will make employees stop and say, "Aha! now I get it". Once you have the answer to this it is easy to design engagement strategies that will focus employees on the change to the organization and the work that they do.
Benefits of focus group research are that they are a good format for allowing topics to be explored further and frequently will uncover issues or ideas which hadn't been considered prior to the session. Focus groups generally are held for one and a half hours duration and in groups of 8 - 10 participants. The facilitator should lead the discussion but leave the actual dialogue to the participants, and steer them around to the main issue if they have gone off topic and to ensure that all the topics that you wanted to cover within the timeframe allocated are. Well facilitated focus groups identify the key messages to focus your leadership communication strategies on as they relate to specific business objectives.
4. In this fourth step you gather the information sourced from the focus group feedback. The key data you are looking for is what the opinions are of employees about a particular topic or issue that directly relates to the business issue at hand. Then if it is based on false information or assumptions you find the factual data to refute this and then present it in such a way that employees are engaged and understand the basis for change.
5. Step five is all about taking the information you have gathered from the focus groups sessions and with that identify a business goal that you feel confident that your leadership strategies will impact. Use of that research data forms an essental part of your leadership communication strategy that can be measured by business achievements.
When you have gathered all the outcomes of the focus groups you will then be in a position to identify the key messages and data to bring about change in your organizaiton. Transformational leadership is about understanding what is of concern to your employees and what they need to know to support your business objectives. Development of an employee engagement strategy that focuses on "Aha!" moments and information is the essence of transformational leadership.
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