Transcript Building Leadership/Line Management Communication Capability

Building Leadership/Line Management
Communication Capability
Allman Communication Workshop
29th April 2009
Agenda
 Introductions & desired outcomes
 Theory: The three Cs of employee communication & the
importance of leadership/line management communication
 Session One: Changing Communication Style
 Session Two: Adopting a Coaching Leadership Style
 Wrap up
 Networking lunch
 2.00pm Close
Lesley Allman, MD, Allman Communication
 Over 20 years of internal & external
corporate communication experience
 Director of Communication at Coors
Brewers (formerly Bass) and
previously a Board Director of Rote
PR (part of Shandwick plc)
 BSc in Management and MBA (2002)
including dissertation on employee
engagement
 CIPR member and frequent
communication conference speaker
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Angela Cassidy, Associate, Allman Communication
 A specialist in change and leadership
communication
 Extensive experience of developing
and implementing leadership and
management programmes to deliver
behavioural change and achieve
business goals
 Senior Communication Consultant at
LloydsTSB, advising on managing
change and developing the skills and
knowledge of leaders
 Accredited coach (via Barefoot
Coaching and University of Chester)
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Allman Communication clients
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Our awards
 Class Winner in CiB Central Awards 2009 – Best Agency
 Finalist in CIPR Excellence 2008 – Outstanding Small Consultancy
 Finalist in PR Week Awards 2008 – New Consultancy of The Year
 Class Winner in CiB Central Awards 2008 – Strategy: Merger &
Change
 Silver Award in CIPR Pride Awards 2008 – Outstanding Small
Consultancy
 Finalist in CIPR Pride Awards 2008 – Internal Communication
The three Cs of employee communication
WHERE
Content
Channel
i.e. Messages & Materials
i.e. Format of
comms
Capability
i.e. Skills &
Behaviours
HOW
WHAT
How would you rate the communication
performance of line managers in your organisation?
40
35
30
25
Those who measure
20
15
Those who don't
measure
10
5
0
good/very
good
poor/very
poor
Source: Melcrum
Have you defined communication competencies for
managers?
60
50
40
30
Large Company
Data
20
10
0
yes
no
don't
know
Source: Melcrum
When you track communication performance of
managers, what are you measuring?
 Only one in five respondents were actually measuring the
communication performance of managers
 Of those who measured, top three most common measures
were:
» 70% changes in employee satisfaction
» 59% 360 degree feedback
» 54% changes to employee’s understanding of the business
strategy/goals
Source: Melcrum
Have you implemented communication training for
managers in your organisation?
 Training i.e. formal education or coaching
» 54% don’t offer any communication training to managers
» Of those who do train, 34% train senior, middle and front
line managers
» Training tools tend to be tactical e.g. presentation skills
 Tools i.e. “spoon feeding” managers with tools, models,
templates etc. to help them to deliver more effective briefings or
day to day communication
» 73% use communication toolkits
Source: Melcrum
Rewarding & recognising effective communication
“Our greatest problem is that we all agree line manager communication
needs attention, but no one will support it with rewards or consequences.
Without the necessary reinforcement, our efforts to improve the front line
managers’ communication skills are somewhat futile”
 Barriers to rewarding & recognising communication performance in
managers include:
» Lack of method to measure communication performance (32%)
» Company culture does not consider comms to be a core
competency for line managers (32%)
» Lack of senior management buy in (25%)
» Lack of funds (7%)
Source: Melcrum
Trust in management communication
60
50
40
30
UK
USA
20
10
0
National
Norm
Senior
Management
Over 15 yrs
service
Source: Mercer
Session one: changing communication style
 Agenda:
» Who has responsibility for employee engagement?
» Leadership communication skills
» Focus on Listening Actively and Managing Conflict
» Tools and techniques to develop a coaching style
Introducing SMILE – communication skills model
Showing
appreciation
Managing
conflict
Engaging
people
Involving
everyone
Listening
actively
© Angela Cassidy 2008
The 5 levels of listening – Stephen Covey
Empathic
Within the other’s
frame of reference
Attentive
Selective
Pretending
Within
one’s own
frame of
reference
Not listening
Source: ‘The 7 habits of Highly Effective
People by Stephen Covey
The thinking environment – Nancy Kline
 The nine guidelines to a successful meeting
» At the beginning:
› Give everyone a turn to speak
› Ask everyone to say what is going well in their work (or the group’s
work)
» Throughout the meeting:
› Give attention without interruption during open and even fiery
discussion
› Ask incisive questions to reveal and remove assumptions that are
limiting ideas
› Divide into ‘Thinking Partnerships’ when thinking stalls
› Intermittently give everyone a turn to say what they think
› Permit the sharing of truth and information
› Permit the expression of feelings
» At the end:
› Ask everyone what went well in the meeting and what they respect in
each other
Source: ‘Time to Think – Listening to Ignite the Human Mind
by Nancy Kline
Thinking partnerships
 Spend five minutes telling your partner about your latest work
project or favourite pastime
 The listening partner should:
» Say nothing and not interrupt in any way
» Maintain eye contact at all times
» Occasionally smile or nod to show you are listening actively
 Swap roles after five minutes
Managing conflict
 The Change Equation:
» Dissatisfaction
» Vision
» Steps or Skills
» Must be greater than the Resistance to Change
D x V x S > RC
Manager’s assumptions
 Example case study:
» Departmental merger of Marketing & Communications and Sales
teams in a large book publisher and retailer
» Currently both teams are in different locations and will move to
head office as one
» Reduction in job functions
» New Board Director to be appointed to lead new department
» More efficient, centralised processes to be introduced
» Reorganisation to be completed within six months
 What assumptions might a Senior Manager in either team be making
about their people?
 What questions could he or she be asking of their direct reports?
Questioning techniques
 Closed
» Results in a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer
 Leading
» Results in closing down the discussion
 Open
» Results in broader thinking, new ideas and solutions
 Probing
» Results in greater understanding for all involved
 Implication
» Results in challenges to own thinking and more options
 Opening ‘Mindsets’
» Results in enabling people to reassess the facts
Session Two: Adopting a coaching leadership style
 Agenda:
» What is a coaching leadership style?
» Coaching culture and employee engagement
» Benefits and pitfalls of this approach
» Ways to introduce this into an organisation
Situational leadership model
S
U
P
P
O
R
T
I
V
E
High Supportive
Low Directive
High Directive
High Supportive
SUPPORTING
COACHING
Low Supportive
Low Directive
High Directive
Low Supportive
DELEGATING
DIRECTING
DIRECTIVE behaviour
What is a coaching leadership style
 Spend a few minutes thinking about:
» What does a coaching leadership style mean to you?
» What is a leader doing or saying or thinking
when they use this style?
Coaching principles
 As coaches, we assume that:
» Everyone is doing their best
» Everyone has the resources within them to make changes
or do things differently
» Everyone creates their own reality
» Everyone has the answers within them
» We work with the attitude that things are possible
A coaching culture is where ….
 Everyone believes learning is critical
 Leaders use a coaching style/set the tone
 Decision-making is devolved
 Developing others is seen as key management responsibility
 Peers coach each other
 Having a mentor or coach is viewed positively
 Coaching is linked to business drivers
 Being coached is encouraged
 Providing coach training is critical
 Coaching behaviours are rewarded and recognised
 The move to coaching is managed and with a systematic
perspective
Benefits v. pitfalls
 Benefits
» Greater employee engagement in business plans
» Greater creativity and innovation from employees
» Greater sense of empowerment
» Greater communication between individuals, within teams, across
business
» Greater employee retention
 Pitfalls
» Performance management may become a longer/slower process
» Not everyone finds the new style easy to adopt / buys into it
» Top team do not ‘walk the talk’
» Operational priorities can get in the way and managers go back to
old habits
Ways to introduce a coaching culture
 Ensure it supports and is critical to achieving strategic business
goals
 Reflected in the mission, vision and values statements
 Need is identified in employee opinion research
 Top team champion the introduction of the new culture
 Performance management system uses a coaching approach
 Management training re coaching skills is provided
 Conferences, away-days, team meetings all use coaching
sessions
 New style is reflected in all cross-business media
 If not organisation-wide at first, then in pockets that spread
Adopting a coaching culture
 In pairs, spend ten minutes discussing:
» What benefits would/does this have to you, your team
and/or your organisation
» What is your role as coach in this situation?
Wrap up
 Summary
 Any Questions
What does good look like?





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
Two way dialogue on topics employee finds meaningful
Regular and constructive performance feedback
Involves employees in decisions that affect them
Recognises employee contribution
Discusses career & professional development
Receptive to ideas & suggestions
Holds salary discussions and gives fair reward
What does good look like ?
 Buys into and briefs company wide programmes
 Updates staff on news from other parts of the business
 Delivers key corporate messages
 Translates corporate strategy into meaningful actions for team &
individuals
 Elicits feedback and shares it with senior team
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 The day job!
Communication competencies
Competency
Behavioural Examples
Business
Acumen/
Insight
 Connects company strategy to marketplace events
 Aligns work unit goals to company strategy
 Defines individual performance objectives & metrics
Feedback &
Coaching
 Spots opportunities to enhance employee performance
 Links contribution to rewards
 Prepares people for future assignments
Listening &
understanding
 Stays focussed on the speaker
 Understands speaker position before reacting
 Probe to determine the root cause of problems
Speaking/
Informing
 Uses simple, direct language
 Matches words to tone & body language
 Is sensitive to nuance & timing
Wrap up
 Sharing learnings & applying to your organisation
 Top tips
 Any questions
 Feedback form
Allman Communication
www.allmancommunication.com
Contact: Lesley Allman 07808 095803