enough to inspire everyone. “A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more,” says Harvard professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter. From that vision, you can shape your unique competitive advantage, those aspects that you have to offer your customers that your competition does not. This advantage represents your strengths in the marketplace that you most need to capitalize on to be successful.
Modifying strategies to meet goals
After you clarify your vision for your group and start to revitalize your goals, you should analyze what’s currently working and what’s not working for the business. For example, established customers may be cutting back on using the services of your firm, but what new clients have recently started to invest with you? What do those new clients have in common, and how can you approach similar clients in the marketplace? Changing times call for changing strategies to meet your company’s goals. Engage employees’ help by seeking their input and ideas for improving business operations, saving money, or better serving your customers.
My spouse worked for a computer equipment and software company based in San Diego that saw its future orders drop significantly when customers no longer had the funds to purchase capital equipment. The firm laid off about 10 percent of its employees and froze salaries, but company leaders knew that these decisions offered only a short-term fix for a declining cash flow. Top management got together with the firm’s sales representatives and brainstormed what could be done to address the situation, as well as what the competition was doing in response to the situation. Here’s what they came up with:
✔ Changing the pricing model to include new options for payment that didn’t require the customer to make an expensive upfront purchase of equipment
✔ Offering a new, software-only solution that allowed customers to run needed applications on computers they already owned or on equipment they wanted to purchase from other vendors
✔ Financing the purchase of its customers’ equipment so that the customers didn’t have to initially tap into resources from their capital budgets
✔ Targeting new markets, such as the federal government (which had more available funds), which the company had never focused on before
All these changes required everyone in the organization to help think through implications for the business and make adjustments accordingly. The result was that the firm was able to get new clients who took them up on their new offerings. Overall, the approach helped the firm generate new sales revenue from new clients in a difficult financial time.
People want to know more than just the information necessary to do the work they’re assigned; they also want to know what their coworkers are doing and how the organization is doing. To keep your workforce engaged, communicate information to employees about the organization’s mission and purpose, its products and services, its strategies for success in the marketplace, and even what’s going on with the competition.
In my research, the highest-ranking variable that 95 percent of employees want most from their managers is direct, open, and honest communication. Also, the Families and Work Institute in New York did a study – the National Study of the Changing Workplace – that revealed the importance of nonmonetary factors on employees’ choice of their current employers. The top-ranked item on the list was “open communication.”
Good information, bad information, or no information?
Employees want and need to know what’s going on within the organization, even if the information isn’t always positive. There’s nothing wrong with being honest with employees when the firm is struggling; doing so can lead to increased teamwork and dedication, especially if the bad news is also an opportunity to brainstorm and communicate with employees about ideas and plans for turning things around. Bringing employees into the loop can instill a greater sense of involvement and responsibility, which ultimately leads to increased feelings of value and trust among employees.
Simply telling employees what’s going on in the organization and providing them with the information they need to most effectively do their jobs is motivating. In addition, every time you communicate, you have a chance to recognize employees. Exchanging praise and recognition in newsletters, posting an “applause” bulletin board on the company’s intranet, and commenting in meetings are just a few possibilities for formalizing communication about employee recognition.
Employing direct, two-way communication
Feedback sessions, departmental meetings, or companywide gatherings should ideally serve two purposes: to provide information and to gather feedback. To maximize employee engagement, keeping employees abreast of and asking their opinions about management’s goals and ensuing plans is imperative. Something as simple as a companywide meeting during which you present the state of the organization to all employees can make a world of difference in easing employee tensions and fears.
Exploring communication techniques
Methods for communicating with employees vary depending upon the situation. Group settings require different interaction than one-on-one communication. Following are some suggestions for how to best communicate with individuals and groups.
Individuals
Here are some techniques for effectively communicating with an individual employee:
✔ Engage in periodic one-on-one meetings with each employee.
✔ Offer personal support and reassurances, especially for your most valued employees.
✔ Provide open-door accessibility to management.
✔ Invite employees to write anonymous letters to top management about their concerns.
Groups
Here are some communication techniques you can try to keep information flowing in groups:
✔ Conduct town hall meetings.
✔ Host CEO-led breakfasts and/or brown bag lunches.
✔ Maintain a 24-hour “news desk” on the company intranet.
✔ Provide periodic state-of-the-union updates on the business.
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