The Delicate Balance of Precise Communication During Change
In times of significant organizational change, leaders must balance the delicate balance of delivering precise messages while maintaining a strong connection with their teams. Precise communication is essential for informing the organization about critical events and activities and ensuring legal requirements are met. However, an unintended consequence of tightly scripted formal messages can be losing connection with employees, damaging productivity, diminishing morale, and fostering resistance.
A communication strategy for change should stand on equal footing with all other business frameworks, fundamentals, and revolutionary strategies. Effective change communication is one of the most crucial activities a leader conducts during transitions. Unfortunately, many managers don't feel adequately trained or prepared for this task.
What Effective Change Communication Is NOT
Before diving into effective strategies, let’s clarify what change communication is not:
- It’s not a binary code that is either all on or all off.
- It’s not a memorized soundtrack that repeats like a broken record.
- It’s not disseminating facts and details delivered without emotion or feeling.
The Role of Caring Communication During Change
One critical type of communication during change is compassion. Compassion makes leaders’ communication believable and reinforces a sense of stability and hope. According to a 2023 Gallup study, 7 out of 10 employees who strongly agree that their company's leadership makes them "feel enthusiastic about the future" will be engaged, compared to just 1 in 10 who disagree with this statement.
Five Strategies for Caring Communication
Here are five powerful strategies leaders can use to connect and communicate compassion to their teams:
1. Don’t Be Afraid to Communicate Strong Emotion
Before you begin to speak, take a moment to assess your feelings. If you’re nervous or afraid you’ll make a mistake, acknowledge it to yourself. Then, don’t be afraid to share that emotion with your team. This sheer honesty disarms people and draws them closer to you, showing that you’re human and approachable.
2. Energetically Connect with Your Audience
This concept involves how people feel your closeness or distance from them energetically. A speaker who energetically steps back creates a distance, while one who is open and right up front fosters connection. This connection occurs even when the message is not completely understood or agreed upon, reinforcing a sense of togetherness.
3. Let Down Your Guard
Most of us dislike feeling vulnerable, especially during transitions. However, having your guard up keeps you in control and isolated. Letting your guard down transfers the real you – approachable, human, and inviting – to your audience. This openness is crucial for maintaining a genuine connection.
4. Check Your Ego at the Door
To connect with your team, leave your ego behind. Feeling superior or better than your audience creates a barrier. Authenticity and humility allow you to reach your team genuinely, showing that you value their contributions and perspectives.
5. Authentically Want to Connect
Authenticity is unmistakable. If you don’t genuinely care about connecting with your audience, it will show. When leaders authentically care about their team from a heartfelt place, employees can sense it, cutting through all the clutter and noise.
In summary, what draws your team close and lets you connect as a leader is not your technique or polish. The critical ingredients for connection are compassion, personal openness, honesty, vulnerability, and authenticity. By incorporating these characteristics along with the strategies outlined above, you'll become a powerful and compassionate change leader that everyone enthusiastically embraces and connects with.
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Sources:
1. Gallup. (2023). State of the Global Workplace Report.
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