While studying Communications in college I worked part-time for a nationwide retail company. Our store manager would hold monthly meetings to go through the laundry list of directives being handed down from corporate. All of these important “must do’s” were supposed to support the company’s goals. What were our goals? I’m sure I read about them in a training manual at some point, but I can’t recall ever hearing about them again.

Fast forward to present day and I’m still amazed at how infrequently companies discuss their business goals. I know many companies spend months creating them, send out an e-mail about them at the beginning of the year and then don’t talk about them again until the end of year—when it’s time to tell their employees they didn’t achieve them. Employees don’t intuitively know what management has committed to achieving. You have to tell them. And tell them again. And again.

Given the multiple priorities of today’s employee, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger objective and get caught up in oiling the squeaky wheels. In most cases, your employees want to help the company succeed. Not only is there a personal sense of pride in having been a part of that success, there is also a strong motivation in the form of job security. It’s up to business leaders to ensure their employees know what they can do to meet the obligations that have been made to customers, the financial community, the board of directors and other important stakeholders.

In my communications and marketing roles, I’ve been able to make good on a personal commitment I made to myself back in my college days, “If I ever get the chance, I will make sure employees in the field don’t feel isolated.” What I’ve learned in practice is:

• Inject the company’s objectives into every relevant communication that goes out from senior management. You can use different language to make it feel fresh, but don’t assume that because it’s getting old and repetitive to you, that everyone shares that feeling. At the very least, employee turnover is enough of a reason to repeat the message.

• Consider the office that’s furthest from your company’s headquarters. They don’t have daily, weekly, monthly or in some cases yearly access to the company’s leadership team. The employees in that office want to know that you have them in mind when you talk about where the company is headed.

• In every communication effectiveness survey I’ve conducted, employees look to their managers first and foremost for information about the company, their role and how the two come together. Look to your managers to deliver on the expectation.

• Managers will filter the message. If you want the whole message delivered, you have to remind managers that employees aren’t “in the know.” It’s their job to connect the dots and to help employees understand the company’s goals and where employees fit into that picture.

As you approach the end of the first quarter of 2008, consider the effectiveness you’ve had in discussing where you want to be at the end of the year. Is everyone on the same page? If numbers are off, if customers are unhappy, if partnerships are strained, perhaps the lack of a shared focus is a symptom. If it is, the remedy isn’t all that hard to administer. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 10:43 am and is filed under Communication Best Practices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.