Internal communication needs to be the voice of the employee at the top table. Your ability to keep your finger on the pulse and see things through a human lens will increase your influence with the leadership team.
Promoting open dialogue and collaboration in a safe space is key to making this happen. Foster a culture of transparency, encourage collaboration, provide training and resources, and lead by example. If you do this, you can create a collaborative and innovative culture that supports your organization’s success.
In today’s business landscape, transparency is no longer a radical notion; it’s an expectation. In an era of readily available information, consumers and employees demand to be well-informed about the companies they interact with and work for. Enabling two-way dialogue and collaboration is a strategy that, in theory, can be implemented into any business initiative, but it’s often forgotten.
Connecting employees to the purpose
If employees aren’t aligned with the purpose of their work, they are unlikely to engage in the first place. To get the most out of any collaboration, each party must understand what’s in it for them. If you have a defined Employee Value Proposition (EVP), communicating your purpose becomes easy. Weave your EVP into all of your communications and efforts in growing collaboration to help remind your colleagues of the bigger picture.
It's worth remembering that “when employees feel that their purpose is aligned with the organization’s purpose, the benefits expand to include stronger employee engagement, heightened loyalty and a greater willingness to recommend the company to others”.
Consciously build trust
Trust is the cornerstone of all human relationships; it’s just as valuable in business as in a personal setting. When trust is strong, it enhances problem-solving skills, promotes effective two-way communication and encourages mutual respect. Without it, relationships can become fraught with fear and uncertainty that can ultimately lead to their demise.
But trust doesn’t just happen. It’s built. And it can start with open, transparent and honest messages from your leaders. Employees want to hear everything: the good, the bad and the ugly, and when they do, they’ll start to feel informed, consulted and part of the solution. Invite people to weigh in on the hard conversations and be sure to request their thoughts even when you expect the response won’t be positive.
Learn from what didn’t go so well
The way that the business communicates in challenging periods can have a profound impact on trust within the organization. Remaining open and transparent during hard times is tricky for a reason, but by doing so, you’re probably giving your employees an experience they can’t find at your competitors. If you can foster a culture where leadership openly celebrates and learns from their failings, this approach will trickle down throughout the organization. When people feel safe enough to share mistakes without the fear or burden of blame, it only leaves the opportunity for everyone to learn from them.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives
Transparency, trust and collaboration can’t happen effectively without an inclusive culture. For this to work, everyone needs to feel safe to share their thoughts and be their authentic selves. If your efforts to encourage open dialogue haven’t looked through a DE&I lens, then you’re probably only encouraging a proportion of your organization to speak up. When only majorities are collaborating, you’re restricting innovation and growth.
Everyone is responsible for driving DE&I within an organization, but it might be useful to start by focusing on those in leadership or management roles. Your colleagues will be looking to their managers on a daily basis, so role modelling the right behaviors is critical.
Leadership sets the tone
You might have already noticed a common theme throughout this article. Strong collaboration will positively impact the entire organization, but the fastest way to get there is to start at the top. Leaders must set the precedent and be willing to share their stories of success, failure, and emotions along the way. This openness and vulnerability builds trust and encourages employees to reciprocate. Embracing transparency, even in challenging times, requires tact, timeliness, and sensitivity. Leaders are the flagbearers of this cultural shift, and their buy-in is essential.
So, consider your communications for the next couple of weeks and the channels you’ll be using to activate them. For every message, find at least one way to make it more collaborative and invite conversation. Build this up overtime and witness the culture shift.
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