For decades, “The HP Way”—which advocates “managing by walking around”—was a prime example of how to run an organization. But the modern organization has changed—it is decentralized and increasingly virtual. And as the workforce continues to become more mobile, the constraints of a structured nine-to-five schedule is becoming a thing of the past. As a result, the need to remain connected to your organization has only grown.
If your company is like most, your employee handbook says you have an open door policy. But today, an open door policy is more metaphorical in that employees are not seeking to enter a physical office. They want to reach you via multiple communications channels—chat, email, social media, collaboration platforms, etc.
“To manage a modern workforce, you need tools for managing projects and collaborating that give easy visualization of who’s working on what,” says David Crisp of Crisp Leadership Strategies.
There are several ways even the busiest leaders can chat, check in, and connect with their workforce, and breathe some life into their open door policies. This article provides a few tips on how to make that happen.
Five Rules of Thumb for Connecting
Talking to employees face-to-face is one thing. But when you’re connecting with them online, the rules are a bit different. “Team spirit and a sense of shared mission are easily lost,” warns David Freedman, technology columnist for the New York Times’ You’re the Boss blog. With the right tools and the right attitude, though, you can breathe some life into your open door policy—and strengthen your employee relations. That said, there a few rules of thumb to keep in mind when connecting:
You can afford to relax. When communications from leadership are limited to formal, unidirectional messaging, there’s not going to be a whole lot of meaningful dialogue occurring. There’s nothing wrong with official announcements, etc., but if that’s where your communication stops, you are probably missing out. Informal check-ins are more comfortable for employees, and casual hello-how-are-you's offer an excellent opportunity for leaders to coach employees and get valuable feedback from them.
A lot of companies—like mine—use chat clients for quick communication. Though some of us—Gen X and Gen Y—are familiar with this media, others aren’t quite as comfortable and struggle to communicate effectively. For example, some more traditional execs might try to pen the equivalent of a hefty email when the other party is expecting a real-time response. Other buttoned-up execs might not be comfortable with the conversational tone, lowercase letters and lack of punctuation.
If you’re not comfortable with the LOLs, OMGs, and TTYLs, don’t use them. Just keep things short and respond quickly. The point here is that you’re making yourself available and approachable.
Beware of messages lost in translation. Although you’re communicating electronically, tone and voice still exist in your messages—and can easily be misconstrued. It can be difficult to find words to convey exactly what you mean, and communication is all the more challenging when you are not sitting across the table from the other person. Regardless of how you intend a message, interpretation can vary—especially with emails and memos. And when it comes to electronic communications, choosing the right medium is often just as important as what you’re trying to say.
“In a distributed world,” says Lori Knowlton, VP of HR at Austin-based HomeAway, "you need to remember that there are people on the other end of the line. You need to be thoughtful and mindful.” If you find yourself burning bridges via email, tools like ToneCheck can be really useful.
You don’t have to be a tech guru. Not super tech savvy? No sweat! There are plenty of tools, applications, and software solutions out there that can enhance your intra-office communications. Your organization may already have tools in place—be it social collaboration tools like Yammer or something simpler—and you shouldn’t be afraid to try your hand at them. In fact, your leading by example can encourage employees to dig deeper into the technology your organization makes available to them.
The important thing is to find the tool that suits you and suits your company. “Whatever your style is as a leader,” says Knowlton, “find the tool that you are most comfortable with, and then go with it.”
The more users online the merrier. Keep in mind Metcalfe’s Law, which says (in layman’s terms) that the value of a network will increase exponentially with each new node on the network. After all, the more people you have using the same tool to communicate, the easier it is to connect with them—and the greater potential to connect with others. So it is critical that you rally your team to a common communications and collaboration platform, and make sure they use it. Over time, the value of everyone working together on one system will make it a critical part of their routine.
HomeAway, which values being “one global team,” has found Confluence to be a powerful wiki tool for fostering personable communication and dynamic collaboration across the organization. “Traditional styles of communication—memos and emails—don’t always work at HomeAway,” says Knowlton. They needed a different standard method of communication. “The wiki allows employees to create their own homepages and share their personalities, while also sharing lots of very technical information. We’ve seen a tremendous adoption across the organization.” The value of this level of buy-in is evident in the vibrant company culture HomeAway exudes—which is a major contributor to their steady growth and success.
Face-to-face communication offers the highest bandwidth. No matter how powerful your arsenal of communications technology, “No tool will replace good intentions and a personal touch,” says Knowlton. Fact: Visibility is key to connecting with and managing your people—as well as keeping tabs on the organization. But travelling can be costly and physically taxing. Rather than write this vital part of management off as unfeasible, though, you should explore some other options.
Video conferencing can bring users face-to-face, keeping employees plugged-in to what’s going on.
For example, the executive team at HomeAway has a weekly “Table Talk,” which employees find really valuable. This all-staff video meeting is broadcast across the globe, introducing new employees, discussing goals and business plans, and highlighting events and happenings (Movember recap to be featured this Friday). Not only are leaders reaching out to every member of their organization, but they’re using a familiar medium to bridge the physical and cultural gap across the organization’s many satellite offices.
A Lot of Opportunity, but to Each His (and Her) Own
Interaction with a good boss is critical to realizing your full potential as an employee. Freedman says “A boss should be inspiring, should be able to facilitate, should be able to throw out great ideas that enables them to take their ideas even further.” With the right tools and software, keeping tabs on your people and your organization can become a part of your regular workflow.
At the end of the day, though, you know what works best for you—and for your organization. Feel free to dabble in a few different products until you find the right one, keeping in mind that many tools are free at their most basic level.
What tools have you found most useful? Any rules of thumb you always follow?
Featured image by Rev Stan.
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