Management Blog

6 rookie mistakes made by internal communicators

By Sarah Perry, CEO of SnapComms There’s a lot of pressure to get internal communications (IC) right. Even more so these days, when “too much information” is choking employees’ inboxes. Whether you’re a newcomer to IC, or a seasoned pro, it’s imperative to avoid these six common fails when communicating with your teams:

1. Too many sign-offs

AKA “covering your backside.” It’s tempting to ask for everyone’s approval before issuing an all-staff message (it seems the larger the organization, the bigger the problem). Don’t do this!

Everyone you ask will have an opinion—and not all will be helpful. If you try to incorporate all the suggestions, you run the risk of watering down your original message, to the point where it becomes disjointed, dull, and worst of all—ignored! If you don’t apply all the recommended changes, get ready for a spiral of time-sucking e-mails to explain why.

So be selective who you ask for editorial feedback and approval. Of course, seek your executive’s sign off, but limit approval and proofreading to just several trusted individuals.

2. Scared to say “No”

In a large organization, it can be tough to keep a disciplined approach to communications—especially when bombarded by different departments demanding their all-staff messages must be top of the pile.

Remember you have a unique position: you’re the only one with an all-purpose passport across all communications for the company and it’s your duty to ensure messages are planned for and scheduled for best effect.

Think of your IC as the company newsroom, and you’re Chief Editor. Cull content that’s low in priority or significance (in newsroom speak, this is known as “drop the dead donkey”).  Don’t be shy to push back on Fiona in Finance or Tim in IT if there’s a better time, place, or channel for their all-staff message.

3. Sabotage IC with old-fashioned formats

Not only are you the curator of internal content, you’re the conductor too. So think carefully about which channels will get employee attention, are right for today’s more visual learners, and are fit for purpose. 

For example, nonessential, nonurgent content such as staff announcements, fundraising initiatives, and social activities sit well together in a monthly newsletter. This kind of content bundling then leaves breathing space for urgent, essential communications—such as an IT outage notification or a cyber-security alert—to get the mental real estate they deserve.

Remember, today’s employees deserve more than e-mail, and it’s your responsibility to keep up-to-date on new tools which achieve message penetration. Ignoring new technologies could ultimately risk sabotaging your own efforts.

4. Stay on brand, but have fun

OK, some IC topics can be—let’s just say—a bit dry. (Anyone who’s ever had to write a few pithy words about company dress code policy or the importance of personal hygiene in the workplace will surely agree!)  But every time you reach out, it’s a moment to engage with employees and personify your company’s brand values.

Add flair and personality to your IC and use friendly, easy-to-understand language—not corporate speak (check out this list of worst office jargon phrases staff love to hate). Work with your marketing team and take inspiration from their eye-catching campaigns. Access their resources: they may well have a graphic designer keen to create a humorous animated character, perfect for communicating your hand-hygiene message!

5. Forget not everyone is desk-bound

Mobility is one of the greatest developments in today’s workplace. But it’s also presented some of the biggest challenges for IC professionals, particularly those not prepared to adapt.

With the help of your IT team, explore the benefits of cloud-based internal communication platforms. These enable employees to view your IC content regardless of whether they’re working from home, in transit, or anywhere else for that matter (so long as they have network connectivity).

Go for secure, mobile-responsive solutions as these will display content to suit device (i.e., smartphone, tablet, or desktop).

6. Failing to measure

These days, every department is expected to report on the impact of their efforts, and IC is no different. Measurement is critical. With specialist employee communication software, go one step further than simply providing metrics on who’s clicked what.

Unmissable, interactive, direct-to-screen tools such as scrolling desktop tickers, news desktop alerts, employee quizzes, or surveys provide a genuine breakthrough in IC tracking. (Another reason for the ongoing demise of e-mail is the inability to track who reads what.) Impress your bosses by providing extraordinary insights on message visibility, recurrence statistics, cut-through, attitudinal shifts, employee engagement, and more.

It is no accident that companies that are poor communicators are three times more likely to have no formal measurement of communication effectiveness compared with highly effective communicators. So, how do you measure up?

Sarah Perry is CEO of SnapComms, an award-winning company that develops employee communications software that bypasses e-mail to put important messages in front of employees on any device, anywhere. It has more than 1.3 million paid enterprise users in more than 45 countries.

VAK - Visual, Auditory & Kinesthetic Learning Stlyes

How Individuals Have Different Learning Styles

The VAK (or VARK or VACT) learning styles model and related VAK/VARK/VACT tests (and for that matter the Multiple Intelligences concepts) offer reasonably simple and accessible methods to understand and explain people's preferred ways to learn. Occasionally well-intentioned people will write that the use of such models and tests can be problematical. This is true of course of any tool if undue reliance is placed on the methodology, or if the results of tests are treated as absolute and exclusive of other styles and considerations in the overall mix of a person's personality and needs.

As with any methodology or tool, use VAK and other learning styles concepts with care. The concepts are an aid, not to be applied rigidly.

In addition to the VAK guide below, further VAK detail and VAK tests are available on the VAK tests page.

The explanation and understanding of Gardner's Seven Intelligences can be further illuminated and illustrated by looking at another classical intelligence and learning styles model, known as the Visual-Auditory-Kinesthetic (or Kinaesthetic - either is correct) learning styles model or 'inventory', usually abbreviated to VAK. Alternatively the model is referred to as Visual-Auditory-Physical, or Visual-Auditory-Tactile/Kinesthetic. The VAK concept, theories and methods (initially also referred to as VAKT, for Visual-Auditory-Kinesthetic-Tactile) were first developed by psychologists and teaching specialists such as Fernald, Keller, Orton, Gillingham, Stillman and Montessori, beginning in the 1920's.

The VAK multi-sensory approach to learning and teaching was originally concerned with the teaching of dyslexic children and other learners for whom conventional teaching methods were not effective. The early VAK specialists recognised that people learn in different ways: as a very simple example, a child who could not easily learn words and letters by reading (visually) might for instance learn more easily by tracing letter shapes with their finger (kinesthetic). The VAK theory is a favourite of the accelerated learning community, and continues to feature - although not nearly as strongly as it should do - in the teaching and education of young people. The Visual-Auditory-Kinesthetic learning styles model does not overlay Gardner's multiple intelligences; rather the VAK model provides a different perspective for understanding and explaining a person's preferred or dominant thinking and learning style, and strengths. Gardner's theory is one way of looking at thinking styles; VAK is another.


Visual -           seeing and reading
Auditory -      listening and speaking
Kinesthetic  - touching and doing

Extract taken from Business balls

For more information visit the Call of the Wild website

Change Management Good Practice

At Call of the Wild our team development and change management training courses help a business or organisation to embrace and grow through change. We aim for individuals to develop knowledge and understanding of managing change and how it affects an organisation.

Call of the Wild has recently been asked to deliver a workshop on change to an audience of 50 education professionals who are delegates in a change management conference in Portsmouth.
Looking at change from the unique perspective of each individual the question that Call of the Wild intends to pose to the audience is:-

   

“Why do some individuals thrive on the challenges presented by change, yet others see change as a threat which has an adverse impact on their performance”

For more on change management click here

This is not necessarily the best way to Manage Change

Call of the Wild's Training Courses 2013

Here is a list of our training courses in 2013. This is not a definitive list but gives a flavour of the type of courses we have available this year whether it be for leadership, team building, management training or realted matters such as coaching.

If you wish to see a more definitive list then please do give us a call to discuss your exact requirements.

Click here to see the list of our training courses for 2013

The Importance of Being Memorable - Five ways to help people remember you (in a good way!)

Five ways to help people remember you (in a good way!)

From Scott Allen, former About.com Guide

Have you ever attended a networking event, collected a bunch of business cards, and when you go through them the next day, you can't remember who many of them are? Or try to think of someone you met and had a conversation with, but you can't remember their name or their business to look them up?

Well, you certainly don't want to be one of those that other people can't remember, do you? It's all well and good to pass out business cards, but if people don't remember you well, they probably won't be calling you to follow up, and they certainly won't keep you in mind for their future needs or possible referrals.

Here are five tips on how to make yourself memorable (in a good way) when meeting other people face-to-face:

1. Be distinctive.

A brightly-colored, hand-painted tie, an unusual necklace or other jewelry, a good (but not overpowering) cologne, even just impeccable grooming can all help you stand out in a good way. It's not that you want to be remembered and identified for that, but anything that helps people separate you from the crowd helps them remember the rest of you. You don't have to be outlandish -- although some people work that quite well -- just don't blend in completely with the crowd.

2. Be fully present.

Be fully engaged and fully aware of the people you interact with. You can break this down into smaller, somewhat mechanical pieces -- listen well, respond promptly, maintain eye contact, etc. -- but if you are truly present in the moment, those things will happen naturally. Many people only seem to be "half there", so being fully engaged helps you stand out.

3. Ask thought-provoking questions. 

Networking expert Bob Burg has some good suggested questions in his book Endless Referrals: Network Your Everyday Contacts into Sales, such as "How did you get started?" or "What do you enjoy most about what you do?" But the very best questions can't be communicated in a book because they're specific to the person you're interacting with and will arise in response to your initial conversation. Do #2 and this will flow naturally.

As Dale Carnegie suggested, you must "take a genuine interest in other people".

4. Reinforce your keywords.

People aren't going to remember long descriptions of what you do, or likely even that 15-second intro that many experts teach you to make. People will at best remember a few key things about you:

Your name Your company name Your business/industry (in three words or less) Your product Your location What you want to do is find ways to unobtrusively increase the occurrence of these things in your conversation. For example, is there some kind of story behind your name? Have it ready to use if there's an opportunity. Does your business have an unusual name? What's the story behind it - what does it mean? Refer to your place of business when telling an incident that occurred ("I was driving down 17th Street leaving my store, when..."). Anything you say that reinforces one of the five items above helps make you more memorable. And if they can remember just three of them -- "Joe the barber from Soho" or "Maria the translator who wrote 'Spanish in Six Weeks'" -- you're doing great.

Manage Your Time - Top Tips

Effective Time Management

Here are some top tips on how to manage your time effectively.

1. Take Control

2. When you say no stick to it

3. Maintain focus in meetings

4. Make the most of dead time

5. Match task to mood

6. Spend time with people who are difficult ot get hold of

7. Imagine your diary is clear

8. Groom People

The "Mind Gym: Wake Your Mind Up" is published by Time Warner

Business Coaching and Chelsea's Fernando Torres

Pre-season training starts this week and Chelsea will hope their new signing settles in quickly because he could make a massive difference to their season. Ivan Ortega has joined from Liverpool as a personal  trainer to work with Fernando Torres, Chelsea's star striker. The Spaniards know each other from their time at Anfield

 Other premiership clubs will be watching with interest as if Ortega can work his magic on Torres then every top player will want a personal trainer. Clubs had no more than two or three coaches about a decade ago when Sam Allardyce enjoyed success at Bolton by rehabilitating faded players with the help of a large backroom staff.  So why wouldn’t Chelsea spend say £50,000 on Ortega in wages on someone who can potentially help a £50million asset produce results? It’s protecting their investment.

 If individual coaching is the future for football it got me thinking about how this same principle should work for senior executives. Surely it makes financial sense for companies to invest in the coaching of their senior executives.  As with Torres,  these individuals are the most important and expensive assets an organisation may have. By bringing in a personal business coach the performance the senior executives can be improved and ultimately the bottom line. Some companies already adopt this approach but as with football should it be that individual coaching should be the norm for senior executives. Such an approach can only help improve results and give fresh impetus to individuals who have been in post for some years.

For more information on our introduction to coaching in the workplace training course visit the Call of the Wild website

Management as a Profession

In our opinion management and leadership should be treated  as a  profession such as  a lawyer, Doctor, surveyor etc. You don't just become a Doctor overnight, you are trained and equipped with the necessary knowledge, techniques and tools to do the job effectively.

You wouldn't just ask someone to jump into a train for instance without any training and say off you go then! So why do we do this with our new managers and leaders. Just because they are competent at their current job doesn't mean they will have the skill sets, knowledge or behaviours required to become a good leader when promoted to such a position.

 The reason that some managers are outperforming other managers is because they have learned what to do and what not to do. They have applied these key lessons until they have mastered them. Without the necessary training and development new appointees may not have the time to develop such skills .

This is why we believe that of fundamental importance when you are looking to promote someone into a leadership role is to put in place a leadership development programme suited to their level of responsibility.

 

For more information on leadership development programmes visit our website.

Successful Coaching - Top 10 Tips

1.Focus on the person you are coaching

The role of a coach is enabling someone to identify and achieve objectives, and to do so through self belief whilst maintaining responsibility for actions and results

 

2.Guide, do not tell

You are there to guide, facilitate and motivate through change, and ensure that people you coach remain responsible throughout. It may seem easier and quicker to tell them what to do, and there are times when this is necessary. However, put time aside to coach people or teams until they discover and commit to how they will achieve their goals.

 

3.Don't give the answers 

 

 

The skills, attributes and attitudes required for successful coaching are different from those needed in leading and managing.  Coaching is all about getting the person you coach to do the thinking and come up with answers

 

4. Practice the right skills 

In order to prepare for the role of coach, develop these skills: 

• active listening 
• good questioning techniques 
• letting the people look through their lens at the world and not yours 
• knowing when to challenge to encourage people to make change where necessary 
• ability to stop offering answers

The last is fundamental to being an effective coach, and probably the most difficult skill to practise.

5.Maintain the right attitudes

As a coach the attitudes you portray should include: 

• a positive outlook 
• a high energy to keep up the motivation of your client 
• a high level of interest 
• a never ending desire to enable your client to succeed in their language 
• having only one agenda – that of the person being coached

6.Their needs, not yours

Be …

• nonjudgmental 
• a good listener 
• consistently honest with integrity 
• professional, ethical and confidential at all times 
• a good communicator

 

7.Learn the GROW model  

GROW is an acronym for Goals, Reality, Options and Will.

As the acronym suggests, it is a four-stage framework that enables the coach to provide a structure to a coaching session, without getting in the way of the client’s agenda.  

8.Remember that both of you have to work

The coach and the person you coach are partners. That means reviewing what is going well as well as what is not going so well, and being prepared to do whatever it takes to improve on the not-so-good areas.

 9.Start from where the person is, now

Take the person you’re coaching as he or she is. Adult members of staff are already in the middle of their lives, and come with particular views, attitudes, commitments, potential and concerns - all of which go to make up the individual person.  

 10.Not immediate but long term

The aim of coaching is that people being coached are able to produce more successful and effective performance repeatedly over a longer period of time. Coaching is not about short term motivation.

Taken from our Online  Development Academy website.

For more information on our training course entitled Introduction to Coaching in the Workplace visit the Call of the Wild website.

 

 

Essential Management Skills - Recruitment

Of all the management practices and skills, recruitment is the single most important. The other skills will work if and only if the right people have been recruited. Jack Welch said

"that nothing matters more in winning than getting the right people on the field"

Indeed Dan DiMicco, CEO of Nucor Steel goes as far as to say:

    "Hire the right people, give them the resources and tools to do the job, and then get the hell out of their way. "

If you recruit the right people, then everything else is fairly plain sailing. If you recruit the wrong people, then everything becomes really hard. Recruiting the wrong people will damage a large company and destroy a smaller company. A manager's job is to get things done (willingly) through people. The essence of the managerial job is to inspire, teach, develop and ultimately to delegate to people of ever-increasing knowledge, skill and confidence. However, this depends upon having the right people on board first.

What we are recognising, through the concept of tough love is that 'niceness' is not the end point - that people can be challenged, exhorted, tested, extended and pushed a bit harder. Accepting low standards, 'for fear of upsetting someone', is not acceptable. As Stuart-Kotze says:

    "The behaviour centres on getting people to take responsibility for themselves, to challenge themselves, to take risks and stretch themselves, and to grow and develop. "

Again, the right people can and will do this – given that they respect the organisation – while the wrong people will not.

Who Are the Right People?

This is less about skills and knowledge and more about values, beliefs and commitment. Lencioni's fable of the evil HR manager is a case in point and Drucker was always (and properly) chary of experts who, he thought, rarely resisted the temptation to 'polish stones.'

You can only truly delegate to people who share your values and beliefs and, in Lencioni’s fable, the HR manager clearly did not. Jack Welch has said that new hires must have three things - integrity, intelligence, and maturity.

As we say in the glossary of Theory Y:

    ... for most people work is as natural as play … people have capacity for self-control … motivation also arises from the higher order needs such as self-esteem and achievement and … people, if properly managed, will be more than willing to take on responsibility.

Is this true? Douglas McGregor came to believe that it was only true for some people. The objective of recruitment must to be find these ‘some.’

    "I thought I could avoid being a 'boss'. ........... I could not have been more wrong. It took a couple of years, but I finally began to realise that a leader cannot avoid the exercise of authority any more than he can avoid responsibility for what happens to his organization. Moreover, since no important decision ever pleases everyone in the organization, he must absorb the displeasure, and sometimes severe hostility, of those who would have taken a different course. "

To the degree that the ‘right’ people are on board, to the extent that people share a common vision and hold values in common, to that degree decisions will be more easily taken and the degree of hostility will be less.

Extract taken from our Online Development Academy.