Myths, Truths and Strategic Tools for Thriving the New Decade – Fiscal 18 Timely Useful Information
Does your management team feel they receive information about your company and operations in an understandable and timely format to run their departments? Or do they feel your business is still in bean counter scorekeeper mode, instead of business partner mode?
To help you answer this question, think about the following comments:
• Communications breakdowns are one of the biggest causes of conflict, organizational miscues and hurt feelings within a company. Everyone knows that knowledge is power, and sometimes at big companies, or even not so big companies, people feel that their leaders are not being as forthcoming or transparent as they could be.
• We have all been the recipients of bad communication at some point in our careers. It can be frustrating to feel like the higher ups do not care enough to keep you in the loop. Poor communication can lead to costly mistakes, general confusion, missed deadlines, budget overruns and botched opportunities. Worst of all, if your company has problems with effectively sharing information, your people are going to lose trust in your leadership. And that can be the most damaging and long lasting consequence. You do not want your people to roll their eyes in disbelief whenever they read a company press release. You do not want conference calls to be the fuel for derisive laughter.
• So ask yourself, what kind of communication flow do you have in place for your management team and other employees? Do you have a steady, open line of communication that goes both ways? Or do you let information trickle out? Are you reluctant to release any information until it is absolutely necessary, operating on the assumption that most people do not need to know?
• The most successful communications plans are not really plans, per se. Instead, the leadership of the company makes consistent, frequent, ongoing communications into part of its overall culture. Instead of handing down orders from on high at the last minute, sending your managers scrambling to get their teams in line, companies that are good at communication make sure that accurate, reliable information reaches all levels of the organization in a timely and efficient manner.
You may see different versions of this question in your life as:
What we have got here is a failure to communicate(Cool Hand Luke, film starring Paul Newman). The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place(George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright). Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions(Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager). Effective leaders adjust their style to provide what the group cannot provide for itself (Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager).
Do you truthfully answer this Yes or No?
Why?
Why Not?
How can the notes you just made help in your life, job and business? What one issue from your thoughts you noted when truthfully answering this question, will you start improving, TODAY?
Because risks are what really go wrong when you are not looking: stupid things like bounced checks, losing your best customers or best people when you are blindsided. You need to create peripheral vision in your business so you are not blindsided.
You need a perspective of life under the microscope and to have lived to tell the tale. Insights give a common sense approach to what people make complex, as companies grow.
Bottom line? Risks are what really go wrong when you are not looking: stupid things happen when you are blindsided. I help you create peripheral vision in your business, so you are not blindsided. For free Fiscal Test, visit http://www.fiscaldoctor.com/
From Gary W Patterson Copyright 2010
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