WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH . . . COMMUNICATE!
©Carol Kinsey Goman

Lately, the business media has been filled with reports of plummeting stockprices, substantial layoffs, organizational restructuring, and more proposed mergers and take-overs. All this puts pressure on employees who need to adjust to the reality of a slowing economy, and on managers who need to communicate during tough times.

Ideally, you've created an open, ongoing dialogue with your staff and you have already established credibility. If you haven't been communicating openly and frequently, you need to start right now. When the going gets tough, an information vacuum from management makes things worse. You must get information out as soon as you can share it.

Remember too that you have hired the best and brightest people who are techno-savvy and have access to their own sources of information. And the greater the turmoil, the more you can expect people to stop believing and trusting in the standard communication channels, including leadership announcements, intranets and publications. Instead, they turn to externally controlled communication - friends, gossip, online chat rooms, and websites like vault.com (where users post grievances).

Managers who excel at communicating with employees in tough times respond with six approaches:

1. They are up-front and candid about what is happening and how it is going to be handled. A manufacturing company in Minneapolis applied this dictum during a downturn in business. After a key customer reduced an order, management called a company-wide meeting to explain how they were going to cut costs. They also discussed the steps they went through to come to this decision and what other options they discarded. Although a temporary pay cut was announced, employees spontaneously applauded. Unlike most employees elsewhere, they were being treated like responsible adults.

2. They find out what's going on in employees' heads and hearts. We're hearing a lot about researching employee attitudes through focus groups and formal surveys. That's essential, but it doesn't replace management's need to talk to people. Often all you need to do is ask employees. If managers are willing to listen, folks will tell you plenty.

3. They provide an experience, not a lecture. People learn experientially. Rubbermaid needed to improve competitiveness, so it held a "product fair" that featured items like storage bins and kitchen supplies. All the products belonged to the competition - and the fair was exclusively for Rubbermaid employees. You can bet that employees learned a lot about the need for improving quality, productivity, and profit margins. And
management didn't have to say a word.

4. They don't rely solely on technology. While intranets and email are wonderful for getting information to all employees at the same time, communication of emotionally-charged issues need human interaction -- one-on-one meetings with the top talent you especially want to retain, town hall meetings, small group meetings, and a variety of discussion forums with the CEO. It is important to educate, inform and rely on first-line supervisors as the key communicators. They are the only ones who can answer the three most important questions that all employees have: What's going to
happen to me? What's going to happen to me? What's going to happen to me?

5. They are emotionally literate. When giving people bad news, you've got to be prepared for the predictable ways human being will react to it. You can expect a range of emotions, including shock and denial, which can lull managers into thinking that people are all right with the situation. But you shouldn't assume that everything is hunky-dory. If you've just delivered bad news and no one seems to be concerned, it usually means that they don't believe you. You should continue communicating until the new reality sinks in. Denial then shifts into resistance -- heavy emotional stuff such as anger, fear, depression, active or passive aggression. Everything gets magnified. And because people are so emotional, their focus gets drawn inward. Productivity goes down, customer service wanes, absenteeism increases.

Once the resistance stage comes, you can drop the constant messaging for a moment and start to address people's concerns, anxieties and fears. Let employees know that it is safe and acceptable to express their negative feelings. People are going to vent anyhow and will find somewhere else to do it. If you facilitate the resistance, you're going to see what their concerns are and find out if they are legitimate or not. And if you're smart, you can say, "I hear that concern, it's valid, and this is what we're doing about it." Or if it's not legitimate, you can say, "this isn't going to happen."

The beginning of anything new always means the death of the old. The economic reversals in the technology sector is the death of the "work 80 hours a week now and retire as a millionaire at thirty" dream of many young workers. Reorganizing the way work gets done means employees have to give up the competence and confidence they gained with the old system. Employees under new leadership (or ownership) must relinquish the relationships they created with their previous management (or organization). With every "death" comes a period of mourning where people grieve for what they are being asked to leave behind. You can help employees detach from the past by allowing them to mourn it. From commemorative videos to parties celebrating the history of the organization, rituals help people say good-bye and move on.

6. They lead by example. Your staff will be looking at you to see how well you deal with tough times. Do you maintain a high level of performance? Do you accept new responsibilities? Do you gracefully let go of the past? Do you show enthusiasm for the changes taking place? Do you keep your sense of humor? Do you optimistically embrace the future? Managing in tough times is challenging and difficult. But when you embody the behaviors and attitudes you want to see in others, then you are communicating a most powerful message.