The Communication Problem Solver 7

The Communication Problem Solver 7. Managers need top-flight communication skills to keep their staffs productive and collaborative. But often, those who manage lack the ability to get things back on track once miscommunication occurs. This book helps readers analyze their communication skills and challenges and explains how they can use simple problem-solving techniques to resolve the people issues that derail productivity at work. Easily accessible and filled with real world management examples. This no-nonsense guide is packed with practical tools to help any manager be immediately effective, as well as a handy list of common communication problems and corresponding solutions....
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The Communication Problem Solver 7 T HE S ECRETS TO C REATING AND S USTAINING E NERGIZED R ELATIONSHIPSSetting Turbocharged Expectations for Your StaffOnce you and your boss finalize the ‘‘Clarifying Expectations Worksheet’’(or your version of such a worksheet), it is time to trickle the communi-cation over to your staff. You need to clearly set expectations for yourstaff. They need to be crystal clear on their responsibilities and levels ofauthority so they can meet your expectations. If they are managers, you might ask them to use the same worksheetthat you did. If they are individual contributors, ask each direct report tomake a list of what they think their responsibilities and performanceexpectations are. Ask them to indicate what level of authority they thinkthey have for each of the responsibilities. Then follow the same stepsas you did with your boss. Meet with each person and discuss areas ofagreement and what must be modified, added, or deleted. Set up aweekly meeting to stay in continual communication about how well theperformance expectations are being met. Establishing transparent expectations and using the communicationtechniques recommended in this chapter will enhance your direct re-ports’ ability to obtain quality results on time. You will also forge andbolster trustworthy working relationships and prevent people problems.How Performance Expectations Link with Delegating,Giving Feedback, and CoachingSince performance expectations are what you are trying to attain, theyare the basis for any conversations you have with employees when dele-gating. To perform well, the employee must understand the assignmentbeing delegated. He must know whether he has full authority on all as-pects of the task or project or if he needs approval. He needs to knowwhen you both will meet to discuss the checkpoints. At the checkpoints, or whenever it is appropriate, you give feedbackon progress. Feedback should relate back to the performance expecta-tion—what the employee was asked to do. When you coach, again, the topic is optimal performance—so you42— S ETTING E XPECTATIONS WITH T URBOCHARGED C LARITYrevisit performance expectations. Therefore, the foundation of thesevital management functions is to gain turbocharged clarity on perfor-mance expectations so you can get what you want and need to be done.SummaryPowerful managers have comprehensive knowledge of their organiza-tions, the goals, and what they need to accomplish. They ally themselveswith their managers, upper management, and the results that need to beachieved. They also work with their staff to ensure that the direction andexpectations of the organization are understood as they apply to directreports’ jobs. This chapter has covered how to specify unambiguous expectations.Chapter 3 offers suggestions on how to communicate those expectationsto employees and ensure that they are understood as intended. —43 CHAPTER 3 Communicating Your Expectations: What to Say and How to Say ItOnce you have defined your clear-cut expectations, you need to commu-nicate them in a way that creates and sustains energized relationships.How you introduce your expectations impacts how your staff perceivesyour credibility—can they trust that you will treat them professionallyand give them the support they need to succeed? What you say, howmuch you say, and how you say it will influence whether they achievethe needed results and whether they take ownership of the task. In this chapter we are going to look at the day-to-day expectationsthat employees receive on an ongoing, ad hoc basis. This chapter as-sumes knowledge of the basic expectations such as goal setting, job de-scriptions, and performance standards. For a refresher, or if you are notfamiliar with them, they are covered in Appendix A.Importance of Communicating ExpectationsYou can use the worksheet provided in Chapter 2, your own list, or proj-ect documents specific to your organization to create turbocharged ex-pectations. The more definitive the expectations, the greater the chanceof achieving the desired outcome. That is the beginning.44— C OMMUNICATING Y OUR E XPECTATIONS : W HAT TO S AY AND H OW TO S AY I T Next comes how you communicate those expectations. The conver-sations when you communicate the expectations will seal the employ-ee’s understanding and commitment. How you communicate—whatyou say, how you say it, and how much you tell—will impact your work-ing relationship for the imminent task and for future work with this em-ployee. At one end of the spectrum is a manager who relinquishes allresponsibility and authority to the employee. At the opposite end is amanager who micromanages. Neither of these approaches is balanced.It is important to energize, empower, and support direct reports, andalso to give them just the right amount of guidance and direction thatthey need to get the task done.Stating Performance ExpectationsEven unwritten expectations need to be decided upon in a specific wayand then communicated, because employees cannot meet vague, un-specified requirements. If a manager instructs employees about thestandard after they have erred, it is punishing and damaging to the rela-tionship. It provokes fear in employees of making more mistakes be-cause they don’t know the rules. Every day managers make assumptions that employees are like themor know what to do. When the employee doesn’t deliver on the assump-tion, many managers get upset and/or blame the employee, or label himwith a word like ‘‘slacker,’’ or say he has a poor work ethic. Often it isjust a misunderstanding that could easily be handled as a one-off insteadof lum ...