A senior leader in a well known company gave me an example of how her leadership team aren’t communicating with their teams about forthcoming organisational changes. This left the leader with a dilemma. Does she take over and effectively undermine her team, or just leave those even further below to flounder?
It’s a source of frustration for many leaders that the people below them just aren’t stepping up to the leadership role.
This creates a tension. Does the leader step in, and go over the manager below? Or do they continue to allow the poor leadership whilst trying to develop the leader in question?
In these situations, it’s often helpful to go back to basics.
Why don’t leaders communicate?
Why are the more junior leaders finding it so hard to communicate the changes?
- Have they never been through a restructure before themselves, so are missing the emotional empathy that comes from personal experience?
- Are they conflict averse, and fear having difficult conversations?
- Are they uncertain about what their own future holds?
- Do they not know what is expected of them in terms of communicating changes?
- Does the manager not “agree” with the changes?
- Do they have an expectation that the changes are communicated by you or some other more senior leader?
- Are they scared they will say the “wrong” thing?
How to encourage leaders to communicate the message
As always, a conversation between the leaders and her/his managers is a good place to start. Meet the team collectively, so that everyone hears the same message and then individually, so that a genuine conversation around expectations can take place.
In the best versions of these conversations, a manager will declare where and when they need support, and the leader can then set about providing that support.
Of course, sometimes the manager is either unaware or fears being open about what they need. In these cases, the leader will need to either go ‘softly softly’ or be completely directive, depending on the individual and their style.
It’s also vital that the leader can articulate clearly what their the expectations of every role are. For example, we know that employees prefer to hear about the impact of change on them and their job from their direct manager. We know that employees like to hear about strategic direction from the most senior of leaders. So, having a communication plan that addresses the various levels of communication and is clear on who is doing what can be helpful too.
Where to from here?
If you want to discuss how I could help you or a team member on dealing with difficult situations, get in touch.
And if you’re still hungry for more, you can find my leadership book here.
There are great chapters and resources on leading through change, communication and dealing with conflict.
Until next week, happy leading.
