Managers Inform, Leaders Connect! Date:   Monday , June 29, 2009 One of the most difficult challenges for organizations seems to be “connecting with people”. Employee Satisfaction Surveys conducted periodically confirm this challenge. Leadership teams, HR and Internal communication managers are at a loss to understand what more can be done even as they take stock of various communication initiatives implemented already. These initiatives often cover both top down and bottom up information sharing and are routinely performed, monitored and measured. The issue at hand is basically not one of how much is communicated, how well and how often. It is more fundamental than that. It revolves around how well managers connect with the people through these various communication avenues and opportunities. It is this ability to connect with people that demarcates leaders amongst the managers. Communicating without connecting tantamounts merely to sharing information and such information sharing can be done many times and often more effectively without managers’ intervention indeed. Smart managers assume leadership roles by going beyond communicating, but doing everything they can to connect with their people. What constitutes “connecting with people?” While there is no well-defined secret sauce for connecting with people, I would advance the following as crucial for making the connection happen. There is then, of course, is the personal charisma leaders bring to the process. l Being clear about what to communicate, when to communicate and how to communicate in such a way that the message sticks l Creating and sustaining compelling conversations that result in message being understood, internalized and helps in influencing people to act l Enhancing the trust and cooperation between the managers and their people as much as between the people themselves l Eliminating misunderstanding & facilitate understanding in complex, controversial and difficult situations that are not uncommon in organizations l Encouraging the “doubting Thomas’s” to speak up and going the extra mile to help them understand Introspecting our communication skills: As managers, almost all of us believe that we are gifted with great communication skills. We for sure understand what we talk and why. And we often use ‘our understanding’ and ‘certain other clues’ to justify that we are doing a great job of communicating. Here is an illustrative list of these ‘certain other clues’ that blind us to our own blind spots: l We put in exhaustive efforts and used power-point decks, pictures, graphs and data to communicate – everything “presentation gurus” taught us in seminars and conferences on “making winning (and stunning) presentations!” l We used simple language and invited questions and answered them smartly l People we communicated to nodded their heads to the question if they understood it all well. l Some of our fellow managers and our own team members paid compliments to our communication session Make no mistakes; these are very important measurements of our communication effectiveness. But often not enough to ensure we connected well with people. Earlier in this article, I referred to the ability to connect as being more fundamental to becoming a leader. Let me explain this in some detail now Connection Principle 1: Being able to connect is a function of your consistency as a leader. Do your actions, priorities and practices match with your words? People switch off even as they may appear attentive if your consistency quotient is pathetic. Connection Principle 2: You connect a lot more and better when you come across as a person of credibility. While consistency is a key component of credibility, it demands much more to being and becoming credible. It is your look and language, your likeability factor cultivated over time, your values and integrity and your track record as a manager of people. Connection Principle 3: What do your people think of you as a caring person also determines how much you connect. Managers who care about their employees as individuals, about their colleagues and customers tend to make more effective connection. Connection Principle 4: Speed and Simultaneity impact the connection effect. When your team members have heard it all through others or through the grapevine, there is more disconnect than connect when you do the communication. Your people should know and hear from you what matters most for them before they get to read about in the media or from other “reliable source”. Connection Principle 5: More is better than less when it comes to connecting up. While ‘need to know’ as basis for sharing is well understood, good managers often open up a lot more than what may be considered ‘good enough’ They cover standard communication, address anxieties, invite to share rumours on the corridors and have a hearty laugh together with their people when some really funny but not true rumours come up. Leaders connect, while Managers inform: In the end, what differentiates leaders from managers is the ability to go beyond communicating to connecting with them. Connecting involves more than skills. It is about sincerity, speed, spontaneity, simultaneity and a sense of purpose. Cultivating this competence will differentiate men from the boys amongst managers. Remember the popular quote: “If you want to walk on waters, you must first get out of your boats!” Managers who aspire to upgrade themselves as leaders must remember this. The author is Executive Vice President & Chief People Officer, Symphony Services. He can be reached at mahalingam.c@symphonysv.com