Communication Breakdowns

Communication Breakdowns

Early in my career I was working with a super high stake’s client. This client organization existed because of several large investors and a huge government grant. My team had a very specific job to do. We listened to our internal leaders about the goals of what we were supposed to provide and as a young team lead, I went about my way creating a multitude of spread sheets to track and manage our delivery and outcomes. I just knew the ROI for this client was going to be through the roof and I envisioned wowing them with what my team could do. At the end of the grant cycle (roughly one year) we had exceeded the goals in every single area, and I was thrilled.

But we did not deliver.

The client was not happy with the partnership and chose not to continue with us. I felt like my career as a young leader had finished before it started and there I was, staring right into the face of a big yucky customer complaint. If you read the title of this article, I bet you can guess the punch line of this story. My team did, in fact, deliver on what we were told we were supposed to do. This organization’s leaders and our organization’s leaders had a conversation about where this was supposed to land and, you guessed it, there was an enormous breakdown in communication. One person said one thing, the investors wanted another, our leaders heard something else and we never took the time to connect with stakeholders at the upper level to confirm. What was supposed to be a celebration turned into a mess and I felt defeated in the worst way. Can you relate?

“The biggest challenge with communication is the illusion 
that it has taken place” – George Bernard Shaw        

?Effective Communication Matters

Effective communication is an essential aspect of organizational development and of life. Research by Shanahan and Hyman (2021), states that communication climate plays a vital role in shaping the behavior of employees in the workplace. The authors emphasize that the creation of an open and supportive communication climate leads to increased job satisfaction, motivation, and commitment among employees. Organizational psychologists have also studied the impact of communication on team dynamics. In a study by Kiewitz et al. (2019), the authors found that communication patterns are critical in shaping team effectiveness. Effective communication within teams helps to establish clear goals, develop relationships, and promote collaboration. The authors suggest that team members should be trained in effective communication skills, such as active listening and providing feedback, to improve team performance.

We all know communicating effectively is critical to business but the challenge lies in how to teach it. Most of us are not born as gifted communicators who are able to develop rapport and community with an initial interaction. ?This is why off-site training and in-house coaching can only go so far to develop communication skills. What’s even harder is that teams are made up of multiple people of varying skills, desires, preferences, and drives. Moreover, if someone is not acutely aware of who they are and what they need how are they supposed to recognize that in another? Breakdowns in communication cost billions of dollars every year in customer and employee attrition and engagement. This may be one of the biggest issues facing business today and yet we really haven’t learned to tackle it effectively. In many instances, we think about communication as how we connect and talk to others but it actually has much more nuance than that.

Understanding Barriers in Communication

Communication has several parts to it:

1.????How you show up (sometimes called non-verbal communication or body language)

2.????How you speak

3.????How you ask questions

4.????What you listen for

5.????What you hear

6.????What you need to feel respected

7.????What others need to feel respected

8.????The information you and those around you need to feel confident with the outcome of the interaction

Perhaps the reason folks haven’t be able to tackle this in a sustainable way is because communication is a multifaceted and complex process, disguised as something simple (how we talk to each other).?The good news is that we have some leverage in this space just by taking a pause to uncover parts of our personality and caring enough about others or, at the very least, the outcome of our business to look at parts of the personality of someone else.

It is not hard to do this, it’s different. We have to shift our mindset
from “how can we communicate better?” to 
“what do I know about myself and those around me 
that can inform how we communicate with each other?” ?        

Getting Better at Communication With Your Team

Good communication starts with self-awareness. Understanding how you need to be approached to be open to an interaction and the information you need to feel confident in that interaction are critical and often-overlooked first steps in building communication competence. At Personalysis? we call this the social and instinctive dimensions of your personality. ?All human beings have a wide array of needs and they are often different from each other. By understanding these needs, team members can communicate in a way that meets those needs.?The next part of the journey to being an effective communicator is recognizing and respecting these needs in those around you.

It is only after uncovering and understanding the needs of ourselves and others that we can start to develop skill. Skill development is usually the place where most organizations start with teaching communication, but it should actually come a little later in the process. Skills in communication are important and should not be overlooked but to make them really stick we have to come into learning them with a level of proficiency. We have been in business for over 40 years and have worked with millions of teams. Below are the top 5 skills we see teams across the globe utilize to build effective communication. These are the tried-and-true components of helping people understand and relate to one another:

?Top 5 Skills for Effective Communication

1.????Understanding personality in self and others: Personality differences can impact communication styles and create misunderstandings. By understanding personality differences, team members can communicate more effectively and avoid conflicts. For example, a team member who is internal in their thinking and more quiet in their approach may need more time to process information before sharing their thoughts. Other team members can allow them space and time to think before expecting a response.

2.????Active listening: This is a critical communication skill that involves paying attention to what the other person is saying and understanding their perspective. This is grounded in open-ended questions, a skill that is fairly easy to learn. By actively listening, team members can create a supportive and inclusive communication climate. During a team meeting, a team member may share a concern about a project's timeline. Instead of dismissing the concern, the other team members can actively listen, ask questions to gain more information, and brainstorm possible solutions.

3.????Creating a supportive communication climate: A supportive communication climate is crucial for team cohesion and productivity. By creating a supportive communication climate, team members can encourage open and honest communication, which can lead to more significant collaboration and success. Great teams often choose to create a communication charter that outlines expectations for communication, such as respectful communication, active listening, and constructive feedback.

4.????Providing feedback: Providing constructive feedback is a crucial communication skill that can help team members improve their performance. By giving feedback in a respectful and supportive way, team members can create a positive communication climate that encourages growth and development. This is a tougher skill to master and having a feedback culture takes time to develop. Organizations that participate in 360 feedback processes often find giving and receiving feedback a natural thing to do. Celebrating failure and creating and maintaining psychological safety (Edmondson, 1999) are also good practices.

5.????Recognizing and addressing communication barriers: Communication barriers can hinder effective communication and create misunderstandings. By recognizing and addressing communication barriers, team members can ensure that they are communicating clearly and effectively. For example, one team member may feel it prudent to use text message to communicate important information while another may really need a phone call and find texting inappropriate at work. It is important in this instance that we are declarative about what mediums we use to disseminate information.

I feel certain that my first real exposure to communication breakdown did not happen due to lack of desire or even respect for what each organization needed. Everyone in that situation was a human, just doing their best to lead and support those of us that were delivering something meaningful. In hindsight, I wonder, though- could all of that have been avoided if we just knew each other a little better? ?

About #Personalysis

For over 40 years, Personalysis has been helping people work better, together? through our assessment, framework, coaching, onboarding tools, workshops, and certification programs.

Dr. Colleen Coffey Melchiorre is an Executive Consultant at Personalysis.?A tenacious and compassionate consultant, Colleen draws on almost 20 years of organizational development work to help people have the space to know and celebrate themselves and others.

?#personalysis #personalityassessment #communicationskills #teamdevelopment #teamcoaching #leadershipdevelopement #coachingskills

References:

Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999

Kiewitz, C., Restubog, S. L. D., Shoss, M. K., Garcia, P. R. J. M., & Tang, R. L. (2019). Exploring the role of communication in team effectiveness: A mixed methods study. Journal of Business and Psychology, 34(3), 407-426.

Shanahan, K. J., & Hyman, M. R. (2021). Communication climate and employee behavior: An examination of the influence of openness and supportiveness. Journal of Business and Psychology, 36(1), 47-58.