What If Overcommunicating Is A Good Thing?

Overcommunicating as a concept isn’t talked about nearly enough, so I’m glad Brad Jacobs reminded me of this approach to team building through his recent book, “How To Make A Few Billion Dollars.”

See, we’ve always heard about how to communicate with your team, how important it is and how frequent it should be. However, overcommunication is different in that it often brings connotations of micromanagement.

Does it have to be seen in such a negative light, though?

Some, including Mr. Jacobs and yours truly, would argue that there’s no such thing as overcommunicating. As a leader, you have the full range of communication channels, from email to town halls to video chats to wandering the halls and dozens of other avenues.

Yet, there are two critical questions to ask yourself during this process:

1)?? Am I doing what I need to do to get the communication out?

2)?? Do I know that all the essential items have been sufficiently communicated?

Overcommunicating with the team implies that you do the talking and not take input. Wrong. Overcommunicating with the team within your environment entails watching and listening 70%-80% of the time and speaking only 20-30% of the time.

To be an effective communicator, you must always have both your transmitting and receiving settings turned on.

Is There Anybody Out There Who Can Hear Me?

As you switch those settings on and keep them on, you have to ask, “Is this getting through? Is the way I’m communicating OK with you? Is this the very best way for you to receive this information?” Why do we want to ask such questions? Because what’s obvious to you at the C-level may not be evident to the employee many levels down.

For example, let’s say you provide your organization with a video update on a project. For 15 minutes, you thoroughly walk through the project details, what you need to accomplish at each milestone and departmental responsibilities.

Clear as day, right? Not exactly.

As it turns out, the team resists this method of communication. They don’t feel an open dialogue is taking place. They can’t ask questions. You’re just communicating at them and to them but not with them.

Consequently, there’s a disconnect occurring. You think you’re sharing a great deal of information, and, in fact, you may very well be. But at the same time, you’re also having a conversation with yourself and patting yourself on the back for communicating with the team.

Meanwhile, they feel no natural give-and-take has occurred – only a mandate and set of orders.

Can you see how having the best intentions in communicating doesn’t go far enough until you’ve overcommunicated with people on an eye-to-eye, real-time level?

If you want to know with greater certainty that your message is getting through, follow both the Golden and Platinum Rules. For the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. For the Platinum Rule: Treat others the way that they want to be treated. Only with deep listening and understanding will the team feel your mission and actions in overcommunicating are genuine.

However, if you want the unfiltered truth about what others feel – the good, the bad and the ugly – you must do more than ask your direct reports for it.

To Get To The Truth, Go 2-3 Levels Down.

Some people may say that a CEO talking to employees two or three levels down is not a leader’s job. I would argue that if you want to hear about what’s going on and being discussed, talking two or three levels down in an organization is 100% critical.

That’s what makes a “Skip Level Meeting” one of the more valuable paths to overcommunicating with your team. A Skip Level Meeting happens when all levels of leadership and management meet with employees two levels down – we’re talking about the kind of people who don’t necessarily get to interact with leaders like yourself very often.

As such, it’s a terrific opportunity for employees at this level to speak their minds and for you to receive a rare perspective from them on what the company needs to address as a high priority. It’s a style of engagement that enables you to listen with intent on what these team members value most and discuss initiatives with greater transparency.

We’ve spoken about this concept before, referred to as “managing by wandering around.” It is, quite literally, wandering the building halls or factory floor to get a sense of the culture in action and getting real-time, up-close views of what is really happening.

Will everybody embrace that action on your part? Unlikely. You can be sure that several team members will be uncomfortable that you are wandering about “their domain.” But you have to do it. Not just once but many times over, so people believe it’s not just a rare tour by the “King” or “Queen” for the sake of appearances.

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Overcommunicating With The Most Unlikely Source

As head of the organization, you are expected to be responsible for frequently interfacing with the company’s largest customers. You might also walk the floor at a trade show to speak with prospective customers.

But what about overcommunicating with…your competition? Unheard of, right?

Perhaps not. While your competition may be trying to “spy” on you by striking up a conversation, I’ve often built good relationships with competitors. Not every interaction you have will be focused on head-to-head competition.

In fact, I’ve experienced times when the competition and my company worked together on projects, which required frequent and open communication to achieve the client’s goal.

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Here’s the unifying element in overcommunicating internally and externally: You always invite feedback.

Want to put out a weekly update to the company? Have a means for feedback to flow your way early and often, then respond to that person promptly. Because here’s what happens when you don’t respond to feedback, even if it’s to say, “Thank you.” That individual will ask themselves, “Why am I spending my time commenting if leadership isn’t even responding?”

There are opportunities to overcommunicate at every turn – not merely to keep the channels of communication open but to be an intense study of what people think.

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Look for these moments to have a dialogue with many different audiences. They will allow you to stay on the same wavelength as those who matter most. All while living up to being an insightful leader constantly learning and always adapting for the better.

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If you’re wondering how to form lasting, trustworthy relationships with your fellow C-suite members, employees, clients and competitors, turn to Spitulnik Advisors. Our leadership coaching and advisory programs draw from a number of highly successful approaches that have brought teams closer together and kept them there. We don’t have to tell you how positive that can be for retention efforts.

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Call us today at 312.593.3181 or email [email protected].

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