MANAGEMENT SPECIAL ....Cos must engage, empower frontline employees to win

Cos must engage, empower frontline employees to win

Leadership Conversations Best Way To Handle Agenda For Change

As the command-and-control style of management from the industrial era becomes less and less viable, and new technologies and changes affect how companies create value, the topdown model of leadership has become outdated. The context for leadership communication has clearly undergone a shift from corporate communication to leadership conversations: 

Organisational change:

 Organisational structures are becoming flatter as tall structures mean more tedious communication. Also, in the knowledge era — whether the top management teams want to accept this or not — the hierarchy has imploded. There is nothing to say that knowledge resides only at the top of the organisation. Those who engage their frontline staff and empower them are more likely to win in this environment.

Demographic changes: 

As the Millennials and other younger workers invade the workplace, they expect more clarity, more top-down and bottoms-up communication and lesser power distances to contribute effectively.

Technology: 

Digital networks and instant connectivity have been great disrupters and have positively impacted connectivity, speed, need to know and the need to build a smart organisation where information sharing leads to greater agility.

The occupational intimacy space: 

Particularly for leaders, it is important to know that only they themselves occupy the space of occupational intimacy for their teams. Only they can help clarify or inspire their teams. Physical proximity between leaders and employees isn’t always feasible, but mental or emotional proximity is always essential. Conversations, especially the difficult ones, are always left for another day. The under-performance conversations, the behavioural feedback conversations, the constructive conflict conversations, the career conversations have a way to move from the back burner to the deep freeze easily. When the stakes are great, and emotions run high, these are the tough conversations most leaders avoid. Some part of this is to do with facesaving — the inability to take the risks to jeopardise relationships, stress the other and also the fear of demotivating the employee instead of improving performance.

Conversations must gain trust:

Most difficult conversations generate cortisol, the stress hormone, because there is an inability to be direct, support perception with fact and, most importantly, speak of the ‘impact’ of behaviour. Listening, being authentic, direct, solution-oriented and genuinely interested in resolving issues can generate oxytocin in the brain instead — the trust hormone. Conversations, no matter how difficult, can actually generate trust in the relationship, and a leader skilled in conversations knows how to use these conversations well.

Leadership conversations are opportunities:

› To connect emotionally to understand and empathise

› For the leader to influence through listening, which is a strong influencing style

› To find common ground and get the employee on the same side

› To get the employee to connect with the larger picture

› To connect with the leader’s intentionality

Leadership conversations are the most powerful ways of navigating and influencing the change agenda within organisations. Leaders must proactively be engaged in focusing, shaping, and influencing the organisation’s communication through the spoken aspects of conversations.

The writer is CEO of Capstone People Consulting.

By Sujaya Banerjee

TAS 20NOV18