Great Managers Are Made Not Born should be the mantra for any organization. Creating great managers through training and education leads to a more successful company and happier employees.
Office morale is one area that is seldom focused upon and yet office morale is a huge part of company culture. It either supports your culture or it tears it apart one wild rumor at a time.
But no one really does anything to address the rumor mill until they hear something that finally breaks the camel’s back.
What is a rumor? Why is it so impactful? What creates a rumor? What can be done about the negative impact of rumors on your organization?
Rumor def. –
a currently circulating story or report of uncertain or doubtful truth.
When an organization wants to excel they need to communicate effectively with their people. Many organizations think that means having a staff meeting or two, sending out emails and memos, and putting up posters that use uplifting mottos all around the hallways and lunchrooms.
But if you really want a working uplifting energized culture then you need to create a culture of communication.
That starts with hiring practices. Today’s hiring seems to happen with almost no human contact. Walk into any organization and apply. They will almost always say you have to go ‘online’ to fill out an application. Then there are modifiers in the online that sort out what they are looking for. Specific words or phrases that select specific resumes to be looked at and then those are sorted by people not specifically trained to look at people but more at qualifications.
How then do you capture a specific cultural from a candidate that you haven’t even met, conversed with, or learned enough about to see if they fit into your desired personality type for your organization?
And the answer is, you can’t. Therefore the rumor mill is controlled by who your organization hires.
Based upon this, what can a manager actually do to control the rumor mill?
Each manager is responsible for their department. And it becomes the organizations’ responsibility to connect with and communicate with their managers. A failure to do this will lead to loss of control of each department and the communication that happens in those departments,
Each manager is responsible for maintaining that communication and passing that communication on to their people.
In order to be a great manager, you need to have open communication with your staff. A wide-open style of listening to every person and creating a relationship that allows you to learn and understand your people, what motivates them, what challenges they have and how they need to be interacted with.
That relationship will allow you to know each employee and be able to communicate more effectively. This effective communication will allow you to be open to hearing each rumor as it surfaces. Inviting people to share their anxieties, their concerns, their questions as they arise.
Rumors that run unchecked create anxiety among your staff. When learned and dealt with through effective communication you minimize the effect these will have upon your organization.
Keeping a positive, motivated, informed staff helps to create the atmosphere conducive to a successful organization dedicated to creativity and a happier workplace.
I am Steve Sapato – your effective communication expert.
steve@stevesapato.com
