Thursday, August 26, 2010

Communicating Up, Down and Across the Organization

I have been preaching that you have to stay close to your CEO, communicate daily with him/her as well as have daily meetings. I am sure I do not need to tell you that it is equally important that you are able to communicate across the organization to be effective.

If you are a good communicator you should be able to portray a high level of self-confidence, self-concept, and project a positive external image to the managers you support up, down, and across the organization. There are ways to do this and the best way is to make sure you have established  trust and credibility. If you have these two(2) key elements you will have stronger working relationships with those that you support. These key elements are the foundation of your level of effectiveness in your organization.

If you have these two(2) building blocks you then need to make sure you are an effective influencer,that you provide a clear and direct image and knowledge base. You need to make sure you have targeted your audience and built a message that is clear and concise that people understand and not mistake or feel it is HR speak. If you can do this you will reap beneficial results for your project/program/initiative or whatever. This will also flow though to your subordinates.

I hope that this short message on communication is helpful especially to the mid-level HR manager, director. For those at the top, the CHRO, CPO you should already know this.