Happy Friday!
How fast February flies by! We hope the holiday fog has cleared and that the new year is off to a good start for you and your teams.
At AWP, we are celebrating our theme of Understanding. We define understanding simply as “getting a clear and complete idea of something.”
Understanding is necessary to get things done right. When understanding is missing in communication it creates confusion. That begins a costly cycle of problems, frustration, and lost resources.
For example, if an employee making a product doesn’t fully understand how to use one of their pieces of equipment, they’ll eventually do something incorrectly or become confused, resulting in a problem with their product. If the product is not right, it may disappoint customers and it will have to be fixed. Fixing the work product will cost additional time and potentially cause missed deadlines. Missing deadlines means we have failed to deliver as promised to clients, and we now have more work to do than the time we allotted for it. Worst of all, the confusion and frustration coming from this makes employees unhappy about their jobs.
We can avoid all this when we ensure understanding. That comes down to leaders. Leaders are responsible for ensuring that:
- Their people are reaching understanding when they communicate with each other
- Their teams have the information and training for the work they do, and that they understand all of it
- Their people feel safe to say when they don’t understand something, and to ask questions when needed
When we have teams that are able to consistently achieve understanding and work without confusion, we save time and money. Best of all, it makes everyone happier at work.
See you in March!
The Amazing Workplace Team
Did you know…
Our SecuraHR Platform now has training for HR topics that workplaces need, like creating respectful workplaces, preventing harassment, understanding safety expectations, communicating for better leadership, and more!
Training is automated and easy to add to your onboarding and routine compliance activities.
Want to see how it works?
Amazing Insights
Improve understanding by setting a tone of respect
As we noted above, leaders have the power to make understanding possible. A study from the Novak Leadership Institute at the University of Missouri explores how leaders’ own communication style drives understanding, most importantly because leaders establish the level of respect and attentiveness to others that employees will follow in turn. Respect in communication means “treating other people’s thoughts and contributions as valuable and worthy of attention.”
Justin F. Willett, program director at the Novak Leadership Institute and lead author of the study summarized the positive impact when leaders communicate well:
“The primary role of leader communication is to establish a respectful culture and facilitate recognition of individual employees for their unique strengths and accomplishments. It’s respect that is directly responsible for the positive employee outcomes that contribute to organizational success.”
