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Building Leadership/Line Management

Communication Capability
Allman Communication Workshop
29th April 2009
Agenda

 Introductions & desired outcomes

 Theory: The three Cs of employee communication & the


importance of leadership/line management communication

 Session One: Changing Communication Style

 Session Two: Adopting a Coaching Leadership Style

 Wrap up

 Networking lunch

 2.00pm Close
Lesley Allman, MD, Allman Communication

 Over 20 years of internal &


external corporate communication
experience

 Director of Communication at
Coors Brewers (formerly Bass)
and previously a Board Director of
Rote PR (part of Shandwick plc)

 BSc in Management and MBA


(2002) including dissertation on
employee engagement

 CIPR member and frequent


communication conference
speaker
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Angela Cassidy, Associate, Allman
Communication

 A specialist in change and leadership


communication

 Extensive experience of developing


and implementing leadership and
management programmes to deliver
behavioural change and achieve
business goals

 Senior Communication Consultant at


LloydsTSB, advising on managing
change and developing the skills and
knowledge of leaders

 Accredited coach (via Barefoot


Coaching and University of Chester)

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Allman Communication clients

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Our awards

 Class Winner in CiB Central Awards 2009 – Best Agency

 Finalist in CIPR Excellence 2008 – Outstanding Small Consultancy

 Finalist in PR Week Awards 2008 – New Consultancy of The Year

 Class Winner in CiB Central Awards 2008 – Strategy: Merger &


Change

 Silver Award in CIPR Pride Awards 2008 – Outstanding Small


Consultancy

 Finalist in CIPR Pride Awards 2008 – Internal Communication


The three Cs of employee communication

Content
WHERE Channel WHAT
i.e. Messages &
i.e. Format
Materials
of comms

Capabilit
y
i.e. Skills
&
Behaviour
s

HOW
How would you rate the communication
performance of line managers in your
organisation?

40
35
30
25
Those who measure
20
15
Those who don't
10 measure
5
0
good/very poor/very
good poor

Source: Melcrum
Have you defined communication
competencies for managers?

60

50

40

30
Large Company
20 Data

10

0
yes no don't
know
Source: Melcrum
When you track communication performance
of managers, what are you measuring?

 Only one in five respondents were actually measuring


the communication performance of managers

 Of those who measured, top three most common


measures were:
» 70% changes in employee satisfaction
» 59% 360 degree feedback
» 54% changes to employee’s understanding of the
business strategy/goals

Source: Melcrum
Have you implemented communication
training for managers in your organisation?

 Training i.e. formal education or coaching


» 54% don’t offer any communication training to managers
» Of those who do train, 34% train senior, middle and front
line managers
» Training tools tend to be tactical e.g. presentation skills

 Tools i.e. “spoon feeding” managers with tools, models,


templates etc. to help them to deliver more effective
briefings or day to day communication
» 73% use communication toolkits

Source: Melcrum
Rewarding & recognising effective
communication

“Our greatest problem is that we all agree line manager


communication needs attention, but no one will support it with
rewards or consequences. Without the necessary reinforcement,
our efforts to improve the front line managers’ communication
skills are somewhat futile”

 Barriers to rewarding & recognising communication


performance in managers include:
» Lack of method to measure communication
performance (32%)
» Company culture does not consider comms to be a core
competency for line managers (32%)
» Lack of senior management buy in (25%)
» Lack of funds (7%)

Source: Melcrum
Trust in management communication

60

50

40

30
UK
20 USA

10

0
National Senior Over 15 yrs
Norm Management service
Source: Mercer
Session one: changing communication style

 Agenda:

» Who has responsibility for employee engagement?


» Leadership communication skills
» Focus on Listening Actively and Managing Conflict
» Tools and techniques to develop a coaching style
Introducing SMILE – communication skills
model

Showing Managing
appreciation conflict

Engaging Involving
people everyone

Listening
actively

© Angela Cassidy 2008


The 5 levels of listening – Stephen Covey

Within the other’s


Empathic frame of reference

Attentive

Selective Within
one’s own
frame of
Pretending reference

Not listening

Source: ‘The 7 habits of Highly Effective


People by Stephen Covey
The thinking environment – Nancy Kline

 The nine guidelines to a successful meeting

» At the beginning:
› Give everyone a turn to speak
› Ask everyone to say what is going well in their work (or the
group’s work)
» Throughout the meeting:
› Give attention without interruption during open and even fiery
discussion
› Ask incisive questions to reveal and remove assumptions that
are limiting ideas
› Divide into ‘Thinking Partnerships’ when thinking stalls
› Intermittently give everyone a turn to say what they think
› Permit the sharing of truth and information
› Permit the expression of feelings
» At the end:
› Ask everyone what went well in the meeting and what they
respect in each other
Source: ‘Time to Think – Listening to Ignite the Human Mind
by Nancy Kline
Thinking partnerships

 Spend five minutes telling your partner about your


latest work project or favourite pastime
 The listening partner should:
» Say nothing and not interrupt in any way
» Maintain eye contact at all times
» Occasionally smile or nod to show you are listening
actively
 Swap roles after five minutes
Managing conflict

 The Change Equation:


» Dissatisfaction
» Vision
» Steps or Skills
» Must be greater than the Resistance to Change

D x V x S > RC
Manager’s assumptions

 Example case study:


» Departmental merger of Marketing & Communications and
Sales teams in a large book publisher and retailer
» Currently both teams are in different locations and will move
to head office as one
» Reduction in job functions
» New Board Director to be appointed to lead new department
» More efficient, centralised processes to be introduced
» Reorganisation to be completed within six months
 What assumptions might a Senior Manager in either team be
making about their people?
 What questions could he or she be asking of their direct reports?
Questioning techniques

 Closed
» Results in a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer
 Leading
» Results in closing down the discussion
 Open
» Results in broader thinking, new ideas and solutions
 Probing
» Results in greater understanding for all involved
 Implication
» Results in challenges to own thinking and more options
 Opening ‘Mindsets’
» Results in enabling people to reassess the facts
Session Two: Adopting a coaching leadership
style

 Agenda:

» What is a coaching leadership style?


» Coaching culture and employee engagement
» Benefits and pitfalls of this approach
» Ways to introduce this into an organisation
Situational leadership model

High Supportive High Directive


Low Directive High Supportive
SUP
PO SUPPORTING COACHING
RT
I
VE Low Supportive High Directive
Low Directive Low Supportive

DELEGATING DIRECTING

DIRECTIVE behaviour
What is a coaching leadership style

 Spend a few minutes thinking about:

» What does a coaching leadership style mean to you?


» What is a leader doing or saying or thinking
when they use this style?
Coaching principles

 As coaches, we assume that:

» Everyone is doing their best


» Everyone has the resources within them to make
changes or do things differently
» Everyone creates their own reality
» Everyone has the answers within them
» We work with the attitude that things are possible
A coaching culture is where ….

 Everyone believes learning is critical


 Leaders use a coaching style/set the tone
 Decision-making is devolved
 Developing others is seen as key management responsibility
 Peers coach each other
 Having a mentor or coach is viewed positively
 Coaching is linked to business drivers
 Being coached is encouraged
 Providing coach training is critical
 Coaching behaviours are rewarded and recognised
 The move to coaching is managed and with a systematic
perspective
Benefits v. pitfalls

 Benefits
» Greater employee engagement in business plans
» Greater creativity and innovation from employees
» Greater sense of empowerment
» Greater communication between individuals, within teams, across
business
» Greater employee retention

 Pitfalls
» Performance management may become a longer/slower process
» Not everyone finds the new style easy to adopt / buys into it
» Top team do not ‘walk the talk’
» Operational priorities can get in the way and managers go back to old
habits
Ways to introduce a coaching culture

 Ensure it supports and is critical to achieving strategic business goals


 Reflected in the mission, vision and values statements
 Need is identified in employee opinion research
 Top team champion the introduction of the new culture
 Performance management system uses a coaching approach
 Management training re coaching skills is provided
 Conferences, away-days, team meetings all use coaching sessions
 New style is reflected in all cross-business media
 If not organisation-wide at first, then in pockets that spread
Adopting a coaching culture

 In pairs, spend ten minutes discussing:

» What benefits would/does this have to you, your


team
and/or your organisation
» What is your role as coach in this situation?
Wrap up

 Summary
 Any Questions
What does good look like?

 Two way dialogue on topics employee finds meaningful


 Regular and constructive performance feedback
 Involves employees in decisions that affect them
 Recognises employee contribution
 Discusses career & professional development
 Receptive to ideas & suggestions
 Holds salary discussions and gives fair reward
What does good look like ?

 Buys into and briefs company wide programmes


 Updates staff on news from other parts of the business
 Delivers key corporate messages
 Translates corporate strategy into meaningful actions for
team & individuals
 Elicits feedback and shares it with senior team
+
 The day job!
Communication competencies

Competency Behavioural Examples


Business  Connects company strategy to marketplace events
Acumen/  Aligns work unit goals to company strategy
Insight  Defines individual performance objectives & metrics

Feedback &  Spots opportunities to enhance employee performance


Coaching  Links contribution to rewards
 Prepares people for future assignments

Listening &  Stays focussed on the speaker


understanding  Understands speaker position before reacting
 Probe to determine the root cause of problems

Speaking/  Uses simple, direct language


Informing  Matches words to tone & body language
 Is sensitive to nuance & timing
Wrap up

 Sharing learnings & applying to your organisation


 Top tips
 Any questions
 Feedback form
Allman Communication
www.allmancommunication.com

Contact: Lesley Allman 07808 095803

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