Communication and the Corporation
March 31, 2008
By Jack W. Reidenbach
All companies strive for operational success, including the development of new products, continued growth, increased market share, and rising profitability. But many of them don’t achieve it. The key lies in focusing on four core qualifications: the attitude of communication, the people, the process, and the results.
The Attitude of Communication
Understanding that language is a communication challenge—not a social barrier—is about attitude. Accepting cultural challenges as another form of expression rather than a threat is about attitude. And recognizing that individualism in any format reduces communication opportunities, weakens objectivity and understanding, and stops both cooperation and progress from developing is also about attitude.
Everyone has needs, wants, or interests they would like satisfied. Some may require communicating with just one individual you know, while others require a more comprehensive involvement of outside individuals, groups, or organizations. Regardless of who is involved, one thing remains basic: You must show you can listen.
Just by listening, one can show respect of another's opinion and sensitivity for his or her concern, as well as strengthen the opportunity for potential cooperation.
That's pretty impressive for not even opening your mouth. As a matter of fact, becoming an effective listener strengthens your character and enhances both the anticipation and appreciation for you to respond.
With language and cultural diversities prevalent in today's society, and corporate and federal organizations needing to show integrity in the dissemination of information, showing interest in someone’s request and/or opinion is key to developing the initial relationship. When you're recognized as someone who is willing to establish a rapport of concern, consideration, and commitment to resolve the task at hand, then you're well on your way to satisfying a common goal. Although other considerations may be included in the negotiations and may well become part of the final outcome, the common goal or objective must not be blurred with rhetoric. Even a compromise is a step in the right direction, and should be accepted enthusiastically. Nevertheless, a compromise only will partially satisfy the original goal. You need to be outwardly positive about the progress made, and respectfully adamant about continuing discussions. Accomplishments are not a product of satisfaction, but of intellectual persistence.
Being able to talk is not the same as being able to communicate. Your voice must not just be heard, but understood. Your information must not be conjecture, but fact. Your tone must express the strength of your character and your attitude the decisiveness of your convictions. Communication is about direction, resolution, and effectiveness. Are you decisive or hesitant? Are you compassionate or indifferent? Are you in control or being controlled? Remember, effective communication is not only reaching your goal/objective, but also doing so with each participant's commitment. The alliances you establish and the method by which they are maintained are the key building blocks to sustaining both meaningful cooperation and long-term relationships.
The People
My definition of a leader is an individual who has gained the respect of others as a result of his or her ability to communicate with them effectively and exhibit fair and accurate decision-making capabilities. If that form of respect is not obtained, you as a "leader" will be challenged to the point of inadequacy.
The ideology of "taking charge," "taking control," and "dictating how it's going to be," in my opinion, will not make you a leader. These methods only offer one-way communication—basically the "bully" approach. They lack the intellect, understanding, and finesse required to communicate at the employee, management, and/or political level.
The best approach to accomplishing any task is:
• Establish a team environment
• Provide them with adequate training
• Provide them with written guidelines/procedures
• Make them aware of your expectations in performance
• Make them aware of your resolutions to poor performance
• Be supportive
Employees must understand what is expected. In doing so, they learn that each individual team member is dependent upon one another in the overall success of the project/objective. Because that cooperation will directly affect the timeliness of project/objective completion, it is critical from a leadership standpoint that this cooperation be closely monitored and maintained. Both support and communication are key elements to the team's success.
Our workforce is characterized by diversity. The importance of understanding that language and culture considerations play an important part in today's organizational development is imperative to the success of that organization. Leadership, communication, and training all must address this issue.
Employees like to succeed. A diverse labor force does not alter that philosophy. Employees who have an understanding of what's expected and the training to perform the job will do their best to perform it well. Being part of a team environment will increase the competitiveness of that performance, and ultimately lead to quality results.
As the leader of a group, department, corporation, or organization, we must provide the tools necessary to accommodate this training. Where necessary, bilingual supervision would be a plus, a provision for English classes for those who may desire it, as well as cultural diversity classes for English-speaking-only employees. In a world where diversity is the norm, it depends on the extent leadership wants to go to accommodate the understanding required to obtain excellence in both product and performance.
Developing a team means having people work in a joint and cooperative manner. The coordination of that effort toward successful execution solely resides in the leadership of that team. Leadership must be the catalyst for accomplishment.
The Process
"Change" always has been a word that has a negative—if not a chilling—effect on all those involved. It usually means management thinks something is wrong, and, therefore, management needs to make "changes" to make things right. Fact of the matter is, management needs to move in a direction that improves upon the "now" and accommodates the future. This is more commonly referred to as the challenge of "strategic planning." If you want to get people involved, then challenge them to be a part of something important, and let them be a member of an improvement process, not a change syndrome.
Corporate philosophy must entail researching product viability/cost, capital equipment requirements/expenditures, building costs, marketing requirements, labor availability and costs, packaging, distribution methods and costs, and expectation of margins and bottom-line profitability. Once this information has been gathered and carefully reviewed, a decision will be made whether or not to proceed with new product development. If development is to continue, financial considerations must be put in place and a time plan developed to accommodate building and capital expenditure requirements. In parallel, management must be put in place, departments established, departmental policies and procedures written, and a labor force both hired and trained. Each step toward the "objective" must be planned and monitored for results. That objective: a quality product/service, within the timelines and pricing of customer expectations, at a cost that provides for expected profitability.
Now comes the even greater challenge: the continued improvement of that objective. For example, if we are going to maintain overall customer satisfaction, then we must provide for the following key factors:
• Monitoring vendor quality, costs, and deliveries
• Improving product/packaging engineering design
• Improving manufacturing processes
• Reviewing and redesigning the marketing approach
Corporations/organizations often may become complacent in the area of continued product/service improvement. This complacency is a key factor in the loss of market share and can directly impact the continued growth of the business/organization.
In reality, if you cannot answer the "why," your objective belongs to the competition. You must be prepared to make the decisions necessary to solve the problem. For example:
• You need to communicate with customers to determine their likes and/or dislikes; otherwise you cannot understand why you may be losing market share.
• You need to continually review all that is associated with product cost; otherwise you cannot understand why your margins are rising.
• You need to review your marketing approach; otherwise you cannot understand why your customer base is dwindling.
The list goes on and on, but it is nothing you would not have expected.
The real problem lies in your ability to solve these problems. Is your management staff held accountable for taking the steps required to insure profitability? Are growth and profitability true priorities? Are you prepared to take on the challenges of making the timely corrections to resolve the problem and re-establish the original objective?
If your true priority is maintaining profitability and stimulating growth, then the decisions, although sometimes difficult, will become clear. If you think profitability and growth can be rationalized using the "we're working on it" mentality, your corporate/organizational environment probably will reflect status quo, rather than state-of-the-art credentials. Which would you prefer?
The Results
Providing well-written and well-thought-out procedures and policies—and updating these documents to accommodate a continually changing business environment—would be a definite asset in meeting organizational goals and customer quality concerns. However, just being results driven is not sufficient for meeting goals/objectives. Success lies in your ability to execute as a team.
First, you must assemble a qualified management staff, capable of communicating well with you, with each other, and with third-party participants. This positive interaction will allow for expression of ideas, recognizing potential problems and significantly reducing the chance of failure. Why? Because individuals who feel comfortable with the leadership and the team atmosphere this leadership instills will not hesitate to express their opinions. That "comfort zone" breeds new technology and improved processing methods, plus retained current market share and new markets. All that positive productive effort is the result of execution. All that well-developed execution is the result of leadership's ability to understand that listening, acknowledging, and appreciating ideas creates not only a successful team, but a team that reduces unexpected problems and increases performance quality.
Timely and effective results are the objective. A "whatever it takes attitude" may be one choice of approach. However "accountability of execution" will be the ultimate answer. Each team member must keep their energies focused, their timetable accurate, and their results a reality. Leadership, on the other hand, must address this accountability issue by monitoring progress and resolving both in-house and third-party problems via effective communication and technical competency. Pinpointing problems early, evaluating alternative solutions, and providing a decisive response will assist in eliminating failure and add validity to a timely project completion.
Jack Reidenbach spent 35 years in the business sector, with positions ranging from systems analyst with Eaton Corporation to vice president of manufacturing with KMW Systems Corporation.
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