Booher BanterYour Resource for the best ideas to improve communications skills.

Only about one-third of employees at a typical company are fully engaged at their jobs, according to a recent survey by Right Management Consultants, a Philadelphia-based career transition and organizational consulting firm (www.right.com).  Their study goes on to report that in 28 percent of the 336 companies polled, management communicates its business strategy only with the leadership teams.  As a result, workers at these companies say they are unsure about their employers’ missions and strategies.  Further research suggests that these companies suffer from lower productivity and product quality as well and have more customer complaints and higher turnover. 

So the big question:  Why?  Why doesn’t management get the word out about where it’s going and how it plans to get there?  Most employees learn about the company’s inner workings and plans from their immediate supervisor day to day.  So why don’t organizations teach these immediate supervisors when to communicate, how to communicate, what to communicate?  Employees engage and commit and become more fully productive when they know what’s expected of them and understand how their job and day-to-day tasks fit into the big picture and goals of the organization. 

Why is it that generally only the middle managers and above receive training in communication and the lower-ranking supervisors and managers are left to fend for themselves in one-third of all organizations—the less profitable one-third?

Until somebody provides a good explanation for this obvious lapse in communication, I wholeheartedly agree with the solutions offered in Training Magazine (April 2006).  That is, create an internal speakers bureau within your organization to "get the word out" about your company—its business strategy and goals.  Implement the bureau idea with these tips:  1)  Identify leaders at the middle-management ranks and lower who are experts in their field.  2)  Offer them training in public speaking.  3)  Create an online presence for them with their bios, photos, and areas of expertise.

I take it back—it’s not really a cosmic question.  It’s a comic question.

Posted at 3:49pm in Uncategorized | Permalink | Add Comment » |

Am I the only one on the planet who still cares about proper grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and clarity?  I see the whole issue as one of attitude—an attitude of attention to detail and commitment to quality.  Actually, just so I can sleep better at night, I took a scientific poll at the hair salon yesterday and discovered the same issues surface there.  Let me fill you in on the results.

Here’s what started the whole thing.  Two weeks ago, we hired a 23-year-old college graduate with a 3.5 GPA as an administrative assistant.  Molly (name changed to protect the naïve) impressed us during the interview process and insisted that she really wanted this job in her field of interpersonal communication.  Because we teach email writing classes, we pointed out to her that all our employees have to be careful when communicating with clients—that clients notice errors and sometimes like to play “gotcha.”  Our point to her was that everything she sent out needed to be proofed carefully, yada, yada.  Her on-the-job coach reported that Molly was a fast learner on all the software and procedures.  Other than giving her a little help with punctuation, her supervisor considered Molly to be mastering the job quite well.  Imagine our surprise when Molly walked in on day nine and resigned:  “I just don’t think this job is a good fit.  Commas, semicolons, spelling, typos.  Those kinds of things just aren’t all that important to me.  They just don’t matter.”   

If you sell shoes for a living, they probably don’t.  But if you’re a knowledge worker, words are the commerce of ideas.

As several of us stood around the office and alternately laughed and lamented about the wasted time in training her, I reflected on the bigger issue:  the issue of attention to detail and commitment to accuracy in whatever work someone does. Getting the right pills in the correct medicine bottle.  Adding the passenger’s name to the correct flight reservation.  Putting the proper lug nut on the car wheel.

So that’s what I asked about in the hair salon on Saturday.  Am I expecting too much for people to care about getting the job done right—that if they teach email writing, they should know where the comma or semicolon goes to make sure the meaning is clear and not reversed?  The stylists on duty agreed and had their own story to tell.  A new-hire there had been working six weeks; on average, she’d called in at least two days per week, saying she couldn’t make it in on time to meet her appointments for one reason or another.  The owner had had to cancel or shuffle all her clients to other stylists.  In short, her tenure there was soon coming to an end for the same reasons—lack of commitment, inattention to detail.

Quality in communication comes down to the details.  And the details reflect an attitude about our readers and the entire communication process.

Posted at 3:14pm in General Communication | Permalink | Add Comment » |

After speaking this week to the International Conference and Exposition of ASTD (American Society of Training and Development), several attendees dropped by our tradeshow booth to talk to staff there.  One staff member commented on his reaction to two particular conversations that followed one right after the other:

The first attendee, identifying himself as a college professor, offered this piece of advice for the staff to pass on to me:  “Tell her the speech was great—except for the last point about showing concern in communication.  Tell her never to use a dramatic piece at the end because people will walk out on a ‘down’ note.”

Another attendee walked up immediately afterward and offered this comment:  “Tell her the speech was exceptional—especially the point about concern in communication.  I think it really made an impact on the crowd and they loved it.”

Two different people—two different opinions.  But those opinions were stated very differently.  The first opinion was stated as an irrefutable fact. The second, as opinion.  If you’re in sales, be persuasive. But if you need to gain emotional buy-in, break down barriers, or win hearts to achieve bigger goals, consider a less arrogant tone in favor of a more appealing communication style.

Posted at 7:08am in Communication—Oral | Permalink | Add Comment » |

I just witnessed this scene again today:  A colleague sprinted down the hall waving an email in her hand.  “What are you saying here—I don’t get it?”   The writer of the email provided the missing detail, re-explained the situation, and clarified using a more specific phrase than the vague one in the original document.

“Oh, okay. I follow you now.  I’ll take care of it,”  the email recipient responded and disappeared around the corner.  And the writer of the unclear document whistled his way on down the hall.

Flashback to a month earlier:  I was leading a Get Your Book Published seminar in which attendees had to formulate their book concept in one or two sentences. It came Susan’s (not her real name) turn to “pitch” her book concept to the group.  For the first time, the group fell totally silent.  Not a word of feedback.  Finally, someone spoke up to ask Susan to explain the concept further, and she gladly did so for the next five minutes.  Gradually, the group “caught” the idea and gave Susan intriguing feedback.  But then the strangest thing happened:  During the remainder of the seminar, Susan never changed the way she worded her pitch—even after met with the collective blank stare of confusion.  It seemed not to occur to her that maybe her original wording lacked clarity.

Bosses do the same thing with their administrative assistants.  They draft a report and ask the assistant to proofread it. The assistant brings the report back with sentences marked and comments, “I don’t understand what you mean here—this seems unclear.”  To which, the boss replies, “Oh, that’s just the technical aspects.  It’ll be clear to the lawyers who have to review it.”   Then two weeks later, the lawyers who review the report ask for a rewrite of the same sentences.

As a communication consultant to business, I’ve watched this scene unfold time and time again.  People always assume the confusion happens on the other end of the communication—that what they themselves say is perfectly clear and that the other person just “missed it” somehow.

Things always seem clear to us—or we wouldn’t have said it that way.  A better gauge of our own clarity:  Beware the blank stare.

Posted at 8:00am in Communication—Written | Permalink | Add Comment » |

No matter whether people agree or disagree with President Bush’s political positions, they typically admire his self-deprecating humor and the humility it represents.   At his recent Washington correspondents dinner, that ability to poke fun at himself seemed to be one thing the media responded to favorably.  Bush even brought along his "double,” comedian Steve Bridges, to add levity to the event. 

A couple of the favorite lines the media considered worthy of replay:

Bush at the lectern: “I always enjoy these events."  Bridges, the Bush double: "But why couldn’t I have dinner with the 36% of the people who like me?”

The double (Bridges) modeled for Bush one of my most difficult words to pronounce correctly: “Nu—cle–ar proliferation….nu—cle–ar proliferation.  Nu—cle–ar proliferation.”  Then Bush tried it:  “Noo-cu-ler pro-liberation.”  The crowd went wild as Bridges proclaimed, "Nailed it!"

The communication lesson to be learned here:  Humility and humor trump arrogance and harshness to create the likeability factor.   Self-deprecating humor can open hearts and minds to make people receptive to ideas in ways words alone cannot. 

Check this link for a video clip: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/free?cn=abcnews&mid=409511′,’playerWindow’,'width=793,height=608,scrollbars=
no,toolbar=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no’ target="_blank";;

Posted at 8:00am in Communication—Oral | Permalink | Add Comment » |

As administrator of our company’s 401K plan (in the absence of our general manager), I needed to renew our ERISA bond—the bond the law requires that guarantees the company doesn’t tamper with the employee retirement funds. So here’s what happened…

I call the brokerage house that set us up with the mutual fund company that holds our 401K funds to find the name of our contact.  The brokerage house tells me they no longer have anything to do with the account, and suggests that I call the mutual fund directly.  I call the mutual fund.  The mutual fund company says they just invest the money; they refer me to their 401K fund “administrator company.”  I call the administrator company.  The administrator company says they know nothing about ERISA bonds—except that the law requires that we have one.  They suggest that I call their parent company—the brokerage company (the people I first called).  Back to square one. 

It has been months now, and I’m still trying to find someone in some department who cares enough to communicate across the organization to find the right information or find someone who knows how to find the right information about our 401K funds before I close the account and move them.

Lack of cross-functional communication within organizations eventually shows up to the outside world—to customers, to suppliers, and to strategic partners.  And it drives them nuts, if not out of business. 

Posted at 2:16pm in General Communication | Permalink | Add Comment » |