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SHARE INFORMATION
News Is a Virtual Valium
Corporate cultures often reveal splits between those “in the know” from the mere mortals awaiting instructions and some indication of what the heck is going on. Access to information enhances one’s organizational status. Knowledge is power. Knowledge is also a virtual Valium, a relaxant. Information can motivate and ameliorate stress, yet this interpersonal salve is often sequestered by leaders who incorrectly believe that before they address their teams, they must have all the answers or at least near-perfect responses to challenging questions. Worse, managers forget or don’t make time to exchange data, and as a result, demotivate eager employees. Does one person at work report to you? Great! You’re a manager. Are you the lowest worker on the totem pole? I bet you have a perspective on what’s working on the ground. Remember to share what you know. Here’s a common complaint from my clients:
I’m angry. My bosses know I go crazy without information, that I feel disrespected when I have to sneak around trying to figure out what’s really happening and yet they do it over and over. Is it that hard? They pay for me to see you to round out my rough edges. I come in here and spin my wheels trying to figure out if it’s me or if it’s them. I wish my manager would periodically bring me under the tent. Imagine if all I had to do was focus on my job. I’d knock it out of the park.
Information vacuums create toxic work environments, which are intensified during periods of rapid change. Many managers think they can keep important decisions under wraps. Rather than opening their doors, they batten down the hatches. Hot news inevitably escapes, and a tense situation becomes more complicated as leaders have to undo misinformation and mend relationships with previously loyal colleagues. This is a common pattern: he heard from a colleague who used to work at the firm; she heard from her father-in-law; they heard in the hallways. You are the only one who thinks the merger/sale/closing is a secret.
Especially for those in subordinate positions, the combination of not being able to control the proceedings and not having any sight lines on what might happen next deteriorates mental and physical health.
When people have no way to impact the events around them, they learn to give up. They stop trying because their actions don’t matter. Psychologist Martin Seligman termed this “learned helplessness.” We can’t miraculously make everyone the masters of their own destiny. What can be done to reduce this environmentally induced passivity? Provide information! Research repeatedly shows that the ability to predict when things might happen, even if there’s no control over those events, enables individuals to remain active and reduces despair. Have you ever been on the New York City subway or the London Tube? Most stations now post status updates indicating how long it will be before your train will arrive. While you can’t get the Northern line to move faster or to arrive just when you want it, you can at least make the decision to wait, walk, or hail a taxi. Providing a choice attenuates feelings of powerlessness; it contributes to success.
THIS IS FOR YOU IF
• The company you started has grown from 3 to 30 people, and you are used to filling people in when you see them.
• You prefer having the answers (and being able to anticipate the questions) before you speak.
• When things get tense, you get quiet.
• You would like colleagues to share information with you.
• Gossip is on the rise.
• You may not have a fancy title, but you know stuff.
TAKE ACTION
On a Regular Basis
Start the day with a five-minute standing meeting. Standing ensures that the time together is crisp and focused. Each member of the team should share at least one important piece of information that will help everyone do their job better today. It could be news from outside the company and may be tactical (e.g., there’s construction on the highway leading to the mall and workers and customers may be late, or snow is anticipated in the southern part of the state this afternoon, so those with big commutes should leave early). If the team is not collocated, pick a time when everyone can hop on the phone for a quick daily touch base and ask, “What do you need to know today, so your day will run more smoothly?”
Include an information update on your team’s weekly meeting agenda. Whiz around the room and have each participant offer something new that they learned from a meeting in the past week that the others did not attend.
If you are out of the office attending a sales meeting, corporate training, or strategy session, compose a brief note to your team each night with a few bullets capturing what you learned. It will help you synthesize the material and will reinforce your value to the group. When you return to the office after having been away at a management offsite, don’t get lost in your emails. First, call your group together and share the meeting highlights. Sure, some topics may be confidential, which is why it’s important for the management team to agree, before everyone leaves the offsite, that they will (1) establish what is classified, and (2) communicate with their teams on the first day back. If you are running the offsite, make time before it ends to let everyone gather their thoughts and agree to the key messages that will be relayed to the staff.
If you just left a meeting that offered important insights for your team, don’t delay. Shoot a quick message out using whatever form of office chat you have established for immediately actionable information. Don’t confuse mechanisms to communicate nice to know from need to know information. Agree in advance when to use email/voicemail/Slack/text/etc.
Set up “surprise me” sessions at which you gather employees from different backgrounds and ages and ask them to share something from their less traditional/nonwork networks. With the advent of social media, many younger employees are accessing data from outside the company that is gold dust for their senior colleagues.
During Times of Massive Change
When corporate reorganizations or potential mergers are afoot, it’s unrealistic to inform everyone immediately of their future roles. Often these decisions aren’t clear to those in charge until the final hour. However, indicating the date that layoffs will be announced and the process by which people can apply for alternative positions within the company allows employees to plan and arrive at work each day without fear that “today is the day that I lose my job.”
Remember, just because you know it, doesn’t mean others do. Resist waiting for the perfect, complete answer. Think hard about what you can share and provide as much information as possible.
The more unpredictable the setting, the more anxious people get. The more fearful they are, the less able they are to retain information. Communicate often. Deliver your message verbally and in writing. It’s better to repeat yourself than have people spiral in the unknown.
Saying, “I don’t know” (if this is true) counts as information. In the absence of real knowledge, people sometimes make inferences, which can be far worse than the truth and fan the fires of anxiety. It’s better to indicate that certain decisions have not been made than to let people speculate.
Allow discussions. Don’t do what one pharmaceutical company recently did—rather than holding an interactive meeting, the company showed employees a video announcing an upcoming merger and associated downsizing. No questions could be asked.
Sometimes employees don’t feel safe asking questions out loud. Include anonymous mechanisms, such as submitting a question on paper or employing technology that enables audience members to text a question to the screen.
There are individuals in a system who have the authority to make a decision and others who need to be informed about ongoing activity. Find out who needs to be copied on communications.
KEEP IN MIND
• Remember, sometimes your boss needs your information. Come bearing gifts.
• Don’t spread gossip. If you are guessing, say so.