Communication

Speciality Bites with

Paul Hargreaves

Chief executive of Cotswold Fayre

• Becoming a B Corp
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• Self-sacrifice: The importance of building a leadership legacy centred on others
• Undercover Boss
• Can/should bosses really be close friends with their staff?

I have had a rather frustrating week with several examples of bad or no communication, which has led to misunderstandings and simply a less efficient way of doing business.

Why is it that this most important art and most fundamental to the human race is often the one that lets us down the most often. It is probably true that the success of businesses stands or falls by its ability to communicate to its customers and the level of communication within the organisation itself!

Two common ways in which good communication is not practised are as follows. The first is where people are afraid of a confrontational situation, so either nothing is said, resulting in stalemate, or sometimes worse, an e-mail is sent when actually picking up the phone would be the best thing to do. The trouble with e-mails is that they only convey 1 small aspect of communication i.e. the words themselves, when an estimated 85% of communication is non-verbal. Maybe 45% is body language and 40% tone of voice. The latter you can of course receive on the phone, the former you would need to do a video-call, strangely something that not enough businesses are using. E-mails can come across as harsh and cold and often lead to unnecessary upset.

Avoiding confrontation can actually sometimes be because we are generally afraid of what might kick off, but once you have address the situation you generally feel so much better than the tension of either not doing it or dreading doing it. I have been in this place myself this week and the feeling of relief is tremendous once the confrontation has occurred - and generally far better than your negative mind told you it would be.

The second reason why bad or no communication occurs is because companies or people within them fail to see the world or a situation in the way that their customers, suppliers or colleagues see them i.e. it comes from being too blinkered. There are numerous examples of businesses acting in ways that horrify their customers and this can be because the leaders of the companies simply haven’t got out there and talked to people, just sat in their ivory towers making decisions. Fortunately we are in a sector where this is less common, but there are boundless opportunities to improve our communication. How transparent are we with our staff, how involved are they in the decision-making processes of the business, how in touch with them are we? Do we know the names of their partners and children? Also how in touch are we with our customers? Do we search social media to see what people are saying about our brand or company? If you are not a customer-facing member of the team, when is the last time you talked to a customer or visited their premises?

Just a few thoughts to get you going, but let’s all resolve to communicate better and we will build better and more profitable businesses. I promise!