Specific Communication the Key to High Employee Morale

Ever notice how communication in the workplace sometimes is confusing or so non-specific that it forces stressful mind-reading scenarios?

Well, two client incidents this week reinforced in me the belief that one of the most important keys to creating and maintaining a high morale work environment and company culture is the simple concept of “specific communication.”

From frontline employees at a companywide workshop, some of whom were hired as recently as two weeks ago, to a business owner in a leadership position for 25 years, I experienced non-specific communication doing damage to employee morale.

In one instance a new hire was asked by the company owner to finalize a report, the conversation went like this:

New employee: When do you need this? (he said holding up the unfinished report)

Company Owner: NOW!

New employee: Well, I have some questions for you before I can move forward on putting this information together. If we sit down after your meeting this afternoon would by noon tomorrow be soon enough?

Company owner: Oh, sure that’s fine, I don’t need those items to be delivered until late next week.

Had the new employee not stood up for himself and asked for clarification to an unrealistic and unnecessary demand, it would have created tremendous stress and anxiety trying to meet an unrealistic demand. It would also have begun to develop low-trust and low-morale in the new employee.

For more examples of non-specific communication and how they can negatively impact employee morale and sabotage the desire to create a high-performance work environment read my latest article “How to Improve Employee Morale by Improving Organizational Communication” here.

Traditional Affirmations Don’t Work for Me, What About You?

Thanks to someone (www.Twitter.com/elisafrench) I’m following on Twitter I was reminded about the power, or not, of affirmations. There are a lot websites and books espousing the value of training your conscious and subconscious mind by reciting repeatedly positive statements to change your life.

I was first exposed to the power of affirmations on a consistent basis while attending a series of Anthony Robbins workshops about 11-years ago. Robbins recommends what he calls “incantations” which are positive affirmations recited with powerful emotional and physical intensity so that the message becomes ingrained in your muscle memory as well and creates a more emotional connection.

A couple of years after investing dozens of hours with these positive affirmations, incantations I noticed something that bothered me. My mind and body began rejecting the messages I was trying to implant in my psyche. I began to introspectively study this phenomenon while researching it online.

Being certified in hynotherapy and NLP I’m very well-versed in how the conscious and sub-conscious mind works. And, having spent two years with Anthony Robbins workshops I’m also well-versed in the fact that we must translate our thoughts into actions in order to achieve the success we desire. Somewhere I noticed a disconnect between the two.  The affirmations and incantations were not translating to action, they were keeping me stuck as I began to reject the statements I was trying to implant.

There are two primary reasons for this:
1) There usually is nothing in the affirmation that promotes taking action. The reason for this is that the philosophy of the process of reciting the affimation is that “the mind can not tell the difference between what’s real and what’s imagined” so that if you just tell yourself something often enough you will just begin moving towards becoming the person you desire.  This was really brought to light after watching the movie “The Secret,” which I thought was a great primer on the power of positive thought and visualization, but there was a missing link, and that was the action component.

2) There is usually no basis in fact and no supportive structure within the affirmation that you can believe to be true. For this reason I believe your mind will reject it and make you feel even worse and less motivated than when you started.

It is my belief, and I think you’ll agree, that there must be some basis on which to believe the affirmation to be true so that you can build from that foundation. Therefore, I want to share with you a strategy I’ve created that has made a difference for me and my clients, they’re called “Active Affirmations.”

The primary difference between “Traditional Affirmations” and “Active Affirmations” is the statement, which is a little bit longer and more specific regarding the action you are committed to taking to move towards fulfilling the future you want to create.

For example, the traditional affirmation of “I am Happy & Healthy.” This may or may not be true depending on your personal situation. If it is not, no matter how much you recite this you will not be any closer to feeling that way, and you may even feel less so.

Here is my corresponding “Active Affirmation” - “I deserve to be happy and healthy and every day I take specific positive actions that allow me to create a happy and healthy lifestyle.”

Notice the “Active Affirmation” is much more specific in telling yourself that you “deserve” happiness which is important to reinforce because many people do not believe they deserve the things they want, and it also includes a statement that you will take some action to get what you want. This statement will focus you on doing positive things as you go through your day to make your statement come true.

Here’s another:
Traditional Affirmation: “Wealth is pouring into my life!”

Active Affirmation: “I believe I deserve to create and enjoy all the wealth the world has to offer and I go after it daily by consistently providing value every where I go.”

Again, here, you are focusing on doing something to bring the wealth to you by providing value to the world first.

If you are interested in a complete exercise on “Active Affirmations” I’m offering it free of charge. The original .pdf lesson is part of my “Breakthrough FOCUS” course that I created two years ago and has been on hiatus since the spring of 2008. I believe it may be time to resurrect it for this coming fall.

Send me an e-mail if you’d like a copy of my “Active Affirmations” Lesson to Info@SkipWeisman.com .

Here's One Great 21st Century Idea to Help Create a Champion Culture At Your Company

Here’s a great blog post from an employer law firm that discusses a new way to provide employee feedback. It will totally transform how annual performance reviews and individual performance feedback is provided, using Twitter. It’s Brilliant and could be the wave of the future if forward thinking companies find a way to  make it work, a must read:

Using Twitter to Manage Performance 

What do you think?

Is Your Company or Non-Profit a Champion Organization?

I’ve found there are three distinct strategies that champion teams in athletics consistently implement well that leads to the winning of their championships.

The three strategies are:
(to order a Free (limited time) version of the full White Paper & companion audio CD click here):

1) A Compelling Vision & Strategy - this is something all team members are excited to buy-into and are committed to working towards.

2) Leadership Developed throughout the Organization - this is necessary because the coaches and team general manager can not make decisions on the field of play and need captains. Likewise businesses need to develop leaders they can trust to make effective decisions in the best interest of the company.

3) Personnel Management - In athletics teams consistently hold their athletes accountable for the results they achieve and are usually specific with regard to the expectations. Businesses need  to do the same.

How does your organization stack up against those three power strategies to create a Champion Culture?

There are also specific characteristics and traits that Champion Organizations look for when hiring team members. But, those are for another post!

Champion Organization exercise:
On a scale of 1-10 (10=Champion) grade your organization in each of the three power strategies identified above and see how you score.

0-7 =Loser
8-15 = Winner
16-24 = Playoff Team
25-30 = Champion

Have Fun and let me know how you scored with a comment below!

Skip

Why Communication Issues Always Seem to Cause Low Employee Morale

 I would be able to retire if I received a dime for every time one of my workshop participants told me one of the biggest challenges throughout their company culture was “communication.” Today, in a workshop, if I heard it once I heard it a hundred times within three hours.

What does that mean?

How do you fix a “communication problem?”

It’s actually relatively easy once the “communiation problem” is defined. A lack of specificity regarding the communication problems within a company culture is the primary issue causing low employee morale surrounding that particular issue.

Gaining clarity on fixing the problem requires the answering of two relatively simple questions:

1) If the communication problem were to be fixed how would you know it?

2) What would have to happen in order for the communication problem to go away?

One woman in my workshop today had a breakthrough after I continued to harp on this issue. She raised her hand and said, “I get it, I finally get it! How can I expect other people to do what I want them to do, if I can’t even define it so that I can specifically communicate what I want to them. No wonder I’m having such problems.”

I love seeing that light bulb go on in moments like that.

Get clear on what would be different and how people would communicate more effectively if they were communicating as you would like ‘em to be, and you will be well on your way to fixing your communication problems in your company’s culture and the morale of your employees will gradually begin to improve in direct proportion to the level of specificity in communications throughout the organization.