A520.4.3.RB – Supportive Communication
“We are getting less than 40 hours of work from a large
number of our K.C.-based EMPLOYEES. The parking lot is sparsely used at 8:00
A.M.; likewise at 5 P.M. As managers – you either do not know what your
EMPLOYEES are doing, or you do not CARE. You have created expectations on the
work effort that allowed this to happen inside Cerner, creating a very
unhealthy environment. In either case, you have a problem and you will fix it
or I will replace you. NEVER in my career have I allowed a team that worked for
me to think they had a 40-hour job. I have allowed YOU to create a culture that
is permitting this. NO LONGER.”
The supportive communication approach has eight attributes
associated with it. These include:
congruence, not incongruent, descriptive, not evaluative, problem oriented, not
person oriented, validating, not invalidating, specific, not global,
conjunctive, not disjunctive, owned, not disowned, and supportive listening,
not one-way listening. Based on these
attributes and reflecting on the above statement there are several ways
communication could be improved through supportive communication
techniques.
First off in order to be more congruent in your
communication you could focus this message more on what is upsetting you. This seems to be an issue where you could communicate
your expectations and standards a little more clearly to the managers. If you are expecting a 40 hour work week than
you need to make sure this is clearly stated to the managers of the
organization. Another area of concern is
to ensure your employees have enough work to maintain a 40 hour work week. If they staff is producing solid numbers and
getting all required tasks complete then why would you pay them to stay at
work. If there is nothing for them to do
they should be leaving early and coming in late. This lack of work while still maintaining
productivity could be why your parking lot is so sparsely used.
Second in order to try to maintain more positive
communication instead of attacking as a leader you could be more
descriptive. The way this was presented
was very incongruent. It is quite
obvious that as a leader you are not very happy with the way things are being
ran in the Cerner organization. Being
congruent is a very beneficial way to help develop trust as well as fostering
positive relationships (Whetton & Cameron, 2016).
The best way to improve on your communication is to ensure
you are using descriptive communication.
Table 4.4 from the text discusses some very effective ways to be
descriptive in your communications (Whetten & Cameron, 2016, p. 199). The rant in the email sent to the leaders of
the K.C. branch was definitely not a descriptive communication. According to the table some key tips are to
avoid accusation and to present data or evidence. The general statements of “we are getting
less than 40 hours of work” and that the managers are either unknowing or do
not care are not based in fact and not objective. There is also not a focus on any specific
behavior just the fact that it appears as if the workers in the K.C. branch are
not pulling their weight. Finally this
communication establishes no solutions. It
ends in a very threatening way and gives no options other than to change what
they are doing now. As a leader you
should focus on more objective goals and standards and be more descriptive in
the way you present these.
Next, this email focuses mainly on the K.C. branch managers
and how they are running their organization.
The text discusses that to be effective in communication you need to
focus on problems and not be people oriented.
The text goes on to discuss that building positive relationships using
problem oriented communication should be focused on acceptable standards and
expectations not just personal opinions on how people should act. If the standard of work has not been set
forth this communication is not going to be very effective. If the managers of the K.C. branch are
meeting the numbers and not having any issues than the perception of them doing
less work because they are not there for 40 or more hours is more personal than
a true problem for the organization.
This email is also very invalidating to the managers of the
K.C. branch. This form of communication
is very much a put down and will lead the managers to feel not valued or that
they are not doing a good job. This email
was a prime example of superior-oriented communication and was very much a
put-down for the managers. As a leader
you need to ensure if there is something you are not happy with you are
communicating this appropriately. A more
respectful, egalitarian approach where you let the managers know that there is
an issue but let them take part in coming up with solutions to fix the problems
would be much better way to approach this.
This email was not very specific in nature. “We are getting less than 40 hours work from
a large number of our K.C. based employees”.
How many employees are putting in less work? How much less than 40 hours are they putting
in? Is this impacting the overall goal
of the K.C. branch? These are all
numbers that would help the K.C. managers fix the issue. Plus we do not even know if this is an
issue. Was a clear and specific standard
of work ever set to begin with? Is this
lack of 40 hours impacting the organization in a negative way? These are all important facts that need to be
assessed. The final line of this email
was very much a nonuseful or global threat to shape up or you will be shipped
out. However, if many of the previous questions
are not answered shaping up may be quite hard to do.
This email is a prime example of a disjunctive
communication. As a leader not affording
your management team the opportunity to speak up and state their side of the
story is very disconnected. By sending
this email with the threatening tone you have made it quite clear that you are
not very happy with the way things are going.
You have also made it abundantly clear that if things do not change you
will make sure things are changed. However,
you have allowed no interaction from the management team just a blind threat to
fix an issue that may not even be an issue is not a very helpful way to
communicate.
The tone of this email is both owned and disowned. There is a combination of “we” and “I” statements
throughout this communication. This is a
very confusing way to try to communicate to your leadership team if you are
expecting things to be fixed. As the
manager of the K.C. branch I would be very unclear on who I was even letting
down due to the confusion in this message.
This goes back to being clear and descriptive in the way you communicate
if you are expecting things to be fixed.
Finally, based on the eight attributes this email is a prime
example of one-way message delivery. There
is no supportive listening taking place in this form of communication. The use of all capital letters makes it very
clear that you are setting the tone and the managers are going to do as you say
or they are going to find themselves unemployed. When trying to correct an issue first thing
you need to do is ensure the others know there is an issue. Once you have established this fact you
should talk it over with the other managers and try to figure out a way to come
to an agreement to correct this issue. A
blind fix this or else is not helping to set up the management team for
success. You should first find out if
the K.C. managers even think this is a problem.
If you have never set clear standards and goals and the K.C. team is not
failing to produce what they are required to produce than to these managers
there may not even be an issue. To not
have a conversation with these managers is an epic fail on your part as the
leader of this organization. Now if you
have established clear goals and standards and the K.C. team is not meeting these
and their people are not working there full shifts then you have a problem. The first thing you have to do though is have
a conversation with the managers and make sure everyone is on the same page.
Supportive communication is a very beneficial way to
communicate as a leader. This type of
communication helps establish trust and growth within organizations. As a leader if you can embrace the eight
attributes associated within supportive communication you should be able to run
an effective organization. By using
supportive communication and establishing these trusting relationships you will
be able to have conversations with your employees no matter the situation. Obviously when delivering good news the
conversations should always be easy. But
not every conversation is always going to be good news. By using supportive communication and the
eight attributes it should help when you have to have the difficult
conversations. This approach to
communicating would have been much better for this issue within the Cerner organization. This email failed to meet the mark in many
ways and probably lead to many more issues between the management and leader of
the organization. while not a guarantee
that things are always going to go smoothly if these attributes and approach
are used it will greatly increase the odds that in the end both parties can
come to an agreement and work out the issues.
Whetton, D. A. &
Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills,
9th ed.
Boston, MA: Pearson.
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