COMS

Happy Friday,

You can’t tell a person, team, or organization to be motivated; they need to feel motivated. Nor can you tell them to be enthusiastic or loyal; they either feel it or they don’t. So, where do these feelings come from?

Motivation, loyalty, enthusiasm, and willingness to sacrifice are mainly shaped by leaders and coms (all official communications). A smart organization is aware and intentional about both.

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

― Maya Angelou

I've covered leadership's effect. Now for coms.

Coms occur in the context that everyone can/will resign or quit in place if that's how they feel. With that much at stake, every organization should have a 'don't-shoot-yourself-in-the-foot' communications policy with firm guidelines.

Here are some recommendations and common mistakes to avoid:

No one, except maybe the CEO, should be allowed to communicate to all staff without review and approval. It’s far too easy to damage the entire organization inadvertently. 

2.     No matter the difficulty of the subject, every communication must leave people caring more about the organization, not less. If you can’t do it, don’t send it.

3.     Truth and accuracy alone are not enough. 

4.     Try to frame all communications in the context of the organization’s mission and values. 

5.     Never invoke ridiculous third-person references like “You, our employees…”. Everyone is an employee, even the CEO. So who’s writing this? Besides making no sense, it splits the organization into ‘us and them.’ Instead, choose words that remind everyone, ‘We’re all in this together.'

6.     Avoid corporate-speak. It’s possible to be accurate, even formal, and still sound like a human. Corporate-speak also reinforces the feeling of ‘us and them.’ 

7.     I’ve rarely seen any benefit to communicating broadly about profit or financial metrics, even when they’re good. Why? No matter how justifiable you think it is, the message you send almost always validates people’s natural skepticism that “It’s all about the bottom line…” And when people feel like it's all about the bottom line, engagement and loyalty tank. Rather than broadcast your concerns, talk directly with the people who can change them. Refer to #2.

8.     If you’re convinced a communication must be about finances, frame it in the context of the organization’s mission and core values. ‘Profit ensures that the nobility of our mission can continue, and our positive impact on the world can expand.’ Abuse this, though, and mission/values are diminished.

Punchline: Coms strongly influence how people feel about the organization. How they feel determines how much they care, how hard they try, and how long they stay. All coms affect how people feel, whether the writer is aware and intentional about it or totally oblivious. Competitive advantage goes to the intentional.

Have a great weekend!

Dave

Feedback and blowback, hit dave@goodnewsfriday.com

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Written by me, not ChatGPT, with speed assist and blunder avoidance by Grammarly.