When we think about what effective communication means, it is often seen as a mechanism to get things done and can take on a transactional feel. Jarred Associate Sarah Holden believes that quality communication is what unleashes performance in teams and organisations. The workplace climate is changing and company culture and conversational skill sets need to keep up.
With a rich background including strategy development, change management and competency framework design in organisations from small companies to large internationals, Sarah Holden immerses herself in her work with a strong, practical can-do attitude that brings results.
More than just talk
Let’s first look at the nature of the words communication and conversation, why they’re not interchangeable and why this matters.
‘Quality conversation connects two people or a team,’ Sarah says. ‘It’s completely two-way, the problem with communication is that it can become a tell’. She reflects on the way things used to be. Leaders and managers were looked to for the answers but equally, the rhetoric often coming down from the top was limiting and uninspiring.
‘We live in a time of increasing uncertainty,’ she goes on, ‘when there is a call for greater levels of autonomy, agility and flexibility.’ To achieve this, managers need to empower and enhance the decision-making skills of those working under them, unleashing their creativity and confidence.
How is this done?
‘Quality conversations,’ Sarah answers and goes on to list key elements a manager or leader needs to consider about their approach:
- What kind of mindset are they entering into the conversation with?
- How fixed or attached are they to their view of the world?
- What is their role? Are they all-knowing? Or are they here to facilitate and enable high performance, creativity and innovation?
- An honest exploration of how they see their role and the beliefs this balances on, and how these impact team performance.
- What can they do to let go of judgement and tune into curiosity?
- How open are they to actively asking for feedback and welcoming it?
‘There is nothing fluffy or woolly about quality conversations,’ she adds ‘done well and skilfully they drive engagement and performance.’
Conversations in action
Sarah’s recent work with one company shows how her approach fosters an environment of team progress and growth in challenging times.
During the pandemic, the company was eager to know how to lead through and out of the crisis. In unchartered territory dictated by circumstances out of their control, they knew that they needed to have compassionate conversations while refreshing their performance and management techniques.
Sarah redesigned the company’s performance management approach. She broke the development programme into seven modules and delivered these on a monthly basis. Involving a series of short, sharp interventions, everyone was given the opportunity to apply the skills learned and then feedback. In this way, it became a more organic development.
‘The traditional appraisal is gone,’ she comments, ‘it is more about asking how we support managers to have brilliant conversations to enable performance.’ In this way, effective change becomes reinforced and embedded. Everyone has ownership.
The outcome? ‘Everyone likes to see a return on their investment’ she says and following her programme, the company reported an 8% increase in employee satisfaction in terms of support in career development and manager approachability.
Sarah quotes scientist and philosopher Alfred Korzybski. ‘The map is not the territory.’ she says. In other words, the way in which managers and leaders see the landscape and the way that things have been done before may not be a true representation of reality now. In order to meet future demands and flex to change, it’s necessary to step back and see the wider picture and then go back in with the interactive, human-focused tools that allow quality conversations to happen.
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