Commit to Communication
Cave drawings, gestures, grunts, verbal ability, words, and storytelling are all part of the evolution of human communication. A growing civilization signaled the need for more sophisticated systems for communicating such as drum beating, smoke signals, messengers, the telegraph, telephones, radio, television, and now the web, and social media. As businesses sprang up and grew, it became obvious that communication systems were required to deliver important messages to employees and customers. So why is there still miscommunication, misunderstandings, and why have Frank and Wanda become problem employees because they can’t seem to get along?
If you like to do research, leadership is one of those topics that can take you down as many rabbit holes as you care to pursue. Opinions about what leadership is, how to lead, what leadership looks like, and if you are leading correctly are no different. In ancient times, kings, monarchs, and rulers were in vogue with the term leader (for us common people) arriving in the 19th century. Today Organizational Leadership and its numerous facets are the focus. So why a sphere of leadership?
Finding a plethora of information on leadership is easy. The difficult part is that you can read about it, watch videos on it, study it, observe it and still not come away with a definitive definition of it. Further, a topic that often generates energetic discussions is whether a manager is a leader and the difference between the two. Have you ever been a party to one of these discussions?
The Great Resignation is becoming the bane of workplace existence. This is true not only for employers, but for employees as well. If you digest any reading, or listening material on the workplace, you will no doubt have an eye or ear full of information about The Great Resignation (TGR) and the wild numbers about how many people are leaving jobs, employers being unable to fill jobs, and the wild offers organizations are making to get people to come to work. Are the numbers really that high? Can we blame all this on Covid? Whether it can or cannot, what can we do?
The changing face of teams has been occurring for eons and managing them has sometimes come with the need for specific skills, talents, and knowledge. Even in the earliest stages of human development, when teamwork was the answer to survival itself, there were challenges. There was, no doubt, some maverick who knew a better way to slay dinner or speed up the hunt or handle the fruits of the hunters’ labor. The Roman army was an example of successful teamwork because of strong training and once again survival hinging on its success. In modern times survival and teams have taken on different meanings and faces. Who wears these faces and why is this important?
Curiosity killed the cat. How curious is that? What has the cat idiom got to do with business or your team? Well, the curious thing is – a lot! Unfortunately, curiosity has, at times, been given a bad name as in killing cats or opening Pandora’s box and creating chaos. Our children may sometimes drive us bananas with their “Why?” questions. As adults, we don’t ask “Why?” questions because we don’t want to look silly. What about poor Eve from the Bible with the apple, and the snake, and the nakedness? OH MY! Your team needs curiosity to become high performers. Are you curious to know how that works?
A recent study by the Society of Human Resource Management posits that one of the technical skills most lacking in the workplace is data analysis. In terms of soft skills there are even more missing pieces such as problem solving, innovation, creativity, the ability to deal with complexity and ambiguity, communication, and critical thinking. Having this bit of information begs three questions. First, why are these elements of critical thinking important to you and your team? Second, why are they missing? Third, if they are important, yet missing, how do you ensure that your team has the critical skill of critical thinking?