As a dedicated runner who participates in running events around the country (and in Europe, as well) I am always looking to draw parallels between this passion of mine and my professional calling of helping companies manage their employees.
I found one such lesson earlier this year while running a 23km “metric marathon” in lovely Stevensville, Maryland, which is located about 2,000 miles east of my home. It was a beautiful April day for a scenic run along the Chesapeake Bay, where volunteers were placed strategically along the course to ensure participant safety and a few spectators shouted their encouragement along the route. As is typical in these runs, I’d come across occasional messages written on the pavement in chalk – words of encouragement to individual runners from family and friends.
A few miles into the run, I realized that there were several chalk drawings and roadside signs supporting someone named Kimm. “Go Kimm!” was the frequent refrain. After a few more miles, I started to wonder who this Kimm person was – a celebrity perhaps? She or he was certainly receiving a lot of encouragement from the locals.
I started to obsess about it. Who is Kimm? Where is Kimm? Is she ahead of me or behind me? And then around mile number 10 it dawned on me that KIMM actually stood for Kent Island Metric Marathon, the official name of the event. All of the colorful drawings, encouragement to “go, go, go” and signs staked alongside of the trail were intended to encourage all 200 runners – including me!
So what does this have to do with managing employees?
Think of it as a matter of context. Everyone approaches life based on the knowledge they themselves have accumulated through their experiences. In my case, I had travelled all the way from Montana and wasn’t familiar with the local shorthand for the race, particularly in the context of something that I normally – and understandably – would interpret as a medium for encouraging individual runners.
To take this a step further, think of our individual experiences and backgrounds as a filter through which we “edit” ourselves when communicating with others, and through which we interpret what is being communicated to us. This filtering of interpersonal communication can and often does lead to misunderstanding, often with much more serious consequences than I experienced with “Kimm.”
Add to these filters the fact that, as a species we gain 55% of meaning through body language, 38% through tone of voice and voice modulation, and only 7% through the actual words that are spoken. Now on top of that consider that with modern technology we often rely almost entirely on the written word through emailing, texting, and tweeting. In reality, we are placing an awful lot of importance on a mode of communication that is only 7% effective.
So how can we improve the odds of communicating effectively? Here are some ideas:
- Be open – Remember that interpretation is specific to each individual. Be open to the fact that no one else has had exactly the same background and experiences as you, and give regular consideration to what that may mean for how you communicate with others at work.
- Be inquisitive – Ask employees how they interpret what you have communicated to them, strive to regularly clarify and verify that you have reached a common understanding, and make time for eliciting and answering questions and reinforcing the importance of getting everyone on the same page at the beginning of a process.
- Be specific – Use facts versus judgments. For example, let an employee know they need to increase sales numbers by 15% in the next quarter, versus saying only that they need to increase sales.
- Be present – Remember the importance that body language and tone of voice have in communicating and be sure to deliver all important messages in person.
- Be careful – Misunderstood emails can be a highly dispiriting element in workplace relationships and it can take a great deal of time and effort to repair the damage. Re-read any email that you write before sending and consider the possibilities regarding how it might be interpreted.
These lessons, while helpful in the workplace, are also relevant in any situation where you are attempting to communicate and coordinate action with others. If your business could use support improving communication, or with any other human resource need, give Affinity HR Group, LLC a call. We’re here to help.
And if you run into “Kimm” out there somewhere, say hello from me.
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By Staci Bloomberg, Executive Compliance Consultant with Affinity HR Group, LLC
