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Question Of The Month
What is the most important factor in management-employee communications?
Cyberlogic is a Managed Solutions Provider with a focus on infrastructure, cloud, cyber security, and business intelligence. In 2020, Cyberlogic had a 25-year track record in the South African market and was doing well, but its leadership knew it had the potential to do better.
Poised for growth, the organisation recognised that in order to fulfil its stated promise of “Delivering Unquestionable Value” to a growing client base, enabling people excellence through great leadership would be key, particularly in a market where competition for talent is intense.
Leaders have pressure on them that we can’t comprehend: maybe they weren’t given an education about how to lead, maybe they have had terrible role models, maybe they’ve got screwed up incentive structures, maybe they have a terrible boss.’
‘We don’t know what they’re operating in and we have to assume that they’re doing the best they can with the circumstances and the tools they’ve got. So we should come in with empathy and affirmation rather than argument (‘You have to do it this way’ – rather: ‘I can only imagine that it’s frustrating …’).
For more information regarding the above, please e-mail events@legitimateleadership.com
Question Of The Month
By Wendy Lambourne, Director, Legitimate Leadership.
Question: What is the most important factor in management-employee communications?
Answer: At Legitimate Leadership we believe that the critical factor accounting for successful management-employee communication is the degree to which employees trust the source of the communication. Neither the content of the message (WHAT management says) nor the choice of medium (HOW they say it) is anywhere near as important as whether it is trusted in the first place.
When managers are trusted, individually and collectively, then what they say is generally believed and accepted. When trust in management is low, employees are suspicious of everything that management says, even if it is the truth.
Trust in management is granted or withheld on the basis of a single criterion: the degree to which employees perceive management to be in the relationship to “give” or to “take”. When managers are perceived to be pursuing their own interests, to only be in the relationship to get something out of their people, trust in them will be low. Only when managers are experienced as being there to give or serve their people, will their staff be willing to give to them – because they trust that their managers have their best interests at heart.
In essence, only when managers are communicating in their employees’ best interests, rather than their own interests, will they be trusted. Only when managers not only tell their employees the truth, but disclose to them information that they don’t have to share, trusting that their employees will not use the information against them, will they be trusted.
To submit your question, email info@legitimateleadership.com
Case Study: Four Insights From Cyberlogic – What It Takes To Sustain A Healthy Leadership Culture In A Growing Tech Business
By Josh Hayman, Director, Legitimate Leadership.
Cyberlogic is a Managed Solutions Provider with a focus on infrastructure, cloud, cyber security, and business intelligence. In 2020, Cyberlogic had a 25-year track record in the South African market and was doing well, but its leadership knew it had the potential to do better.
Poised for growth, the organisation recognised that in order to fulfil its stated promise of “Delivering Unquestionable Value” to a growing client base, enabling people excellence through great leadership would be key, particularly in a market where competition for talent is intense.
When leaders understand that their role is to both care about and enable their people to be their best and then translate this into every-day leadership, companies become places people really want to work. Attracting and retaining good people is much easier and employees willingly take on more ownership and accountability. With that as a base, growing the business and maintaining consistently excellent standards is easier to achieve.
Three years later, the organisation has doubled in size to service a growing client base, and in that time has achieved a significant shift in culture, moving from dependence on a few key people to a significantly broader and more empowered base of leaders across the business who are trusted and supported by their people. The organisation continues to sustain that shift over time through a deliberate investment of time and effort.
READ THE FULL CASE STUDY BY CLICKING HERE
DOWNLOAD THE PDF VERSION OF THE CASE STUDY BY CLICKING HERE
Video: Lead With Empathy
By Simon Sinek, American author on leadership and motivational speaker.
COMMENT ON THIS VIDEO BY WENDY LAMBOURNE, LEGITIMATE LEADERSHIP: When anyone is underperforming or behaving badly, the place to start is with the ‘why’. There are only three ‘whys’ in the workplace: they lack the means, the ability, or the will, to perform or behave appropriately. There is obviously also a ‘why’ outside of work: personal circumstances are impacting them at work. Making the correct diagnosis is imperative because only then can the correct leadership action be taken. Whether the person is a ‘good lad’ or a ‘bad lad’ (as they say in north-west England) is also irrelevant. Stick to the facts.
OUR SUMMARY OF THIS VIDEO: I went for a walk with a friend who is struggling at work. This is how the conversation started: ‘My boss is a terrible person, I hate working for her.’
I said: ‘Oh my God, does she abuse her children and kick her dog?’
She said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Ah, so we don’t know that she’s a terrible person, we just know that she’s a terrible leader.’
Leaders have pressure on them that we can’t comprehend: maybe they weren’t given an education about how to lead, maybe they have had terrible role models, maybe they’ve got screwed up incentive structures, maybe they have a terrible boss.’
‘We don’t know what they’re operating in and we have to assume that they’re doing the best they can with the circumstances and the tools they’ve got. So we should come in with empathy and affirmation rather than argument (‘You have to do it this way’ – rather: ‘I can only imagine that it’s frustrating …’).
READ THE FULL SUMMARY OF THIS VIDEO BY CLICKING HERE
TO VIEW THE VIDEO CLICK HERE