When our team reached out to 600 CEOs during the pandemic’s early stages to ask them about their greatest concerns, many cited communication with employees.
While the right communication strategy has been critical during the pandemic, it will remain just as critical—if not more so—when we transition back to “normal” (whatever that means). Although we are still living in COVID-19’s grip, companies are starting to devise plans to bring their workforces back to the office in the coming weeks and months.
In recent conversations with CEOs and other company leaders, people have shared mostly top-down, generic approaches to communicating their plans with their employees. Although mass emails and newsletters are not problematic in and of themselves, they are no substitute for the kind of communication this moment calls for—namely, conversations. In fact, leaders should start scheduling frequent conversations with individual employees during this critical time.
Conversations are the best way to get leaders and employees back into the practice of relating to one another in person. How are people doing? What challenges are they facing at work and in their personal lives?
It’s essential that leaders manage these conversations effectively. Drawing on our insights and those of others, we offer this guide to help leaders have the kinds of discussions we need to be having right now.
The four I’s of conversational leadership
The book Talk, Inc.: How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to Power Their Organizations, by Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind, explores how companies’ outreach strategies evolved from top-down, command-centric communiques to something more informal, immediate, and personal—from a C-suite monologue to a genuine back-and-forth between leaders and employees. This change has driven:
The rise of knowledge work
Trends toward flatter, less hierarchical organizations and recognition of the value-creation of frontline workers
Increasing diversity and globalization, creating an awareness of different communication styles and cross-cultural competencies
The growth of social media and instantaneous communication
Generational change as millennial and Gen Z workers with a more egalitarian, self-expressive style move into the workforce (and, at this point, into leadership roles: the oldest millennials are nearing 40)
