An open communication culture starts with the leader
Talking about the leadership mindset and communication culture of a particular team, Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford Motor Company, said “Like a lot of companies, you only brought an issue to your supervisor if you had a solution. So now, you’re just managing a secret. You don’t know what’s going on.”
This approach is not unique to that particular organization. I remember being given that same advice as an employee. Being told just that: don’t go to your supervisor with a problem if you don’t have a solution. And later, in a position of leadership, I was reprimanded by a colleague for having brought up an issue during a leadership meeting. I was told: “We don’t tell him these things. It makes us look back.”
What?!?
That blew my mind. It made absolutely no sense to me.
“Isn’t that why we have these meetings?”
Of course, now, years later, with much more experience, now as an executive, I can say with absolute certainty that I disagree even more with that advice. That’s terrible advice.
So what can a leader do to help foster a culture that surfaces issues rather than buries them?
Welcome sharing of issues
The very first thing to do is to welcome team members sharing issues that they're aware of. I would much rather have someone come to me with a problem as soon as it's discovered, even if they have no solution. Of course, it's great if they do have a solution but I wouldn't want that to prevent them from coming to me early. I wouldn't want them to sit on that information for, let's say weeks, as they’re trying to figure out a solution.
Instead, come to me as soon as possible. Especially if it's an ongoing problem and potentially causing more damage the longer it happens.
When trying to make them feel welcomed, start by thanking them. Actually say “thank you for bringing this to my attention”. Make them feel like they did the right thing. No groaning!
It may even have been really hard for them to come to you, especially if they came from a culture of sweeping things under the rug or keeping things a secret. They may be really concerned about what could happen. So make sure you applaud their courage, applaud the fact that they were honest with you and potentially even shown weakness because maybe they're the ones who caused the issue. Maybe it was one of their own mistakes that started this.
I'm not saying that there won't ever be any consequences just because they told you the truth and they were honest. Obviously, it depends on what it is, but recognize at the same time that they came to you hoping to make it right and fix things. And, again, depending on the severity and what it is, there may be some consequences to it, but at least recognize that they're trying. And I would say, in my experience anyway, it's rare that it's that extreme. I consider that an outlier. The vast majority of the time, it's something that is either fixable or of smaller consequences. It's rarely something so big that it requires something dramatic. For the most part, it's just me thanking them and really appreciating that they took that risk and trusted me enough to come and tell me what was happening in a timely manner.
Make time to listen even when not convenient
To encourage this open communication culture, also really make the time to listen. Even if it's not convenient.
I know that managing and growing a business can leave us really, really tired. And with very little time. I recognize that our schedules are usually packed and that we frequently are managing one unexpected crisis after the next. That's just the reality of growing in business.
Yes, there are some things that we can do to guard against that. I talk about that all the time. But I do recognize that time pressure, and sometimes it really feels like if somebody brings me one more problem, it’s just going to break the proverbial camel's back.
But here's the thing: every single time that I was in a situation where I was so stressed, when I had so much on my plate, when I felt like I couldn't deal with one more problem, every single time that I showed up ready to listen – because this is my role – I walked away grateful. Grateful that I had shown up the way I did, that I listened the way I did, and that the team member had come to me with this, even though the time was not convenient.
Yes, there are times when it might be a toxic team member who's trying to cause problems. But I consider that to be a whole other issue. Typically, it's amazing team members that are surfacing real issues that need to be addressed.
If there is a toxic team member, I don't consider that the same, because that's an issue that needs to be addressed separately and it requires a whole other evaluation.
I'm just talking about the amazing team members, the typically vast majority of amazing team members, that come to you with a problem. Every time that happened, I was grateful every single time, even though I was feeling the time pressure crunch. So, really make sure you listen.
Patiently guide them to a solution
Another way to help foster that open communication culture is to patiently guide them to a solution. I was saying that we want to make sure that team members feel empowered to come and give you that information. But I also recognize that we don't want to swing that pendulum all the way to the other side either. Where you essentially have this revolving door and one team member after the other comes in and brings you all the problems and zero solutions. Of course not. That's not what I'm saying.
I'm talking about finding that middle ground. Where we encourage them. It's about removing the fear of not having a solution. Because ideally, yes, that would be great if they had solutions. And, realistically, most of the time they are the ones best placed to come up with that solution. They're the ones who are in it all the time. So most of the time, they simply have the absolute best possible solutions. But you want to encourage them to feel like they can come to you even though they don't have the solutions. And also recognize that they're likely to have the best solution.
You want to help them arrive there. And, in the spirit of not having the pendulum swing too far, where it's just passing the problem over and be done, try to dig into why that's happening.
Is it because coming up with a solution isn't something that they've been taught?
Is it a lack of training? Maybe they haven't been told or taken through the workflow of how to work out these solutions?
Beware though. Don't just assume that that's the case. It could lead to condescending behavior. Be aware that it's not necessarily that they haven't had the training but rather that it's just that complex. But if it is training then you walking them through your thought process and finding a solution together might teach them your approach to problem-solving.
At the same time, when you do that exercise, it will help you determine whether it was that the team member wasn't familiar with the problem solving approach. In which case, provide them with some training. If it wasn’t training, maybe they just needed a fresh perspective.
If somebody is in a certain environment all the time, it’s sometimes really hard to get a little bit of perspective because you're just constantly in it. And so you almost need that “newbie” outside person to wonder “Why is that this thing?” Because they're so trained, so good, such experts, sometimes they really need that fresh perspective to see things differently.
Just make sure that you work on finding that solution with them to uncover whether it's that they require a little bit of training or whether they just needed that perspective.
And so in doing this exercise, then you can be confident that you're modeling the problem-solving approach and it surfaces what is the real issue.
Again, it is really about ensuring that, although encouraged to come with ideas, with potential solutions, if the team member has no idea how to solve something that they still feel empowered to come to you or go to the immediate supervisor with that answerless problem.
It all starts with you, the leader
Creating this open communication culture, finding that middle ground between people sweeping things under the rug and everybody coming to you with zero solutions, it starts with you.
It starts with you, the leader.
When you feel the frustration of a team member surfacing yet another issue that needs addressing, take a deep breath, work with them to find a solution, but mostly take comfort in knowing that you created a culture where people feel safe enough to tell you the truth.
To paraphrase Alan Mulally, at least now you’re no longer managing with all these secrets kept from you.
At least, you know what’s going on.
And that gives you a fighting chance.
