In
every organization, there will be conflicts. Every manager will have obstacles
to overcome and problems to solve. When we speak with others in our
organization about these issues, how will we communicate with them? Supportive
communication is the ideal form of communication. “Supportive communication
seeks to preserve or enhance a positive relationship between you and another person
while still addressing a problem, giving negative feedback, or tacking a
difficult issue” (Whetton & Cameron, 2016,p. 193).
This
week, we have been studying and discussing communication and conflict
resolution within our organizations. In order to solve problems, we must communicate
with our teams. Though we, as managers, are ultimately responsible for decision
making, we need to both properly gather and disseminate information through
supportive communication so as to not alienate our peers and subordinates. Whetton
and Cameron (2016) outline the eight attributes of supportive communication. They
are:
1.
Congruent,
not incongruent
2.
Descriptive,
not evaluative
3.
Problem-oriented,
not person-oriented
4.
Validating,
not invalidating
5.
Specific,
not global
6.
Conjunctive,
not disconjunctive
7.
Owned,
not disowned
8.
Supportive
listening, not one-way listening.
As
an example, we were asked to read the following excerpt from an e-mail sent by
a CEO to 400 company managers at a high-technology company called Cerner and reflect
on the eight attributes of supportive communication. Let’s take a look.
“We are getting
less than 40 hours of work from a large number of our K.C.-based EMPLOYEES. The
parking lot is sparsely used at 8:00 A.M.; likewise at 5 P.M. As managers – you
either do not know what your EMPLOYEES are doing; or you do not CARE. You have
created expectations on the work effort that allowed this to happen inside
Cerner, creating a very unhealthy environment. In either case, you have a
problem and you will fix it or I will replace you. NEVER in my career have I
allowed a team that worked for me to think they had a 40-hour job. I have
allowed YOU to create a culture that is permitting this. NO LONGER.”
The
idea of this exercise is to identify how one might apply the attributes of
supportive communication over the next 30 days in your job to avoid some of the
problems associated with this communication. I believe the spirit of the
exercise is not to evaluate what the CEO said but rather how to convey that
same message to my team in a supportive way.
The
first attribute is to be congruent. In face to face communications, this means
to have everything from tone and body language and verbiage to agree. Often,
however, we are left with electronic means of disseminating information. Have
you ever received an e-mail or perhaps a text from your partner or significant
other and you can tell that something is not right? You can just tell that
something is a little off and you get the “It’s fine” text back or something
like that. That incongruence. We, as managers, but be honest and consistent in
our communication. If there is an issue, we need to ensure that our words are
clear that there is an issue that must be resolved.
The
second is to be descriptive and not evaluative. Evaluative communication makes
a judgement (such as “you failed”) whereas descriptive communication will
describe an observation and detail what behavior needs to be modified. As an
example, instead of saying something like “You obviously have no control over
your team because the office is a total wreck”, you may something like “I
noticed that the office is in disarray. In an environment such as this, you can
ensure a professional appearance by ensuring that everybody organizes their
desk.”
The
third attribute is to be problem-oriented and not people-oriented. This means
that the focus remains on the actual problem instead of placing blame. By doing
this, it becomes a collectively owned problem and ensures that it isn’t a
personal attack. Even when the problem is a trait that an individual has, it is
still important to remain focused on the problem and not the individual as a
person.
The
fourth attribute is to be validating. This means to be respectful and inclusive
of those with which you are communicating. What you are trying to achieve here
is a positive two-way communication channel that allows the subordinate (or
subject of communication even if not subordinate) to feel as if their input
matters. What we want to avoid here especially is rigid communication. This isn’t
to say that there isn’t a time or a place for one-way communication. I have
been in the military for 18 years now and I can say with great confidence that
there are times when communication must be rigid and succinct. However, the
overall idea is to build a solid team within the organization so those times
are the exception and not the rule.
Fifth,
the communication must be specific and not global. This means to avoid
generalizations. I personally am often guilty of this. I have a young Sergeant
in my section that is late on average twice a month at least. A few weeks ago,
he called and said that traffic was bad on the Brooklyn Bridge and he was going
to be about 20 minutes late. I reacted incorrectly and said something along the
lines of “That isn’t surprising because you are always late”. The truth is that he isn’t always late. The
problem was that he was late for the second time in two weeks.
Sixth,
supportive communication is conjunctive. This means that the communication
builds on what has been previously said and flows. It doesn’t jump randomly
from point to point. Fortunately, in electronic communication, it is a little
easier to stay on topic and allow the communication to flow. However, it can
become disjunctive in that it doesn’t allow equal opportunity for a response. Even
so, it is important to stay on topic.
The
seventh attribute is by owning the communication. This doesn’t mean to be
dominate in communication. It means to state your action role. For example,
back to my young Sergeant who has been late on several occasions, I cannot make
my role seem passive to him. For example, I need to say, “I am documenting your
lateness on a counseling form to be placed in your record” vs. “There may be
negative consequences”.
The
final attribute of supportive communication is supportive listening. This may
be the hardest to apply without face to face communication but it is critical
to convey that we are open to what our subordinates have to say.
It
is fairly easy to see how communication can be applied in a face to face (or
even video conference) setting which would be idea. However, I believe that one
of the challenges that we will continue to face more and more in the future is
communicating through emails. Therefore, my communication to my team through
email using the eight attributes of communication would look similar to the
below message.
“Team,
Good
morning. There are a noticeable number of employees that are violating our work
hour policy. Over the last several weeks, it has been observed that the parking
lot is far from full by 8am and begins to empty well before the 5pm established
standard. This is very concerning as the strength of our company falters when
our employees are not productive for the 40 hours per week for which they are
salaried to work.
What
do you think is causing this issue? Are employees having a difficult time with
traffic? If so, I have a few ideas that may help. What if we were to adjust the
working hours either one hour left to avoid rush hour traffic? What suggestions
do you have that we could perhaps implement to solve this issue and restore
optimal productivity to the branch?
Let’s
have a brief conference call about this on Wednesday at 10am. That will give us
all time to evaluate the problem a little more and will give you an opportunity
to determine/observe what you think may be the root of the problem. If you are
unable to be on the call, please let me know by Tuesday afternoon and I will
call you individually after the conference call on Wednesday afternoon to get
your input.
I am
excited to work with you on this particular issue. I am confident that we will
be able to resolve it as a team.”
Whetten,
D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills (9th ed.).
Pearson.
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