| Communication is a catchall phrase for
things that go wrong in companies and relationships. Unfortunately, the concept is too
ambiguous to do anything constructive to fix it.
There are seven communication mistakes that lead to
mis-understandings, and cause conflicts between co-workers, and bosses and their
subordinates, which lead to low morale and toxic work environments. They are called the
"The 7 Deadly Sins of Organizational Leadership Communication." This article
will address the least understood and most common of these leadership communication sins,
a “lack of specificity.”
The "Law of Specificity" states, "the level
to which communication lacks specificity is the level to which individuals are required to
become mind readers, guess and assume. We all know what happens we assumptions are made.
Three of the most common areas for non-specific
communication, which will be addressed in this article, are:
- Lack of Specific Details
- Lack of Specific Direction
- Lack of Specific Meaning
Lack of Specific Details
This is one of the most regularly violated. It's a simple as leaving out dates, times, and
locations, etc. when making a request. Here is an actual client example:
"Steve, I need you to get me details of all of our
vendor and sub-contractor relationships by the end of next week so I can evaluate them for
next year's budgets I'm submitting."
This request seems straight forward, but Steve did not meet
the expectations of his boss. Steve took "the end of next week" to mean by
"the end of the day next Friday." His boss meant that he was submitting his
budget proposal by the end of the day the following Friday and therefore needed Steve's
information by the first thing Friday morning, or preferably Thursday.
As you might imagine, this caused a conflict between the
boss and his direct report. It wasn't the first time. To improve their communication both
were coached on using more specificity in future requests.
You will notice that a statement like the one below is much
more specific:
"Steve, I need to submit our budget proposal by the
end of next week. So I need a detailed report on our vendor and sub-contractor
relationships by Thursday at 5 p.m. This way I can use those figures in my proposal, which
I will be finalizing next Friday. Based on your present priorities is that a time frame
you can make happen?"
This request has much more specificity. It is also very
respectful of the other party's priorities. It doesn't assume that he or she can just drop
everything to fulfill this request. It allows for honest and open negotiation so both
parties feel supported and expectations can be met.
Lack of Specific Direction
In this situation my client, a CEO, had a habit of moving things off his desk by putting
them in his office manager's in-basket." Because of his position, the office manager
assumed that if he was giving her something "it must be important."
Every time she would immediately stop what she was doing to
work on the latest thing he had given her. On the surface this seems like very proactive
assistant getting things done. The challenge is that it was frustrating the office manager
as it prevented her from getting other priorities accomplished. She was becoming stressed
by her inability to keep up with her workload and that of her boss. The problem was solved
in 30-seconds by asking the CEO if everything he put in her in-box was an urgent priority
that required immediate attention. He said, "no," that he was just trying to get
stuff off his desk.
Moving forward the CEO began putting notes on items
identifying the required level of urgency. This allowed the office manager to prioritize
and schedule those items around her work without having to assume and mind-read.
Lack of Specific Meaning
A wife recently accused her husband of leaving the front door to their home
"open" when he came home from appointments during the day. Her meaning for the
word "open," as it pertained to the front door of our home, and the husband's
meaning were found to be very different.
Upon further discussion it was learned the wife meant the
door was not "locked" so as to seal the door to keep the cold winter air from
seeping through the weather stripping.
The husband's meaning for an "open" front door
was that the latch was not shut and the door was truly open so one could see outside.
Words have different meanings to different people in different contexts. Often times we
assume the other person has our same point of reference. That is often not the case,
causing misunderstandings and trust to break down.
A lack of specificity is just one of seven communication
mistakes organizational leaders are making when interacting with their peers, direct
reports and those they answer to such as shareholders and board members.
To learn more about the communication sin of a "lack
of specificity" and the other six deadly leadership communication sins, go to
www.HowToImproveOrganizationalLeadershipCommunication.com and download the free special
report "The 7 Deadly Sins of Organizational Leadership Communication" which will
give you even more case studies with details as to how to fix these sins, communicate like
a champion and build a championship organization. |
