READING & VOCABULARY ACTIVITY

Leadership Communications

- WHAT YOU SAY, WHAT THEY HEAR

You may think your message is clear, but you could be sending mixed signals without realizing
it with disastrous results.
by Anne Field, Harvard Management Communication Letter.

After one of her vice presidents came to her asking to spearhead new projects, Chris Coleman
believed she was handing him a plum assignment when she put him in charge of launching a new
competitive intelligence service for clients of her Atlanta marketing firm, Folio Z. So she was
thrown up for a loop when, 30 days after she offered him the project, he quit.
What happened ? It turned out that when Coleman made her offer, she said one thing, and her
employee heard something completely different. I told him it would be a big opportunity, she
says. And I didnt clarify what I meant.
For the vice president, the only possible meaning was getting a big staff and a bigger title. When
he discovered a few days later he would receive neither, he felt he was undervalued and had been
misled and left in a huff.
Unfortunately, such miscommunications are a fact of business life. And in todays high-pressure
workplaces, theyre more likely than ever to happen. A manager excuses an employee on deadline
from coming to a meeting, unwittingly making that employee think his input isnt valued. Another
remarks one Friday afternoon how glad she is the weekend is around the corner, causing her staff to
believe shes not committed to the company or to them.
The bottom line : If its possible for something to be misunderstood, it will be, says Francie
Dalton, president of Dalton Alliances, a communications consultancy in Columbia, Md.
Such misunderstandings can have a significant impact on productivity and morale, say
communications experts. In Colemans case, it led to the resignation of a valued employee. In
others, miscommunication may cause everything from confusion and hurt feelings to the sabotaging
of a managers ability to lead. And it takes a lot to set things right an average of five rounds of
back-and-fourth communication before you clear up your message, says Theresa Welbourne, an
adjunct professor of HR at the University of Michigan Business School (Ann Arbor), who also runs
eePulse, an Ann Arbor-based company that provides employee feedback to managers.
What happens between Points A and B
People will hear what they expect to hear, says Coleman. She points to a new employee who,
through no fault of her own, was involved in a major project failure, one that ran up $15,000 in
extra costs for the company. When it was all over, Coleman approached her and asked, How are
we going to keep this from happening again? The employee, expecting to be blamed for the
mishap, heard the simple question as a rebuke something Coleman discovered the next day, when
a colleague revealed the woman felt shed been beaten up, she says.
Welbourne cites a manufacturing company that held a town meeting to announce process
changes meant to increase product quality. When she polled employees later, however, she
discovered that the No. 1 message employees heard was that layoffs were in the offing even
though none were. Its just that the employees, anxious about job security, were primed to hear the
news they most feared.

Here are other reasons that a disconnect occurs between managers words and employees
understanding of them :
-

Different communication styles: the hard-driving, results-oriented person is likely to convey

messages differently from, say, someone who strongly empathizes with others or who likes to
look at the big picture. Managers often say things in their own style without taking into account
an employees style, thereby causing misunderstanding.
A lack of clarity and detail: managers think theyre being clear when, often, they arent. Dalton
recalls a CEO of a high-profile nonprofit that tended to receive a lot of media attention. To be
better prepared, the CEO asked all his vice presidents to pull together key points he needed to
know before talking to the press. But he neglected to spell out the fact that he wanted them to
coordinate their findings before meeting with him. The result : when they met, they failed to
deliver what they expected.
High pressure, stressful situations: in the current environment, with downsizings, reduced
staffs, and increased workload still in effect at most companies, people dont have the time to
think about what theyre communicating. The more uncertain and pressured the situation, the
more likely it is that employees wont be able to process everything you say correctly.
Complicating matters further, managers are also apt not to communicate their thoughts
adequately when theyre under a lot of pressure.

Helping the right message get through

How can you make sure that employees hear what you are trying to tell them? These six steps can help:
1. Adapt your communication style: analyze not only your communication style but also that of
your employees. Then shape what you say and how you say it to better fit their modus operandi.
Remember: its up to you to communicate with your employees in the most effective way,
rather than expecting them to be the ones to adapt.
2. Read body language and pay attention to vocal dynamics: much of communication is
nonverbal. For that reason, how you say or example, if you make an innocuous comment while
using threatening body language, an employee will likely register the unstated nonverbal
message.
3. Be sensitive to context: where a message is delivered may affect how its heard. A discussion
held in a managers office, with the manager sitting behind a desk, can convey a different
message than whats conveyed by the same discussion held in the employees own cubicle.
4. Put it in writing: this technique is especially helpful in difficult conversations, such as when you
have to give someone a negative performance review or convey bad news. A related tactic is to
ask employees to repeat your instructions in their own words.
5. Dont skimp on details: if you want a report, specify how long you want it to be and the topics
that it should cover. If youre delivering bad news, dont leave out important information, even
if its something employees wont want to hear.
6. Cultivate an atmosphere of openness: make a concerted effort to solicit your employees
opinions on matters that are important to them, and encourage them to ask you questions. By
building their confidence and trust in you, you will make it more likely that they will ask for
clarification when they need it.

VOCABULARY ACTIVITY
I - Check the right meaning of the boldfaced/underlined words in the article according to its context:
1- to spearhead new projects means :
(a) to prepare new projects
(b) to lead new projects
(c) to send new projects
2 - a plum assignment is :
(a) a very good assignment that a lot of people would like
(b) a very good fruit that everybody would like to eat
(c) a terrible task that no one wants to carry out
3 if someone leaves in a huff this person
(a) is extremely happy about something
(b) feels rewarded and fulfilled
(c) feels annoyed or offended
4 unwittingly means :
(a) unintentionally
(b) intentionally
(c) slowly
5 someones morale is
(a) their principles and beliefs
(b) the way they see the world
(c) their confidence and optimism
6 something considered as a rebuke is seen as a/an
(a) reprimand
(b) compliment
(c) effort
7 when youre polled you are
(a) registered in a group
(b) asked about something
(c) mentioned in a conversation
8 if something is in the offing it is
(a) imminent
(b) already happening
(c) not happening
9 to convey a message means :
(a) to write it down
(b) to listen to it
(c) to communicate it

10 a high profile person

(a) is extremely discreet
(b) attracts a lot of attention
(c) is tall
11 to spell out a fact means :
(a) to explain it in details
(b) to speak each letter
(c) to send it to someone
12 the word downsizing means :
(a) to reduce something
(b) to enlarge something
(c) to eliminate something
13 something innocuous is :
(a) offensive
(b) inoffensive
(c) innovative
14 if you dont skimp on details, you
(a) ignore them
(b) think they are important and you specify them
(c) see them as something totally irrelevant
II Language Awareness PREFIX : mis - .
There were a lot of words in the article containing the prefix mis-. Find them and list them below :

The prefix mis- implies that something is wrong or is badly done (remember the
word mistake ?). Other examples :

Misbehavior the act of behaving wrongly

Misconduct improper, unlawful or dishonest
Misplace/mislay put in a wrong place
Misuse incorrect or improper use
Mishear the act of hearing incorrectly
Misinterpret / misread to understand wrongly
Misjudge to form an incorrect idea about sth/someone