10 Oct Do you know your vital signs?
Communication is the lifeblood of your organization. Like blood, communication must flow freely, regularly and carry the right content.
Who could survive if their heart beats only once a minute? Or if it beats 200 times a minute?
Or if the content was meaningless bafflegab clogging the communication arteries? A diet of poorly executed communication will cause your people to hit the DELETE key before reading or tune you out while listening.
How do you create a healthy level of full-cycle communication? By checking your communication vital signs. Here are lab tests you should be doing regularly:
- Are you using all your senses — hearing, sight, feelings – to get the fullest picture of what is going on?
- Are you getting regular honest feedback?
- Are you delivering “nutritious” content in the right cadence?
- Have you listened to your people and had a full discussion to understand know how they reacted to what you are dishing out?
Knowing your organization’s vital signs is every leader’s job. Investing time in tracking and responding to those vital signs will reduce turnover, inspire engagement and increase productivity.
Preventive medicine is the key. If you ignore vital signs, get ready to spend far more time curing avoidable and destructive communication diseases.