Africa-Press – Namibia. Rhingo Mutambo
Before understanding the importance of managerial communication at the workplace, let us first go through a near real-life case scenario in the public sector.
It is safe to argue that what you are about to read also happens in the private sector.
Hange and Norma (pseudonyms) both worked with an organisation of repute.
Hange represented the public relations function vertical, while Norma was heading the information and research department.
Hange was a subordinate to Norma.
Hange and Norma preferred doing things on their own.
The two hardly interacted with each other and never really bothered to discuss things and reach better conclusions.
In short, they worked in solos due to asymmetrical communication.
This happened because Norma was a difficult manager and always found ways to belittle, mock and chastise Hange – even in public – often without substantive support and constructive feedback.
The two never spoke unless it was work-related.
The worst happened when Norma told Hange off: ‘We are not here to massage each other’s ego’ after Hange flagged that his health challenges affected his work performance, motivation, commitment and time management.
Hange reported the matter to the executive director after some years and was finally moved to a different department.
However, eventually, due to frustration and alienation, he left the organisation.
What are we saying here? We are saying poor managerial communication, and inter-alia accounts for high employee turnover and speaks to the business adage that ‘people quit bosses, not companies’.
The organisation lost an important deal due to a lack of healthy communication between the two teams, and such is the importance of managerial communication within the organisation.
The managers need to communicate amongst themselves and also with their team members in a manner that is inspirational, accommodative and supportive.
It is also important to not only communicate, but do so effectively.
Effective managerial communication is the key to success in today’s world towards the performance of both individual staff and the organisation as a whole.
Now, what is managerial communication?
Managerial communication is the process by which a manager in an organisation shares ideas or information with other managers or members of their team.
Depending on how well it is done, managerial communication has a great impact on the staff morale, teamwork and the achievement of company goals.
Communication is considered to be one of the most important tools in the process of management.
But why is managerial communication important in the workplace?
Healthy communication makes employees feel valued and motivated.
The opposite leads to high employee turnover, disengagement and low productivity.
Thus, managerial communication is not only necessary for the exchange of ideas amongst employees within the organisation, but a healthy discussion must be promoted at the workplace to establish good manager-managed rapport, clarity of purpose and mutual understanding.
Managers must also learn to communicate with their team members to understand and address their grievances and problems at home and in the workplace – a golden opportunity in which the manager and employee resolve issues and queries that might affect individual and organisational performance.
Team members should have the liberty to talk to their team managers freely – back and forth.
Here is the flash news: if your subordinates fear communicating with you face-to-face, via email or by phone, you are shy of a good manager.
You are just a leader.
Do the honourable thing: perform an urgent post-mortem and fix the problem ASAP.
Don’t be like Norma.
Always allow for free upward and downward communication between you and your subordinates.
A good manager communicates care, caution, warmth, praises and platonic love.
When that happens, the rest falls into place.
Ipso-facto, people grow and organisations flourish.
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