15 minute read
EXPERT ADVICE
Common communication mistakes in the workplace
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You already know that effective communication is critical to your business’s success, no matter what industry you’re in. But what you might not know is where you’re going wrong. Even seasoned executives are subject to making communication mistakes (which might not have anything to do with their grammar or word choices). Here are the top
three communication faux pas you might be making at work.
1. USING ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL COMMUNICATION
You’d probably be a little concerned if one of your friends replied to your text with, “Sorry, I don’t have the bandwidth to tackle this right now. Let’s circle back to this topic later,” just like you’d spend an hour trying to decode a text from your client that was littered with emojis. People don’t communicate with everyone in their life the same way, nor should they. But instead of lumping everyone into the broad categories of “friend,” “client,” or “coworker” to decide who warrants a text, phone call or email, try taking everyone’s individual psychology into account too.
By definition, communication is the process of sending and receiving messages, so how the recipient processes your message can mean the difference between a successful exchange and a cluster-you-know-what. People interpret messages based on their background and life experiences, mindset, education and emotional intelligence, personality, and the context of their relationship with the sender – which is why you would be worried if your friend started sending corporate jargon over text. A seasoned professional in his sixties is not likely to consume communications in the same way that a recent college graduate does, so if you have a multi-generational team or work with people across vastly different specialties, you’ll have to communicate with each of them a little differently.
2. YOU SPEAK MORE THAN YOU LISTEN
Communication is usually treated like an Olympic sport in the corporate world: whoever can run their idea down the field fast and hard enough wins. But if you’ve created a work environment where employees feel like they have to talk over one another just to get your attention, that’s your first problem.
Employees learn from their leaders’ examples, so three things will probably happen if you talk more than you listen. First, your employees will do the same, creating more miscommunications (and headaches) for you to sort out later. Second, you’ll be less likely to hear about problems that are happening from the bottom up, allowing conflicts and mistakes to fester until they’re fullblown crises. And third, if employees don’t feel heard, they won’t feel valued either. So the next time your sales manager comes to you with a question, pause to really hear what they’re saying before throwing some more directives at them.
3. REACTING, NOT RESPONDING
Picture this: it’s 3:30 on a Friday, and it’s been a long week. Your right hand is on vacation, shipments are majorly delayed, you’re scrambling to get ahead on paperwork, and you got a parking ticket yesterday. Great. You check your email one more time before you finally check out for the weekend, only to find an email titled “Customer Service Complaint,” explaining how one of your employees dropped the ball on a huge order for one of your best customers.
Needless to say, you’re angry. You start writing an email that reads something like, “What is this, Jerry??? I don’t have time to deal with this – or you. Learn how to do your job, or I’ll find someone else who can.” You hit send – but feel a tinge of guilt immediately after. Now, Jerry has a nasty email from you in writing. And worse, you didn’t stop to consider why he messed up the order in the first place. Is there a larger issue with your internal software, or is this related to the shipping issues you’ve been having all week? Maybe he wasn’t even the one who filed and processed the order that day.
Reactions are based on immediate impulses that don’t consider the long-term effects of what you say or do, whereas responses are guided by logic, context and critical reasoning. In other words, reactions are emotionally charged, while responses are the outcome of thoughtfulness and reflection. Learning to go from reacting to responding will dramatically improve your communication skills and help you handle conflict with ease. ■
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Little pivots that create extraordinary results
BY RYAN LOCKHART
A
Ask yourself one question: What does the “Sales Prevention Department” cost your company every year? A lot of people overlook some of the top fundamentals when it comes to growing a business. We ignore simple blocks, work around them without noticing or inadvertently lay down new ones.
Every year I manage millions of dollars of marketing monies. We produce over $2 billion of revenues for our clients at group46, and the single biggest thing that any of our clients can do is reduce the friction between their customers and their solutions. Translating that principle into a discovery and implementation of steps that need to be taken is a process most don’t take or make the time for – and it’s costing them.
Often when clients come to us with their headaches, they have one of two challenges – they don’t get enough leads, or they don’t get enough conversions. Those are the top two basic needs that bring people to group46.
The prequel to that conversation is there are a lot of things you can do that don’t necessarily mean spending more money advertising for new customers, increasing followers, creating a viral trend or spinning wheels on whatever you’re doing to attract people. Too often we get caught up in loving our own solutions without noticing where we’re disconnected from the user experience or pouring money into attracting a following that aren’t our target customers – people who aren’t going to buy. We’re missing the gap between where the people are and where the people need to be to finalize the transaction.
You can go through any business and find that gap in system breakdowns that create a friction point between not getting or getting a transaction. As a consumer we’ve all been there – on the edge to purchase, and then something happens that makes you purchase elsewhere. One bad process, one broken link, the wrong personal interaction or missed opportunity – you could be leaking profits from a direction that’s not on your radar.
You can overcome most of these sales-prevention issues with a simple selfaudit of your consumer experience and related processes, visiting your transaction process from your client’s perspective and looking for ways to make it better:
Hire a secret shopper to test a transaction and give you valuable feedback on issues or your consumer wish list – things they wish were part of your process or conveniences they’re missing and perhaps get through other entities.
For instance, consumers are more open these days to digital interactions. Activating Google Maps on your website or other interactive tools like OpenTable could be what secures that impulse purchase – or loses it. Reverse-engineering your phone system to give people information they need or redesigning materials that make a sale simpler and more accessible, even reviewing something as simple as who is answering your phone and the information or training they’ve been provided could be the crossroads to retaining versus losing a customer.
An award winning thought leader in advertising, Ryan Lockhart is a subject matter expert in both branding and strategic marketing direction. He is the Founder & President of group46, a boutique advertising firm located in Bluffton. We enjoy his thoughtful posts on LinkedIn.
There are basic practices within your business eradicating your ability to convert – bad habits in your sales-prevention department that eat away at your gross profit – and missed opportunity is probably one of the biggest issues. But consider how simple it is to turn the ship: Make life easier for your target market. Make it easy for people to give you money. Give people more options and fewer blocks. It’s a principle that tracks through every element of your business and is immediately measurable.
If you get one percent better every day, you will have doubled your output in 100 days. After a year you’ve doubled your bottom line.
It’s not hard to bridge the gap between your customers, what they need and the solution you provide that meets their needs. Reduce the friction within that transaction – any type of friction. It’s part of what we find and solve through marketing consultation with group46, and it’s those little shifts and little pivots that, when combined and consistent, produce extraordinary results. ■
Partners in charity
PHILANTHROPIC DRIVE LINKS PGA TOUR GOLF TOURNAMENT WITH LOCAL BUSINESS CASE STUDY
PHOTOS COURTESY OF HERITAGE CLASSIC FOUNDATION
Must-see TV The RBC Heritage is broadcast in 28 languages to 197 countries outside the U.S. More than 1 billion households across the world can tune in to see Harbour Town’s famous candy cane striped lighthouse during Heritage Week.
The Heritage Classic Foundation has T raised $47.5 million for nonprofits in South Carolina and Georgia since 1987. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to supporting educational and charitable initiatives to enhance quality of life and economic vitality, and it’s the official host of the RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing. “Not only are we using Hargray as a technology provider,” said Morgan Hyde, the Heritage Classic Foundation’s vice president of operations, “Hargray is also supporting our foundation. Hargray has been a partner with us since the beginning.”
THE PROBLEM
UPGRADES, EVOLUTION PAR FOR THE COURSE
In April, the 54th RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing attracted more than 100,000 people to Harbour Town Golf Links within The Sea Pines Resort. And for the first time, attendees all had mobile tickets that required Wi-Fi access.
“Hargray has always stepped up to facilitate all of the technology changes that have come across our business for the TV networks and the PGA Tour,” Hyde said. “This year we changed to a mobile ticket, which meant that everyone who came onto our golf course had to get their tickets scanned off of their phones. We needed a lot of Wi-Fi in places that typically don’t have Wi-Fi, and Hargray immediately stepped in and made it happen.”
Transitioning from a traditional ticket system to an e-ticket platform could have driven the storied event into the rough, creating a hazard for both staff and spectators alike due to the large volume of tickets in multiple locations that needed to be scanned in a short period of time.
“We went into areas out in the middle of nowhere, and somehow Hargray was able to get us Wi-Fi there,” said Hyde. “With 102,000 people, that put a big strain on our Wi-Fi backbone, but Hargray handled the ticket scanning and provided hot spots for our spectators to be able to use mobile apps to follow the golf tournament from their phones and their mobile devices without any problems.”
THE RESULTS
CORPORATE CADDIE: IT'S A HOLE-IN-ONE
Hyde said he has been with the Heritage Classic Foundation since 1996 working with 89 registered charities and has worked with technology solutions from copper wire to faxes to regular phones to data-driven fiber solutions. He said Hargray has provided technological help “without a hiccup” every step of the way.
“For the Heritage Classic Foundation, Hargray is an official sponsor and its official communications provider,” he said. “Not only are we using them as a provider, but they also are supporting our foundation and our events. Our job is to raise money for charities in our local regional area, and with Hargray it truly is a partnership with a common cause of charity.”
KEY TAKEAWAY
LOOK FORE-WARD WITH COMPANIES THAT CARE
“Hargray is ingrained in our community,” Hyde said. “It’s not just a communications company. It has a number of charitable-driven projects within the company. It would be easy for me to tell somebody that Hargray has the technology and the expertise to help your business, but if you’re also looking for a company that thinks about charities and thinks about the community, use them if you have those same interests and goals. Build relationships with local companies that share your main core values.” ■
Five tips from a successful businessman
FORMER SMUCKER’S EXECUTIVE AND ANIMAL RESCUE ADVOCATE CHUCK LAINE SHARES HIS ADVICE FOR SUCCESS
BY EDDY HOYLE
Chuck Laine has a long C history with the Hilton Head Island Humane Association. He joined its finance committee in 2003 and two years later became the chairman of the board and still serves in that capacity. Under his leadership one of the largest public/private partnerships in Beaufort County was formed, and the result is the new facility on U.S. 170 that houses an adoption facility for the Humane Association and the Beaufort County shelter.
Laine joined the J.M. Smucker Company (Smucker’s) in 1964 where he was immersed in a work culture in which every employee adopted the Basic Beliefs put forth by the company: quality, people, ethics, growth and independence. Laine said that he accepted this foundation as the basis for future strategy, planning and daily behavior and that the basic beliefs have served him well throughout his life.
Local since 1999
Chuck Laine is chairman of the Humane Association Board of Directors. He is pictured with with Nikki Haley at a special event, with Stu Rodman at a ribbon cutting, and with his dog, Danny Boy.
Laine joined the Army after graduating from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Science in commerce. He then joined Smucker’s and spent 34 years rising through the ranks from retail sales to the marketing department as vice president of marketing and finally as the vice president and general manager of the international market and natural foods business.
In 1999 Laine retired and moved from Bath, Ohio, to Indigo Run, quickly got involved with his community and became the chairman of the Indigo Run Golf Club Board. He now lives in Windmill Harbour and enjoys golf and running. Here are his tips for success which he also has put into action at the Hilton Head Humane Association:
All things are not equal
“Learn to establish priorities,” Laine explained. “Everything is not equal.” Whether delivering long-term results to shareholders, building brands or investing in our communities, there will always be a multitude of issues. Understand what is truly important at any given time and learn to effectively prioritize.
Focus!
Whatever your objective, set specific goals. “Focus on accomplishing what you have established as goals,” Laine said. Don’t get distracted or lose sight of what you’re trying to achieve. Stay laser-focused!
What’s your process?
Laine recommends that all decision-making — in business and in life — should be handled in the same way. “Have a set format for making decisions. Put together a decision-making process that you always use, no matter how big or small the decision may be,” Laine explained. His process is to rank weighted benefits of every decision he makes.
Remember the Golden Rule
“Always remember the people part of life. Treat them the way you would like to be treated,” Laine said. At Smucker’s, Laine learned that everyone should be encouraged to reach their potential. The highest-quality people produce the highest results and should be treated ethically.
Nothing to fear
“Don’t be afraid to make a mistake,” Laine stated. “There may be something there in an idea or concept. Give it a chance, keep your options open and give it consideration.” He explained that it might lead to innovation, leading to the development of new products and new markets or the discovery of new capabilities. ■
