In today’s unpredictable environment, comments managers make or actions they take, even simple decisions, can create uncertainty among their employees. Uncertainty creates fear, scepticism and anxiety. An employee who is operating with any of these emotions in play is unlikely to be offering up his or her best.

Here are 7 keys to help you slow the rumour mill and keep employees engaged:

1. Be Clear
   Clarity is the antidote to anxiety. Ensure that people are clear on what their responsibilities continue to be. Reinforce key objectives and give your team members certainty on their deliverables.
2. Be There
   Increase your visibility and availability. Set up a structure for communicating information and stick to it. Increase the frequency of your one-on-ones. Knowing that they will get the opportunity to connect at least once a week will help team members stay focused on their work the rest of the time.
   
   Regular team meetings can be very effective to get information to a group. They also provide a great opportunity for questions and answers. Always follow up a verbal communication with a written account. This ensures the message does not get distorted.
3. Be consistent
   If you are consistent in communicating relevant news when you get it, you will increase the trust level for your team. Nature abhors a vacuum. If you stay silent because you’re afraid of creating unnecessary concern, you can be certain that your employees are making up stories about what your silence means. So fill the void before they fill it.
4. Be credible
   Avoid platitudes like “Business as usual.” It isn’t business as usual, and you have to acknowledge that. Make sure any information you provide is accurate. If you don’t know the answer to a question, commit to finding it out and then get back to your team as quickly as possible.
5. Be honest
   You may find yourself in a position where you can’t tell as much as you know. To maintain integrity, answer simply and honestly: “I’m not able to answer that right now.” Never lie. If you’re caught in a lie, no matter how small, you’ll undermine all of your well-intentioned reaching out.
6. Be curious
   The old adage “no news is good news” does not apply in circumstances such as these. You have to seek information. Ask: “What are you concerned about?” “What are the stories that you’ve heard?” “What is the biggest fear that you have at this time?”
7. Be real
   Make sure your tone and body language match your message. If you are not conveying genuine compassion, no matter what you say, your employees’ anxiety levels will continue to escalate. This is not about acting: people will see through insincerity. This is about getting yourself into a people perspective: stand in their shoes.

Following these steps will not alleviate all the unease that times like these inevitably create, but it will help your employees feel involved and respected. You will create confidence that when there is news that does affect them, they will hear it from someone who genuinely cares.

Copyright © 2009 by The Marcus Buckingham Company, LLC (TMBC) All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form without the express written consent of TMBC is prohibited

You can find out more about Marcus Buckingham Company by visiting this website:
www.TMBC.com

Our thanks to the Marcus Buckingham Company for permission to reprint this article.

As leaders we give a lot of time and emotional energy to getting better at the ‘tricky bits’ of leadership and coaching - those times when negative emotions can take over and lead to the situation unravelling, with potential long term relationship damage.

So, instead of avoiding these moments, we learn and practice how to give negative feedback and manage ‘difficult’ conversations. There are lots of workshops on these topics. We offer some ourselves. This is all good and proper, for most of us do need to figure out how to have these conversations more effectively.

It seems though that because giving positive feedback or joining in the celebration of success is emotionally easier we don’t think so much about how we can leverage these moments in more constructive and growthful ways.

Recent¹ research by Professor Shelly Gable at UCLA has provided some insights into how we might leverage the celebration of success stories in constructive ways. Her research highlights how the responses we provide to shared stories of good news are significant relationship ’boosters’ or relationship ’eroders’. Gable has developed a simple matrix that describes 4 types of responses to the good news that others might tell us:

Active Constructive Responses: These responses include positive comments and positive non verbal behaviours (voice tone, posture, facial expressions) that indicate genuine interest and enthusiasm in relation to the success being described – “That’s a terrific result and I know how much you put in to achieving it!”

Passive Constructive Responses: These responses include moderate level positive comment with low level, low energy supporting non verbal behaviours. “Well done-good news.”

Active Destructive Responses: These responses include negative comments (sometimes disguised as positive ones) accompanied by negative non verbal behaviours like frowns or sighs. “Sounds like your success is only going to lead to more work for you in the long run though.”

Passive Destructive Responses: These responses do not actively downplay the success like those above but reveal more a sense of indifference with non verbals that indicate disengagement. “Yes, but can we talk about this next project.”

What was more significant was that only Active Constructive Responses acted as relationship enhancers. Each of the other three response types was seen to damage the relationship in some way. Our responses are not relationship neutral – they either enhance or erode relationship quality.

A couple of implications here for us as leaders and coaches...

1. Recent studies² have argued that the quality of the coaching relationship is the most significant component impacting the coaching outcomes. This study puts relationship quality ahead of all other tools and techniques. In recognition of the importance of the relationship our GROWTH coaching model places the Relationship step as the vital first component. Consequently we need to consider more deliberately how we can authentically be Active Constructive Responders in the way we acknowledge and leverage the successes of those we lead and coach. (The new, revised edition of our Leadership Coaching Guide provides more ideas on how to do this.)
2. Those leaders and coaches who are more reserved in their personal style and perhaps less inclined to be ‘over the top’ in any response to the sharing of success, need to consider that more subdued and understated reactions may well have an undermining influence on the relationship. Again finding an authentic voice in how we do this will be worth exploring.
   1 Gable, E. L., Reis, H. T., Impett, E. A., & Asher, E. R., Capitalizing on Daily Positive Events, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 2004.
   2 de Haan.Erik. Relational Coaching. John Wiley and Sons. Chichester. 2008