Career Coach Training
Career Coach Training
In the Industrial Age, the lines of communication in the workplace were clear and simple: Executives and managers told employees what to do. If a boss wanted information he (and it was usually a he) asked for it. Communication was vertical, and most of it was top-down.
Today, in the Information Age, the lines of communication are much more complex. Information now flows;
” From top management down to employees.
” From employees upward to top management.
” Horizontally among individuals and departments within a company.
Top-down communication in the Industrial Age was limited to commands from executives and managers to employees and lower-level managers.
In the Information Age of today, employees aren’t just looking for direction from the top. They also want information, what the company is doing, how it is doing, and what they can do to help.
Good managers use a range of channels to reach their employees, from company newsletters and magazines to interoffice memos and emails. Small group meetings with speeches from executives also allow employees to get information from the top.
Business leaders have come to realize that the line managers and employees are the ones closest to the customer. They are the ones who can tell top management what customers are thinking, what products they might be buying in the future, or what problems they are having with the company. Line managers are also the first to hear about employee problems.
As a manager, encourage upward communication. Listen to your employees. Break down hierarchies so that employees and lower-level managers don’t have to go through “channels” to get to you. Make sure you don’t have a “kill the messenger” attitude that discourages employees from bringing you bad news. It’s a good idea to set up formal upward communication systems, such as suggestion boxes.
Communication between people at the same level is also very important, as witnessed by the increasing popularity of cross-functional teams. Communication across the company helps departments pool their diverse talents and resources to find solutions or avoid work duplication. It’s important to break down the walls that impede this type of communication.
Departments must have the systems in place to communicate directly with other departments without going through top-management. Information that must painfully climb levels of hierarchy won’t reach other departments in time to make a difference.
To successfully communicate in today’s workplace you must also overcome the gender trap and other challenges. For example, it is no longer appropriate to say spokesman when in many cases a woman fills that duty. Female as well as male examples should be used in stories and illustrations and executive assistants or office managers are not “secretaries.”
Men and women do have different communication styles. For example, what a woman perceives as politeness, a man might interpret as indecisiveness. While women don’t have to sound like “one of the boys,” they should always speak in a calm but authoritative and assertive voice, while on the other hand, some men need to tone down their macho aggressiveness and cultivate tact.
At some point during the 21st century non-Hispanic whites will be just the largest of several minorities, which will also include Hispanics, African-Americans and Asian Americans.
This diversified workplace must offer an environment where people are respected regardless of gender, skin color, language, background, or national origin. Cultural prejudice, even unintended, must be purged from all communications.
Perhaps the biggest challenge of the Information Age is the globalization of business. Managers working with people from other countries have the responsibility to learn and respect the different ways of communicating in different cultures.
In the era of empowered employees and cross-functional teams, workplace communication is no longer limited to the top-down commands and instructions of the past. It involves bottom-up and lateral exchanges as well. It also involves effectively communicating with people of diverse backgrounds and cultures.
Copyright©2008 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.
Any tips on finding a career (counseling or teaching) in Raleigh, NC?
I have been working in a special position in my city at a high school. I am a counselor/ youth advocate. I have hundreds of training hours but no official license. I have a bachelors and am thinking of moving to Raleigh in about one to two years. Anyone have atips for a guy who wants to work in a school setting as a counselor, who has a coaching certificate, plenty of life experience, four years paid in the field, and wants to go to college to get his Master’s?
Sounds to me you are a great candidate for teaching. What type of bachelors do you hold? Have you thought about alternative certification? For instance, if your BA is in business you can enter into a “fast track” program that provides the opportunity to earn a teaching certificate. I am not a big fan of the program due to the absence of specialized educational/psychology /childhood development classes. However, quality teachers are badly needed all over the country and the alternative certification program helps to meet that need. By the way, if you land a teaching position and at the same time, return to college to earn your Masters, look into funding programs that will help or pay all of your tuition.
I am a teacher. I wish you all the best.
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