In our little, local church a couple Sundays ago … the lights were flashing on and off, the sound system was popping in and out, the computer running the video projectors was rebooting time and again, and poor Pastor Tim was trying to give his sermon from memory, because he emailed himself his text before leaving home, but was unaware the internet wasn’t working in his office.
OY VEY!
(All of this was connected to our local utility’s efforts to turn the power off when windy conditions in our dry Northern California climate increased the potential fire hazard from downed power lines.)
For someone trying to speak (and people trying to listen), those were some serious distractions. I’m glad I was there … but I didn’t get much out of it.
I’m thinking something similar is commonly experienced in most workplaces – communication failures, caused by distracted leaders.
Over the last decade of collecting surveys and studying leadership practices, I’ve seen a recurring theme which is the absolute importance of communicating well. This means, “tuning-in to the workforce, engaging them, and responding with messages that resonate with their real-life, at-work experiences.”
You can’t effectively do this if you only sparingly give people your attention. Don’t let the other demands of your job pull you away from spending time with your workers, listening and responding appropriately.
Stay Focused.
“A leader must be able to communicate in many different ways and broadly relate to many different kinds of people – assuring everyone’s ideas, thoughts, activities and decisions are always clear.”
Eliminating distractions works for everyone.
I agree with the thought, “If you’re too busy to do this … then you’re too busy!”
– Jerry Strom
Twitter: @JerryRStrom. For more information about our leadership and team development programs, please visit http://www.JerryStrom.com . Join the mailing list to receive new articles as they are published. This article is based on research by Jerry Strom & Company, Inc. Find short insights on Twitter at #WordsofEncouragement.