The writing experts at Grammarly.com have an article that breaks down the four types of communication that happen at a business: “upward, downward, lateral, and external.” These directions indicate who’s talking with whom, and what their interpersonal relationships are with one another. Think about this in terms of a business hierarchy, with upwards facing towards leadership, downwards facing towards subordinates, lateral over at someone on the same level, and external with someone outside of the business (like a customer). Over the next several weeks, we’re going to take a closer look at each of these types.
Up, Up, and Away?
This article mentions the pros and cons of each communication type, although you might be better suited to think of them more as possibilities and pitfalls. In the case of upward communication, there are several important opportunities for improving the work environment. Among them is a favorite of ours: “Management can identify issues early before they escalate.” Indeed, no matter how hard anyone tries, complications are going to emerge. Mistakes happen, people forget things, and so on. You can mitigate risks like these, but you can’t really prevent them completely. Communication, however, is the ultimate remedy.
On the other side, a pitfall for upward communication to be especially wary of is this: “Subordinates may be unwilling to share information with management, particularly if they feel like no action will be taken or there will be consequences.” This is why it’s so important for those in leadership to maintain an open-door policy, an environment that encourages positive accountability and empathetic responses. When problems are concealed, it sabotages the whole idea of trying to identify issues early, and just makes everything worse.
Honesty
Fundamentally, communication is about honesty. When you don’t say something that you know you should, you’re lying by omission. This leads to harmful outcomes like passive aggressiveness or even outbursts when you can’t stomach the frustration anymore. Don’t wait for problems to escalate by allowing them to marinate.
Say what you mean, and mean what you say. And even though today’s blog post is concerned with upward communication, this principle applies to all communication types. Shying away from the truth is the same as shirking responsibility.
Duty
As the Grammarly article notes, “Managers play the leading role in driving successful upward communication.” After all, leadership should—by definition—lead, right? Practically speaking, this means that managers need to do things like engage with and listen to their employees. Where action is warranted, those managers need to walk the walk and not just talk. Doing nothing or getting angry will only frustrate subordinates and discourage future honesty. And ignoring a problem and hoping it’ll go away is not an effective leadership tactic.
The same is true for the other direction, of course. While upward communication relies on leadership having an open ear, those employees lower in the hierarchy must speak up if this is to work at all. Again, ignoring a problem will accomplishing nothing. If there’s an issue, address it. If there’s a concern, share it. If there’s a mistake, own up to it and work to fix it. You’re just wasting time and each other’s patience otherwise.
Next Step
Managers, do you offer lines of communication to all of your employees? Do you offer them anonymous tools to make sure the feedback is as honest as possible? And employees, do you feel comfortable addressing problems with your supervisors? Do you feel like they listen with understanding and empathy, and that they take appropriate action?
This is something that The Brandt Group will help you with. We have employee feedback tools that allow everyone in your company to anonymously share what they really think of your business’s openness, the sort of information you need to build a positive and affirming company culture that everyone can be proud of. Let’s start to build that foundation today by communicating now: [drop us a line on our feedback page], so you can embrace open and honest dialogue.
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