Management Voice Index
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How many times have you been driven to frustration, anger or even despair because no one appears to be listening to you? For example:

• You warned a colleague that a team member was unhappy, no one did anything and now that person has resigned;
• You have put out clear instructions over and over again about a critical piece of company procedure but it's still going wrong;
• You have made vast amounts of support available on line but colleagues continually phone to ask questions….

These and many similar problems beset managers every day at work. It's not that people are being wilfully difficult or obstructive, it's just that they don't hear you above the internal noise.

How can you be heard above the internal noise?

Yes, much of what passes for internal communication is actually internal noise – a continuous background stream of internal promotional activity for each new initiative, project or corporate goal.

The challenge for internal communications is often how to cut out a lot of low level activity in order to secure some space (physical, intellectual and even emotional) for the key messages.

So here are a few key tips to get you started, we shall look at these in more detail in future issues of Management Voice.

• Be BRIEF – whatever you are communicating, keep it as brief as possible
• Be SPECIFIC – what exactly do you want people to hear/understand – test your communication with a small group first
• Be CLEAR - be very clear what you want people to DO as a result of your communication. E.g. take action now, respond to you, file for future reference, etc.
• Be TIMELY – think carefully about how you time your communication – both in terms of the actual time of day/week that people will receive it, and in terms of what other communication is happening at the same time
• Be RELEVANT – use direct marketing techniques to ensure you communicate only with those who need to hear you
• Be CUSTOMER FOCUSSED – particularly in your use of language: avoid jargon; think carefully about the tone – how would you feel to receive this communication; and of course, make sure the receiver knows ‘what's in it for me' whatever the circumstances.

Management Voice Index
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