Workplace Communication – Deciphering the True Messages
by Bobbi Linkemer
This article is based on chapter four of Bobbi Linkemer’s book Words to Live By.
There are two levels of communication: official, spoken messages and unofficial, true messages. Survival in most business settings depends on figuring out what’s true as quickly as possible.
Starting a job with a new company is like wandering around an unfamiliar country without a guidebook. Unfortunately, the only guidebook is the one that contains the company’s official message. It may take you a while to determine how much of that message is true and how much is public relations. The people who have worked there for some time know, but the “truth” is something you will have to figure out for yourself.
Let’s imagine you have just landed your dream job. Everything you have heard and read is a philosophy you can embrace, a management style that speaks to your deepest principles. All around the building are signs with the company’s mission, vision, and values.
The official message is this: “Our company is committed to honoring people — the people who work here (its most important resource), the people whom the company serves (clients and customers), the people who serve the company (suppliers and vendors), and the people who invest in the company’s future (the shareholders).”
You are impressed and grateful to have found such a perfect fit. You are also a bit naive to take it all at face value. The messages that appear on the walls, on the website, in the annual report, and even on little engraved plaques on people’s desks, begin to look a bit frayed around the edges as you become more aware of how things are done — the unofficial, true messages.
It’s nothing overt, of course. It’s the little things. As you observe attitudes toward suppliers, for example, you sense a certain lack of loyalty. Even if someone has been providing a service for years, if that same service can be obtained at a lower price, that’s enough to warrant a change in suppliers. The truth, it seems, is more about saving money than saving relationships.
Then you notice that, while all customers are supposedly equal in importance, some are more equal than others. Older accounts, especially if they don’t buy a lot of product, don’t rate the same attention as newer, larger accounts. In fact, sometimes they don’t rate any attention at all. The truth has more to do with sales figures than figuring out how to meet the customers’ needs, no matter their size.
These truths don’t reveal themselves dramatically or suddenly. You may even be a little slow to realize that account executives have more cache than administrative staff, that some folks are favored over others, and that the only people who really count are shareholders.
Once you unscramble the mixed messages, the truth becomes clear. What matters in this company is profit, not people.
About the Author: This article is based on chapter four of Words to Live By, a book of words of encouragement, guidance, and wisdom born of veteran writer Bobbi Linkemer‘s experience. Bobbi has been a magazine editor and journalist, corporate communicator, book-writing coach, and most important, a mentor to writers who want to take their writing careers to a new level.
Article Source: EzineArticles
photo©iStockphoto.com/Juanmonino
