Leadership Development -- Create a Culture of Dialogue

Introduction 

In any organization, people are talking.  They talk about life, work, careers, and their bosses.  Yes, they are talking about you; count on it.   Are these conversations helping or hurting your ability to get results?  

What is Effective Communication? 

Leadership development efforts tend to focus on setting clear goals, hiring the right people, clearing obstacles, and communicating effectively.  But the leader's ability to communicate is only part of the challenge.  How can a leader influence the conversations taking place when he or she isn't there? 

Effective communications in a business are not limited to the leader's ability to make good speeches, write effective emails and hold town hall meetings.  All of these things are valuable, but only to the extent that they impact other conversations.  After every speech or town hall meeting, people go off and talk among themselves.  What are they saying about your agenda?   

What if you could control all of those conversations? 

Well, You Can't… 

Face it, control is a bit too much to ask for.  What you can have is the next best thing.  You can have confidence that people are talking about the things you need them to be discussing, and doing it openly.  To do that, you need to create a culture of dialogue. 

Culture simply refers to behavioral norms, so a culture of dialogue is one in which everyone is comfortable and expected to be engaging in conversations about their work, their work processes, and their leadership.  When the culture encourages open dialogue, it effectively shuts down destructive conversations, hidden agendas and other debilitating behaviors. 

In a culture of dialogue, it is safe -- and you are encouraged -- to say what you think.  People who tend toward silence are drawn in by peers who want to know what they're thinking.  Key Opinion Leaders are identified and respected, and they make sure the leadership is getting honest, objective feedback on not only their leadership agenda, but on their behavior as well. 

Leadership Behavior 

Your ability to create a culture of dialogue is dependent on your own behavior.  What do you do when your plans are challenged?  What do you do when you make a mistake?   

Too many leaders have to be right.  They shout down challengers.  And let's be clear, when you're the leader "shout down" is not a literal term.  You can use your position to dismiss a challenger, and even ignore them.  It's the same as shouting them down. 

To create a culture of dialogue, be willing to sacrifice your ego.  Your goals and agenda are important, your pride is not.  Be open to feedback.  Acknowledging critical feedback will have a huge impact on the culture, even if you don't act on the criticism.  And you should only act on the criticism if, after careful consideration, you believe it is warranted.  You don't need to be a wimp to create a culture of dialogue! 

For your part, make sure you criticize behavior first.  Don't criticize or discipline people for anything other than bad behavior.  To create a culture of dialogue, your number one job is to make it safe for people to have important conversations, out in the open.  More than anything else, your behavior and the behavior of the other members of your leadership team will dictate whether or not people feel safe.