Building a Leadership Team – Part II

Part II: Clear Communication
It is obvious to anyone who has ever led a team that clear communication is an imperative. When communication isn’t working well, the team’s performance degrades. Sometimes that poor performance is evident in business metrics like revenues or margins. More often, poor performance is experienced as a lack of trust. Many teams have tried to overcome poor communication with teambuilding exercises like ropes courses, softball games, bowling events, late night parties, or psychometric workshops using the well worn Myers-Briggs or the latest program trying to replace it.

Each of those activities can develop bonds among individuals in a team. Each activity can foster and help define relationships with better communication. In my experience, however, none of these are sustainable because the lessons learned in the ropes course, or the 2am bar conversation, or personality workshop wasn’t applied in the work environment. For communication improvements in a leadership team to be sustainable, they must be learned and applied in the practice of daily activity.

Almost a decade ago I learned a powerful communication protocol derived from a program by Julio Olalla that dramatically improved the function of my management team and my function among them as the leader. After some years of practice with this, and watching others apply similar approaches, I have distilled a 3-part system that can applied anywhere by anyone. The three components are: request, commitment, and breakdown.

In most cases, communication failure stems from a lack of understanding between two people about a commitment being requested or made. The first element in clear communication is the request. You want something done, you need access to information, you need the use of a resource, etc. So you ask for it. How you ask for it has a direct impact on the likelihood that you will get what you expect. And every request puts in motion a foundation of trust. You must be clear that you are requesting a promise. And you must be sure that they have a detailed understanding about what you want and when you want it. The clear request formula is:

I need (describe the action and deliverable in detail) by (be specific about the date). Can you do that?

Now you listen carefully for the clear commitment formula (next topic) and if you don’t get it, you ask for it. This might sound stilted, but it works because it forces the other person to reflect clearly. And that is the foundation of forming trust. Trust comes from making and relying upon a promise that gets delivered.

The second element in clear communication is the commitment. You have been asked to do something, provide something, deliver something, etc. If you cannot deliver on the request, just saying “no” isn’t enough. Propose an alternative. If you do make a commitment, then you must make a specific commitment about what you will do and when. You must reflect the request details completely in order to create a bond of trust. The clear commitment formula is:

I will (re-state the action and deliverable in your own words) by (date you are willing to commit to).

If the request you get is fuzzy, you have an obligation to make it clear. In the event that you cannot make a specific time commitment to deliver what is being requested, you are obligated to “commit to a commitment” – in other words, state a specific timeframe in which you will be able to make a specific promise to deliver on the request. Again, this might sound stilted, but in my experience, this simple formulaic response forms sustained and growing trust.

Obviously there are more times when the requested action or timeframe is not the same as what can be promised. Negotiation ensues, but it is the obligation of the person making the commitment to commit only to what can be delivered with confidence and to express that level of confidence in precise terms.

The third element in clear communication is the breakdown. A clear request has been made. A negotiated clear commitment has been given. The two people go off and work on other projects, make other requests, promises, and go about their busy schedules. Something unexpected appears and the commitment made is at risk or no longer possible as promised. It is the obligation of the one who made the promise to immediately inform the requestor that the promise is now at risk or no longer tenable. This is declaring a breakdown.

Many people skip this step for fear of being seen as weak or having failed to deliver. It is not the failure to deliver that serves as the breach of trust. It is the failure to declare a breakdown that breaches trust. Some people choose to be heroic and pull out all stops to deliver as promised. This is not sustainable and worse, it misses the opportunity to create a shared understanding of the operating limits in which the team is functioning. Declaring a breakdown takes this form:

I am sorry, but the promise to (detailed request in your own words) by (date you committed to) is now at risk due to (give explanation for what caused the breakdown)

I need your help to resolve this issue. Can we change the request details or timeframe? Can you help me eliminate or mitigate the cause of the breakdown?

If this whole process sounds stilted, please try it for a few weeks. You will see it works, your style will infuse the protocol, and soon it will seem not only normal but necessary.

Any two people in the team who are engaging in this request-promise-breakdown dance serve as a foundation of trust for the rest of the team. Each pair is interwoven in a networked fabric with all the other pairs – and it is from this fabric that the team derives performance. Failure to understand this interdependency is one of the most common sources of friction in leadership teams. All the workshops, ropes courses, and late night beer confessions ring hollow and fade if this dance is not in place.

You as the leader do not have to preach this methodology. You can embody it by making clear requests, making clear commitments, clarifying requests from others, clarifying commitments from others. And best of all, when you declare a breakdown or help someone else do it, you demonstrate the most important source of trust – your action.

(c) 2008 BlueSeven Partners LLC