Stifling Staff and Customer Communications: #5 of the Six Mistakes Smart Leaders Make

By Mike DuBose and Blake DuBose

 

Every day, we’re all faced with countless decisions ranging from trivial to serious. Business leaders have even more decisions to make, plus the added knowledge that their choices can have repercussions traveling throughout the whole company. For some decisions, people’s livelihood may be at stake!

The more knowledge a person has, the more factors he or she can consider before making a decision. The best decisions come after careful examination of unbiased input from a variety of sources. Therefore, no matter what the industry, communication is a key component to success. Leaders need a steady flow of relevant information coming in so they are aware of all options and potential courses of action, the differing factors at play in their market, and potential results of their decisions before making them. But where do they get this information? Often, it’s right in front of them…in the form of their staffs.

Employees are the most valuable source of information that any leader can have. Those on the “front lines” are the first to experience or hear of customer problems with products and services because they deal with them in their daily work. Sydney Finkelstein notes in his book Why Smart Executives Fail that it’s “extremely worthwhile to reward any employee who finds flaws or potential problems in the company’s policies and procedures” (if done in the right, productive context: so that these issues are identified and improved).

When employees share information about potential trouble spots with leaders, the leaders can take action to stop the issues before they blossom into larger problems. However, if a leader has reacted negatively to bad news in the past, team members will hesitate to bring up other problems that arise. Who wants to be berated or punished when they’re just trying to help keep a mistake from happening again? As Laurence Weinzimmer and Jim McConoughey explained in their book The Wisdom of Failure, “If a bully reigns, staff will fear speaking up about errors, thus missing out on opportunities to receive help and get a project back on track.”

One of a good leader’s foremost duties is to truly listen to their staff—and as Hans Finzel advises in The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make, “The more people you lead, the more you must listen.” In fact, leaders should not only accept employee feedback; they should welcome it. When their feedback is solicited and they are comfortable being honest, staff members can also bring organizational culture problems to light well before leaders might notice them. This can save the company significant time and money by heading off the cultural negativity before it can harm productivity and employee happiness.

Leaders who listen to their staff also reap the benefits of increased employee engagement. When individuals believe that their input matters, they’re willing to work harder for the company that is taking their thoughts and feedback into consideration. As Tom Rieger explains in Breaking the Fear Barrier, “Leaders and managers must be able to quickly act on an employee’s innovative suggestion to solve a problem. If they do act on the employee’s suggestion, not only can they solve the problem, but they can also increase employee engagement.” Egotistical leaders, however, don’t enjoy this perk, because they veto any ideas that don’t come from their own minds—or those of their cronies, who simply parrot their opinions back to them.

Customers are also a valuable source of information that is surprisingly underutilized. Client feedback gives companies clear examples of where their products and services succeed and where they fail. There are many opportunities to solicit feedback from clients during and after they interact with a company, such as verbally at the time of service or following the interaction via e-mail. Some companies even offer online surveys where customers can rate their experiences for a coupon or a chance at winning a prize. At our Columbia Conference Center, we mail a one-page survey with a self-addressed stamped envelope to clients after every event. Company president Mike DuBose personally opens and reads each response. From these customer comments, we learn where our teams are excelling and the areas that could do with some refining. As Dubose explained, “We use client feedback as a gift to improve our operations with a goal of giving customers what they want, when they want it, and in an outstanding way.”

Soliciting feedback requires little effort, but brings big rewards. The comments and suggestions customers share can be applied to improve an organization’s products and services, making that client and new customers happier with its offerings in the future. And just as soliciting input indicates to employees that their opinions matter, building engagement, it also sends the clear signal to customers that the company cares about their needs, fostering loyalty. It’s surprising that more companies don’t take the simple step of asking for feedback! Worse, some even erect such massive barriers to customer communication (such as endless automated phone trees or websites with hidden contact information) that customers couldn’t report a problem even if they tried!

Sometimes, leaders fail to solicit staff and customer input due to a simple lack of initiative. But many leaders—even intelligent ones—respond negatively to any perceived criticism of how they or the company perform. They are overly emotionally invested in their products and services, and they simply don’t want to hear anything suggesting they’re less than perfect! While it’s good to take pride in one’s organization, this attitude stifles open communication and creates a hostile environment where staff members are afraid to raise concerns. Growing problems experienced by staff and customers are hidden from leadership to avoid trouble, and executives are left in the dark. By the time the issues are too big to disguise, the company may be failing!

The bottom line: Strong communication is essential to healthy relationships—personal and business ones alike. Yet even smart leaders neglect to practice open communication with their clients and staffs, leaving them woefully uninformed of what’s truly going on in their companies. When it comes time to make big decisions, they lack a deep pool of information from which to draw—and end up making some major mistakes!

 

About the Authors: Our corporate and personal purpose is to “create opportunities to improve lives” by sharing our knowledge, research, experiences, successes, and mistakes. You can e-mail us at [email protected].

Mike DuBose received his graduate degree from the University of South Carolina and is the author of The Art of Building a Great Business. He has been in business since 1981 and is the owner of Research Associates, The Evaluation Group, Columbia Conference Center, and DuBose Fitness Center. Visit his nonprofit website www.mikedubose.com for a free copy of his book and additional business, travel, and personal articles, as well as health articles written with Dr. Surb Guram, MD.

Blake DuBose graduated from Newberry College’s Schools of Business and Psychology and is president of DuBose Web Group (www.duboseweb.com).

Katie Beck serves as Director of Communications for the DuBose family of companies. She graduated from the USC School of Journalism and Honors College.

© Copyright 2017 by Mike DuBose—All Rights Reserved. You have permission and we encourage you to forward the full article to friends or colleagues and/or distribute it as part of personal or professional use, providing that the authors are credited. However, no part of this article may be altered or published in any other manner without the written consent of the authors. If you would like written approval to post this information on an appropriate website or to publish this information, please contact Katie Beck at [email protected] and briefly explain how the article will be used; we will respond promptly. Thank you for honoring our hard work!