Line managers: the ‘best’ communications channel a business can have
About a month ago I posted a poll on LinkedIn asking whether line managers were a communications channel. Over four hundred people responded and the result was a resounding ‘YES,’ with over ninety percent agreeing. What really stayed with me about the poll though were the comments – how emphatically people believed line managers can, and do, add value to internal comms.
One of the first to respond was Adeeba Hussein who said she thought line managers were ‘the best communications channel.’ Followed by Dan Panes who commented that they were also ‘the most influential.’ And to quote Jo Winstanley, who I thought summed it up perfectly, ‘they are the face and voice of the organisation to their staff. They set the tone and culture for their team.’
Yet if the answer to my poll was so clear to all of those who responded, why, as Ger Peerboom pointed out, are line managers ‘too often a forgotten channel?’
From experience, I’d say that the value of line managers as communicators can often be forgotten or perhaps, more likely, not appreciated. There can be a problem of trust – and this lack of trust can run both ways. Take, for example, Faye Jacques’ concern that when a line manager is used as an internal communications channel ‘the message is at risk of being interpreted and potentially diluted.’ It’s a comment I’ve heard before – middle managers seeming a hindrance to internal comms rather than a help. However, if you see it from the point of view of the line manager, in this case Peter Farleigh, who answered no to my poll, you can understand why this can happens: ‘sometimes I don’t fully understand the message I’m meant to cascade. Adding my own interpretation and reading between the lines can create a lot of problems down the road.’
So how do we improve things? How do you make sure your line managers become your best internal communications channel?
Change the attitude, starting from the top: generally speaking, good leaders are good communicators. If you think about a boss who inspired you, you’d probably say they were good at making you understand the importance of your role; you felt valued and that in turn motivated you to do a good job. But, just as some leaders aren’t natural communicators, Jeni Carroll pointed out that: ‘being a line manager doesn’t automatically make you a great communicator.’ While it might come naturally to some, for many it doesn’t and they need support and training to improve.
Put a priority on training: following on from above, line managers need your support and some great training! Regular communications workshops, shadowing others who do it well and practical training will keep internal communications front of mind and help line managers appreciate the ways internal comms can make their jobs easier. Plus, by making good communication a priority, if the time does ever come for major change, you’ll know you can trust your line managers to get your message across.
Include line managers in your internal campaigns: line managers’ potential value is never more important than in times of change. Going back to the comments in my poll, James Irwin aptly said, ‘line managers are where enterprise-wide communication efforts succeed or fail.’ Bringing them on board early in conversations about messaging, as well as the how and when to communicate to all staff, really will make a huge difference. They are, as Alice Machin put it, ‘a crucial factor in lending credence and accountability to other comms channels.’
Provide toolkits and help with messaging: short, simple and relevant is always best here. Line managers are busy people and internal communications is probably a small part of their day-to-day work. If you’ve trained your line managers to be good communicators, you can trust that they understand your message and will communicate it their own way. They know your staff best – let them be themselves when they present information and it’ll be much more authentic.
Finally, remember to listen: you’re not a good communicator if you don’t listen and line managers are perfectly placed to be your eyes and ears within the business. So, as well as having a process for cascading information down, do you have communications channels which allow line mangers to feed information back up?
And there you have it – my tips for making line managers your best internal comms channel. But as a business owner myself I like to practice what I preach so I’d love to hear what you think. To quote Sarah Pinch, who left a comment about the importance of feedback, we have ‘two ears, remember!’
