Poppulo Knowledge

How to Guide

How to help
line managers
become better
communicators
How to help line managers become better communicators

Contents

Introduction3
Preface4
1. Capability Building 7
Conventional training 7
New ways of training 7
Coaching circles 8
Mentoring8
Listening as a vital skill 8
2. Capacity Building 9
Support and encouragement for line managers 9
Leadership models 9
3. Content 10
Cascades10
Management cascade information guides 10
Local vs global content 11
4. Leadership Support 12
Role Modelling 12
Development meetings 12
5. Process support 13
Leadership capability revisited 13
Hiring for Communication Skills 13
5.3 Promotion for communication skills 13
Communication as a KPI and a standing agenda item in a personal
development form 14
Cascade as part of a business process 14
6. Data to the rescue 15
General research 15
Company big data 15
Internal communication data 15
Epilogue16

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How to help line managers become better communicators

Introduction

The workplace has changed rapidly and this is set to accelerate even more. According to Upwork’s 2018
Future Workforce Report, the shortage of talent is the greatest driver leading companies to adopt a
more flexible workforce model.

Remote working is on the rise: 38% of full-time staff will be working remotely in the next decade.
Currently, 63% of companies have remote workers. As Fast Company noted: remote is the new normal.
So is freelance and part-time working: more than half (59%) of hiring managers today are using
freelance and contract workers, up 24% from 2017, and predict this will rise by 168% in the next decade.
And 67% of workers want to pursue self-employment or freelance opportunities.

Add in the soaring rents and housing crises that are plaguing global cities, making living in them
unaffordable for many people, and the case for remote and diversified working becomes unarguable. All
of which will make effective, relevant, and engaging and internal communication even more critical to
the success of organizations than it already is today.

In this context, the role of line managers in articulating company communications and providing
important feedback to senior management will become even more crucial. But, unfortunately – and
rightly or wrongly – line managers are consistently seen as being poor communicators and a barrier to
the success of internal comms.

Time pressure, lack of training and support from senior leaders, and inadequate resources were some
of the reasons cited by internal communicators when we explored why is this the case. Others said
it’s time middle managers were given a break from the blame game and the focus should be pointed
elsewhere!

Either way, because the communication role of line managers is going to become even more influential,
not less, we’ve commissioned Olga Klimanovich to author this special guide, which includes insightful
commentary from a number of communicators. A big Thank You to everybody who engaged with us in
this project.

We hope you find it helpful.

Tim Vaughan,
Poppulo

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How to help line managers become better communicators

Preface

Gone are the days when we all went to work every day, read
corporate magazines during coffee breaks and all studied the
office pin board for the latest announcements.
Now, welcome to the new ways of working – remote access, global teams, flexible hours, paperless
offices – all of this with an increasing number of communication channels both in personal and
corporate life. How will we all make sense of what the company is expecting from us, what behaviors
are right, what do we need to do better or differently?

With so many changes there is one constant – we still have line managers. Their ability and capability
to communicate a compelling corporate story is becoming more and more important as face-to-face
meetings run by line managers remain a most powerful channel. But do we use it correctly? Do we
support it? Do we develop it?

Poor line management communication skills continue to lead the list of main barriers to internal
communication being a success, overtaking not fit for purpose internal technology and hard to reach
employees.

Poor line manager communication skills (56%) feature at the top of barriers to internal communication
being a success, as they have done every year since we began asking practitioners about this. In spite
of this, equipping them with communication skills was only considered as a priority for a third of
respondents in the following question. 1

Why is that while we agree line managers communication is vital for the development of our business,
this year’s Gatehouse State of the Sector survey saw ‘enhancing line manager communication’ drop out
of the top five areas that internal communicators say they will focus their attention on over the coming
12 months? Only 33% of respondents declared this as their priority.1

1
State of the Sector, The definitive survey of the Employee Engagement and Internal Communication
landscape, Volume 10, 2018.

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How to help line managers become better communicators

Why is it that we all agree on the vital importance line managers’ communication plays and yet so few
measure up to what’s needed in the modern workplace?

Line managers don’t communicate with their people for one of two reasons. (1) They don’t know how to.
(2) They don’t want to. The first is a training issue. The second is a management issue.

– Jeff Opperman, Director, Internal Communications at ChenMed, USA

Companies spend enormous budgets on strategic planning but often overlook the strategic importance
of supporting line managers communication.

Too often when the going gets tough the softer stuff gets thrown out of the window. Being able to
communicate effectively, with all that entails in terms of knowing your teams, treating them as
individuals, having emotional empathy etc, is a key part of being a great leader -whether at senior level
or just starting out with a small team. Failure to invest in development simply fuels a focus on short
term results at any cost and holds back attempts to become a sustainable business.”

– Jo Moffatt, Managing Director, Woodreed, UK

For some very short-sighted reason communication is not considered a line manager’s capability in
many organizations, so they receive training in lots of relevant areas – but not comms.

Ensure all line managers are trained to do their job, including all the essential skills of being an
effective communicator (and listener!). Employees look to their line manager and trust them to give the
real version of what is going on, so give line managers the skills to do their job well. There are multiple
ways to provide this learning, and some will need more support than others. It is important to keep
measuring the effectiveness of line managers’ communications and maintain a minimum standard
across the organization. Your people deserve it. This requires leadership: if all the senior leadership
team demonstrate their commitment to attending line management training to share consistency
across the organization, it’s very hard for someone to say they don’t need it, or are too busy. If that’s
what they think, you have to ask how much do they value their team.

– Jenny Allen, Business Change Lead, Royal Mail, UK

Ignoring the issue would not help it. Trying out different approaches to solve it has a high probability of
bringing in positive change.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for the issue, as different companies are at different stages of their
development and communication capability maturity. In this How To guide we take you through the
steps we believe will help raise the level of line manager communication skills.

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How to help line managers become better communicators

We have grouped those steps into six categories: Capability Building, Capacity Building, Content,
Leadership Support, Process Support and Data to the Rescue.

In doing so, there were steps which were difficult to attribute just to one category, so we will be
referencing them in all that apply. The point is not finding the exact category but rather in presenting as
many steps as possible, so that you the internal communicator can pick and choose what works for you.

I break line manager comms support and development into three areas - capability, capacity,
and content. Do line managers have the capability - are they able, trained and competent in
communication, and appreciate the need for ongoing communication in all arenas and directions. Do
they have the capacity - do we culturally make time for communication and empower them to spend
time with their people, and do they have the appropriate tools to communicate. And do they have the
content - do we give them both a compelling company narrative and structure AND the additional info
to add value to standard news items, cascade etc?

– Paul Bennun, Group Head of Internal Communications, Perform Group, UK

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How to help line managers become better communicators

1. Capability Building

Conventional training
It is always good to engage with colleagues from Talent and Development to discuss training offerings
in the area of communication skills for line managers, because communication is a very wide and
difficult area to define.

There are ways to ensure that different elements of communication are addressed in different training
offerings: writing skills can be trained on-line; giving feedback can be taught in general skills for line
managers, so can soft skills.

It is more important to ensure that the breadth of skills are covered in different parts of the training
portfolio, rather than push for separate and specific Communication Skills training and fail because of
budget constraints.

Primary reasons, why line managers often lack skills in effective communication:
A. Employers often do not budget, in development of their line managers.
B. Training often is not Value-Added ( it is an standard Flavor of the Month training ).
C. The top talent are often disengaged and don’t champion new learned practices.

– Chris Anbari, President and Founder, Engage Your Team LLC, USA

New ways of training

The 70-20-10 model for learning and development is well known but we seldom think of how we set up
the 70. Offer Talent and Development colleagues to work together to set up a structured “on the job”
communication skills development programme.

Identify great communicators in the organization and ask them whether it is OK to establish job
shadowing opportunities for other managers.

Budget permitting, offer personal coaching programs. A coach will set up a program, will have regular
check-ins and discuss progress. Don’t forget that communication is very personal – line managers
require privacy to be able to talk about their areas for improvement and often an external coach is the
right person to offer such an environment.

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How to help line managers become better communicators

Coaching circles
Personal coaching might be pricey so look up coaching circles as a methodology. Managers are first
trained in coaching basics – active listening and asking open ended questions.

In every session one participant brings up a particular communication issue they currently find
difficult (this can be lack of time, inability to explain simple issues, or lack of understanding of what is
expected of them).

All coaching circle members ask questions to help the participant see the issue from different angles
and find a solution. Most of the time the manager finds a solution just by being able to look at their issue
from a different perspective. Participants get exposure to an issue and learn from it. Most importantly,
they master the skill of active listening and asking good questions, which becomes invaluable in their
day-to-day communications.

Mentoring
Look for role models in your organization. Who are the best communicators? Do they have a capacity
and desire to help others develop? What about setting up a communications mentoring scheme?

This worked well for me in one organization: mentors were proud to pass on the wisdom and mentees
were happy for the opportunity to be guided by a senior colleague.

Listening as a vital skill

This is one of the skills that often gets neglected.

I know of an executive in a large international insurance company who enjoys a reputation of being a
great communicator. His personal journey of discovery of the power of active listening was so powerful
that he took it upon himself to run an active listening program for line managers.

Sessions were set up as interactive webinars. The program lasted three months with calls every two
or three weeks and group homework in-between. This homework included discussions on different
aspects of active listening skills and requests to reflect on how managers found practicing these skills
in real life scenarios.

Then the large group reconvened in a webinar setting and the senior executive himself asked questions
and listened. Give some thought to see if you have a senior executive that could sponsor such a program.

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How to help line managers become better communicators

2. Capacity Building

For many middle managers, there isn’t enough time in the day to get through everything they’re
expected to do, and they don’t see themselves as having to be team communicators on top of everything
else. I believe organizations should build mechanisms to encourage line managers to make time for
communicating with their teams.

Support and encouragement for line managers

Good communication skills should be recognized and acknowledged. It is important to work with
senior managers to remind them to do this with the line managers reporting into them. The following
paragraph focuses on how a formal organizational structure/leadership model can help with this. Also
read hints in the Process section on how to formalize such acknowledgement.

Leadership models
I am a big fan of The Leadership Pipeline by Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter & James Noel. I once worked
for an organization that used this book to build their leadership model architecture.
In short, the model argues that the higher you go in the pipeline the more time you should spend on
dealing with your team/extended team. In other words, communication with the team becomes more
important and the model explains why.

Having been through workshops on this model, managers get the sense that actually building time
to communicate into your day-to-day routine will help you grow in the organization as a manager. If
embedded correctly, the model then helps managers achieve further promotion because of the focus
they place on good communication.

Have a look what leadership model is used in your organization. How well is it promoted? Are there
synergies to help you bang the drum about the importance of communication as a skill?

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How to help line managers become better communicators

3. Content

Cascades
Information cascade is a great communication tool provided it’s done properly and the content is
relevant. There is no way a sales representative working for a large global corporation in a remote
location would be eager to listen to the latest update on EBITDA or share price.

Unless your company has a universal profit sharing and share incentive scheme leave this information
to senior management. Think of what interests the particular group of employees and help the line
manager develop content relevant to their target audience.

Indeed, relevance is the most critical aspect of any form of employee communication, because if it’s not
relevant it’s not going to resonate and if it doesn’t resonate it’s a waste of everybody’s time.

Management cascade information guides

Never assume that line managers know it all, or worse, can accurately figure out what the information
cascade is really meant to achieve. Assuming that the information is cascading correctly through the
organization is a dangerous practice.

Why not prepare a manager’s guide to cascade. Provide your line managers with a narrative explaining
what you are trying to achieve in the cascade, what points are important to make, what questions are
likely to be asked and what answers should be given.

Supply them with FAQs, so that when they face their teams they feel they are prepared.

In my experience, a general lack of communication structure and direction doesn’t help. If all line
managers know what information they’re supposed to be cascading, for example, as well as when and
how (with specific IC support such as a clear briefing on particular messages or guidelines on regular
communication), it will give those who are not naturally good communicators more confidence and
reassure them that making time for communicating with their team is a good thing that’s actually an
important part of their job.

– Vicky Burman, Director, Vicky Burman Communications, UK

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How to help line managers become better communicators

Local vs global content

Line managers are often reluctant to deliver the cascade because they feel that the information they
have been provided with is not relevant to them and their teams.

Make cascade info relevant to the audience. If you work at the global level think about how you
can localize the information you wish to cascade through the organization. Local is always more
interesting. Think how you can start with local and show how local successes (or hitches) influence the
wider picture.

Here’s a tip for international organizations: never neglect local language needs. Sometimes content
prepared in English ends up not being used. Spending extra on translation might appear costly but it
will bring you closer to – and connect better with – line managers who have to face their teams.

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How to help line managers become better communicators

4. Leadership Support

Role Modelling
There is an old saying about business and organizations – a fish rots from the head down. But being the
optimist that I am, I like to flip this around by saying positive change starts at the head and works its
way down.

Modelling great communication behavior is a cornerstone for great communication culture in an

organization. And this is where very often we as internal communicators come in. It is important to
work with your leaders and keep suggesting different approaches to good communication.

One size does not fit all, but if you continue working with leaders I am sure there will eventually be one
approach that will click – they will feel the importance of active communications and the results of
modelling will start spreading out in the organization in a domino effect.

Development meetings
It is important to make sure that communication skills are addressed as an area during development
discussions. Delivering business results might be a good start, but openly collecting and then discussing
feedback on the manager as a communicator might bring a whole new level of development planning,
and, consequently, an improved delivery on business results.

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How to help line managers become better communicators

5. Process support

Leadership capability revisited

Does your company have a set of line managers/leadership capabilities? Are line managers assessed
against these capabilities? Is communication included in them?

Even if you answer “yes” to all the questions you will probably still experience difficulties with the
line manager communication capabilities, but to a lesser degree compared to companies where
communication is not talked about in that context.

If communication is not part of Line Manager capabilities in your organization it’s time to engage with
your colleagues in Talent and develop a plan on how to introduce it. And remember, Rome was not built
in one day.

…Is it less a case of being poor communicators and more of organizations not hiring or promoting
employees with great people skills to line manager?

– Terry Hart, freelance Change Communications Advisor, USA

Hiring for Communication Skills

Imagine you work for an organization that has Communication as a desirable skill for a line manager
to have. The million-dollar question is: does the organization test this skill when hiring new line
managers? If the answer is “no”, again, it is time to work with your HR colleagues to see how, together,
you can develop an assessment exercise for applicants.

I don’t think line managers are hired for their communication skills. So they nor their superiors value
and encourage those skills. I suppose it will take a combination of employees asking for change and the
C-suite paying attention to hard data that proves communication increases revenue.

– Margo Dwight, Technical Writer, Digital Comms Specialist, USA

5.3 Promotion for communication skills

So, you hired a line manager having tested their communication skills. It’s now time to look at how

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How to help line managers become better communicators

the organization promotes line managers: are communication skills taken into account or is it just the
business results that matter? Do colleagues in the organization know why a certain manager has been
promoted? Time to revisit how you write promotion announcements.

If you continue showcasing that communication skills are indeed taken into account in the promotion
process, more managers would want to take this into account and brush up their skills – and seek
help to do so. Useful tip: develop a promotion announcement template, help business leaders with
instructions like “Short description of communication abilities/achievements”.

Communication as a KPI and a standing agenda item in

a personal development form
Yes, sometimes it needs to become this formal before it is embedded into the organizational culture.
Work with HR colleagues to see whether you can add communication skills to the 360 degree
assessment if you use it, especially as this assessment contributes to the performance evaluation. But
also, be warned – sometimes too much push might lead to strong opposition. Finding a golden middle is
difficult but possible.

One thing not to do is to pressurize line managers - doing so makes them more resistant and cynical.

– Mike Klein, Author and Principal, Changing the Terms, The Netherlands.

Cascade as part of a business process

Is business cascade part of your business processes? How are they organized? How are they supported?
It is important that senior managers support cascades and that Internal Communications professionals
develop good content for them, so that it is easier for the line managers to execute.

I once worked with a brilliant sales director and his words of wisdom to me, which I still use, were: “My
sales managers are great, they sell well, they are smart too, but often do not have time to think how to
communicate. Please help them, make it easier for them, give them good content they can use”. Another
hint for the cascade: exercise a ‘reversal pull’ for communication and engagement. We used to give info
cards to line managers so that they could give them out to their reports after the cascade meeting.

Each direct report then had a chance to submit a card back to us, having answered some quiz questions
on the content for a chance to win an iPad. You can imagine the pull of these meetings as a result! For
many of them it was the first time to try out team meetings as a tool, and many of them carried on,
having seen the effect they had on the team’s morale.

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How to help line managers become better communicators

6. Data to the rescue

General research
There is wealth of research that correlates employee engagement levels to an organization’s productivity
and line managers communication skills to employee engagement. We all know about the research but
seldom share it with senior stakeholders to illustrate the points we are making when we ask for budget,
their support and sponsorship, and their role modeling.

Company big data

More and more now we have data available to support the arguments we are making. Identify line
managers who are excellent communicators and try to look at how their departments compare to
the average level in your company on employee engagement, retention, promotion rate, regrettable
losses. I can guarantee great communicators would have winning scores. Use these comparisons
in conversations with senior leaders and colleagues from Talent and Development to support your
argument for the introduction of some of the initiatives suggested in this guide.

Internal communication data

Measuring internal comms data is important not only to internal communications professionals.
Look at patterns: for example, open and click rates are consistently low for a particular department or
geography? If you report these numbers to your leaders on a regular basis and one day throw a question
in: what do you think is/not happening here?

You might be in for a surprise. This is what happened to me once: we discovered that line managers
did not bother talking to their people about the importance of the messages they were receiving, so
employees ignored them.

Once this was uncovered, the line managers were instructed to discuss the main company messages
in team meetings. Not necessarily leading by example there, rather exercising command and control,
but it helped. Managers started doing it and soon realized that spending an extra five minutes
talking about something different from everyday operational tasks not only created an improved
understanding of what was important in the company, it also had the added bonus of creating a greater
team spirit.

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How to help line managers become better communicators

Epilogue

And finally, before the finger of blame is pointed too quickly in future at middle managers for
being poor communicators, it’s worth taking note of what change communications specialist Liam
Fitzpatrick has to say:

I think there are five questions a communicator should be asking about line managers…
1) Have I explained what their job is – in general, and on specific occasions?
2) How have I communicated with them and given them enough context to translate high-level stuff
into terms that matter to their teams?
3) What training have I organized?
4) What tools or materials am I providing?
5 How have I shown that they are being listened to?

Instead of complaining that middle managers are resisting being treated as animated notice boards
lets see things from their point of view.”

For more from Liam Fitzpatrick on this subject read Chapter 7 of his and Klavs Valskov’s acclaimed
book Internal Communications – A manual for practitioners.

About the author

Olga is a change, communications and engagement consultant and an

executive coach. In her more than 20 years of experience Olga has worked for
international companies in Belarus, Russia, USA, UK and the Netherlands in
the areas of Corporate and Public Affairs, Internal Communications, HR, in
particular in Talent and Leadership Development. Olga is passionate about
the role strategic Internal Communications can play in business success
and enjoys helping large companies develop internal communication and
engagement approaches. She believes that good communication starts with
good listening followed by a healthy dose of common sense. In addition to her
corporate career Olga is also an executive coach, she helps leaders develop
their individual potential, quite often communication and active listening
skills become areas of focus in her clients’ coaching programs.

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