I've shared one of my favorite leadership quotes with scores of groups over the years. I believe it resonates more than ever in recent times.
Sir Winston Churchill once said, "The difference between mere management and leadership is communication." During my two and a half decades of working with bank leaders, I've found that Churchill's words have consistently proven out.
I've encountered very intelligent managers who know their businesses inside and out. They know the competition. They know economic conditions. They understand the importance of growing customer relationships and building loyalty.
They understand the roles of technology and the need to continually strive to be as operationally efficient as possible. They grasp the incredible benefits of attracting and retaining the best employees possible.
And yet, far too often, even intelligent managers end up with underperforming teams with higher-than-desired turnover.
While there are many factors contributing to why this may be the case, one of the most common is a failure to communicate consistently, informatively and positively. The reasons for a lack of communication may vary, but the results are usually the same.
It has been my experience that the information chains in many operations are increasingly cut off as you move down the org chart.
A few unproductive tendencies of human nature are often at play. Folks treat whatever information they are told or glean from their supervisors like it's classified.
Knowing things others do not apparently give some a sense of power. In tandem, feeling like you are not "in the loop" often leads to disillusionment and apathy. And folks who feel they are out of the loop tend to share even less with their teams. It's a vicious cycle.
One of the truest ways to display respect to team members is to share business information with them beyond the bare minimum required to do their specific jobs.
We're not talking about obviously confidential information. We're talking about keeping folks generally informed and feeling that they are at least somewhat in the loop.
It is telling how often frontline employees feel no real connection to their companies. These are the people who are the faces of an operation to large segments of customers, and they are frequently disengaged.
They work there but feel no more connection to the company or its leadership than someone walking in off the street. And this scenario isn't only a frontline issue.
The recently coined phrase "quiet quitting" describes the phenomenon of employees deciding that they are going to give the minimum effort necessary to meet job requirements, but no more.
Some pundits seem to suggest this is a new phenomenon brought on by recent economic conditions and work environments. But experienced leaders know that dealing with employee disengagement is far from a new issue.
And yet, it is troubling that so many in leadership appear unmindful of how often poor communication habits are the driving factor in low morale and disengagement.
I often kid with managers at all levels that they forgot to tell us in training that dealing with people will almost always be the most important and exhausting part of the job. And a major part of "dealing with" employees, peers and supervisors is open and continual communication.
I also remind managers that not communicating with their teams does communicate to them, but not what they'd hope. When leaders fall silent, teams either assume that bad news is being withheld, or that they aren't held in high enough regard to be kept informed.
Neither of these things may be true. But if team members are left to wonder, those assumptions are frequently made, and disengagement and apathy set in.
Telling people what, how and where something needs to happen is management. Being able and willing to also explain why, is leadership.
Informing employees of what you are striving to achieve is management. Consistently expressing to them that you understand, acknowledge and appreciate the roles they play in it is leadership.
Our best people — and those who will someday be our best people — usually aren't burned out by hard work or the demands of challenging jobs. In fact, many are motivated by knowing they have demanding jobs.
Feeling disregarded or unappreciated, however, tends to foster disengagement even in otherwise great employees.
Challenging business environments such as these are times in which our teams need communicative leaders more than ever.
