Have you ever seen a tyke who declares he’s done eating by borrowing the “safe” gesture used by baseball umpires? And what’s up with cupping each hand then tapping them together? It means “more”.  Or how about a baby who quickly opens and closes her hand like she’s squeezing a cow udder? That’s her way of saying “milk please”. Teaching babies and toddlers to use sign language encourages kids to communicate long before they can speak. Studies show that signing children are happier and less whiney because they effectively express their needs, thoughts and emotions in a way that is understood. They rarely resort to throwing tantrums to get what they want. And what parent wouldn’t be delighted with that outcome? (Just starting your own baby boom? Conduct a “baby signing” internet search to locate a boat load of useful stuff.)

What’s the lesson for leaders? Most organizations have crafted an approach for regularly communicating information to employees – the top down approach. It usually takes the form of the executive team conducting all hands meetings to share big lofty goals, progress toward goal achievement, stories that highlight exemplary application of core values and important announcements. For widely dispersed employee populations information sharing expands to: road show, video or audio conferencing, newsletters and cascading the communication responsibility to lower levels of management. That kind of routine is a key component to keeping the workforce moving in the same direction.

But what about bottoms up and peer to peer communication where the lion share of communication occurs? After all it’s at this level where most of the real work gets done and interdependencies between functions, jobs and people become brutally apparent. When workloads peak, peer to peer communication is often fast and furious. Employees can get tunnel vision, so focused on generating their own deliverables at the expense of not hearing or ignoring the needs of others and curt responses. The result? Hard feelings, conflict, damaged relationships and sub-optimal productivity. So, what can you do? Create forums to:

1. Help employees become aware of the important interdependencies that exist between their work and the work of others.
2. Improve work processes given employee awareness of inefficient interdependencies and their desire to fix them. Go with it!
3. Encourage employees to further refine the work processes based on their first hand experience using them.
4. Provide employees with tools for understanding their own communication styles and how to adapt their styles when working with people who have different styles. (DiSC is my tool of choice.) Consider starting here so that conversations in tips 1-3 are more productive.

Fostering a work climate where employee needs, thoughts and emotions are expressed and understood is one of the most important things a leader can do. It means employees are heard, their thoughts valued through organizational action and their ability to productively communicate with others expected. And that will serve you, your employees and organization well especially during the most challenging of times.