Leadership & Staff Communication Gap

During a rapid growth of a small company, the family atmosphere that everybody was used to begins to fade away. There are new systems, expectations and profit goals in place to keep this much more complex organization going. Some employees find it difficult to transition, especially when they no longer have direct access to the leader.

To avoid leadership & staff communication gap in your company, remember – information should be easy to access and must be shared consistently. Also, look for the following symptoms:

• Responsibility is abdicated instead of intentionally distributed leaving people wondering what their job duties are.
• Conflict runs rampant.
• People argue instead of collaborating.
• Good people leave.
• People don’t have a sense of how their work impacts the company.
• Communications are spotty or non-existent, leaving people to fill in the gaps.
• Power plays go unchecked.
• People aren’t held accountable.
• Leaders play favorites.

All these things happen simply because the company got bigger. The new employees want to prove their value and the CEO may not have a lot of experience in managing the team. That’s why leadership & staff communication gap challenge is one of the hardest to resolve: people don’t just happen to be strong leaders. Strong leaders are taught, but when a company is in its growth stages, training is usually the least priority.

Why This Challenge Must Be Resolved

In reality, the people are the business, and the training and development of the staff is what constitutes good management and overall success. If leadership & staff communication gap is not addressed, here’s what happens:

• Low productivity.
• High incidents of gossip.
• Lack of commitment.
• Customer service mistakes.
• Project scope creep.
• High turnover.
• Finger pointing.
• Blame placing.

To keep employees happy and a company healthy, you want to foster great leaders. When the CEO is a good communicator; believes in his/her people; respects the activity of management as a priority and hires experienced staff, the gap will close naturally.

Need help with this topic or leadership coaching? Contact Mission Critical Teams.