If you need more information, speak to your manager

Two construction workers talking on the job

If you work in comms, how many times have you been asked to sign off an email to employees with: ‘If you want more information, speak to your manager’?

And yet, managers have no more information than what’s in the email. In fact, the email is the first managers are hearing of the announcement that they can apparently take questions on.

This is setting up managers to fail and it leaves teams feeling like no one knows what’s going on. It’s oversights like this that probably led Stephen Welch to write this brilliant ‘Open letter from a manager to the IC professionals in my company’ on LinkedIn. 

Line manager Stephen says IC’s obsession with the latest channels and where IC should report into are focussed on the wrong things. He says:

‘When you think about communication from the employees’ point of view, 90-95% of it comes from me (the boss), their colleagues, or other teams in the business. Only 5-10% of Internal Communications in organizations comes from you guys in the Internal Communications department. So you can be the best there is, win loads of awards, invest millions in apps and social media, and feel good about yourself. I don’t mind at all. Be my guest.

‘But you will only ever have a marginal impact on employee communications by doing so. You’ll make the 5-10% the best it can possibly be. But the person who ‘owns’ internal communication is, actually, me, your friendly neighbourhood line manager. And it is my communication skills, how I work with the team, and how I lead them, that is going to have the biggest impact on employees’ day-to-day performance, engagement and motivation. The better I am at leading and communicating with them, the better their performance is likely to be.’

And so comms teams should worry less about their work and more about supporting the people who do 90-95% of the communicating: line managers.

In my experience, line managers are the most overlooked ‘channel’ there is. Comms teams will often relay the fact that the most trusted source of information in a company is line managers, but then omit them from their comms planning. 

And it’s not just comms. I’ve only ever worked with two companies (they were run by the same person) where line managers were truly appreciated and invested in. This looked like:

• Quarterly in-person training sessions on how to lead

• Comms aimed specifically and exclusively at managers

• A buddy system matching new managers with experienced managers

• Only being made a line manager because you had the potential for team leadership and not just because you were technically good at your job

• If you had to deliver bad news, a personal call from the CEO to check how you were doing 

It’s often said employees stay with or leave a company based on their manager. So why wouldn’t you invest in this most valuable asset?

Here are 6 tips on how you can support line managers with comms:

1. Define what being a people manager means and who should be one 

   This is one you’ll probably partner with HR on. Don’t fall into the trap of making people a line manager because they’re technically good at their job. Rethink your career structure and create two paths: one where people can progress technically and one that focuses on leading others. Only place people in the manager path if they have the desire and potential to be great managers. 

2. Build a people manager community 

   This is a “win, win” as you’re not only creating a group of people who can share information and support one another, you’ll be breaking down silos. If you’ve got tech like Slack or Teams, create a group specifically for managers that allows you to share information with them and get their feedback. It will also give you a great insight into what’s going on and how people are feeling, making you even more valuable to your leadership team. 

3. Train managers to be better communicators 

   The example I shared of bringing people managers together in-person on a quarterly basis is a big investment and not always logistically possible. But in that instance, the investment paid for itself tenfold. If in-person isn’t possible, you bring people together online. But try to do something IRL once a year. Make sure that comms training is on the agenda each time. Be confident in sharing your skills and bring in guest trainers and speakers. 

4. Create comms channels specifically for managers

   Design comms channels that give managers the information they need. That might be:

   • briefings they can use with their teams

   • templates that help simplify a message with clear talking points

   • roundtables with the CEO

   • that dedicated Slack channel 

5. Ask managers for feedback

   As we heard from Stephen, managers have crucial information for us about whether our comms are helping. Make it easy for managers to give you their feedback, whether it’s through:

   • surveys

   • Slack

   • saving time for questions and feedback in briefings

   • picking up the phone and having conversations with managers 1:1 to see how things are landing (my favourite) 

6. Never blindside your managers 

   Finally, avoid the ‘Ask your manager for more information’ blindsiding. Give your managers the information first and make sure they have what they need before talking to their teams. Better still, make managers part of how you talk to their teams.

   I once worked on a highly confidential project that was stock-market sensitive. We took the decision to brief managers the night before and had them sign an NDA. It was risky — the message could’ve leaked — but these were grown-ups who understood the implications. Having them briefed and on-board not only made the employee comms a lot smoother, we got better buy-in from managers because they felt trusted.