Page 8 - PR Communication Age - JUNE 2016
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managers use a lot of fine words about trust and respect or unchanging. Decline in information flow is often a first
but behave disdainfully, subordinates tend to respond in sign of trouble. Subordinates might abruptly communicate
kind. less, express opinion reluctantly, avoid discussions and fight
shy of meetings. Reports might be late in coming and might
Predictability is a matter of behaving consistently and de- often be sketchy needing managers to be more thorough
pendably and of honoring both explicit and implicit commit- and deliberate in their follow-up.
ments. Managers have to watch out before making prom-
ises. A broken promise does considerably more damage than All these could be flowing from a deterioration of morale
a promise not made at all. Another form of predictability is of the subordinates which could reveal itself in more severe
consistency of character, which is after all the best proof of forms like reduced cooperation, increased complaints about
authenticity. workload and a tendency to dump more problems on the
desk of the boss. At a more advanced stage, absenteeism
Competence finally means demonstrating technical, admin- starts to increase and aggressive behavior becomes very
istrative and professional ability and good business sense. pronounced.
Employees aren't happy to work with managers seen as
lacking in competence. Competence needs both knowledge Ambiguous verbal messages might come from subordinates
and skills. Not only what a person says and does matter but who aren't comfortable with the information they are
'how' the person carries out what he/she says does equally passed on. They might be reluctant to give more informa-
matter. Trust grows from the seed of decent behavior and tion on a matter which needs the boss to intervene or go
it thrives on esteem and respect that only a capable per- to the other extreme and blow a potential problem out of
son can command. proportion which they might do to see if the door to the
boss is open for a serious discussion.
Learning to Recognize Signs of Trouble
Nonverbal signals can take a wide variety of forms from body
Building trust and candor is a gradual process, a long chain language to social behavior changes in routines and habits.
of positive experience -committing to subordinates impor- Body language incidentally can easily be misinterpreted.
tant assignments, publicly defending their performance and Distress signals may be precipitated by a person's private
positions and supporting their ideas,showing candor and life, and might have nothing to do with the office. A more
fairness in appraising their performance and so forth. And prudent approach is to see body language merely as an
because trust takes time to build and has natural limits, once indication of a potential problem without jumping to con-
acquired it is easy to destroy trust. clusions about what the problem might be.
Breaking a promise, humiliating an employee in public, ly- External signals, such as customer complaints and problems
ing, betraying a confidence, withholding information from spotted by other departments or divisions in the organiza-
employees or keeping out employees from groups to which tion might also be clear warnings of the disquiet and dis-
they feel they rightly belong - any of these can do instant tress, even if they come a little late. Though late, if the
and irreparable damage to a trust relationship that has trouble has reached the stage of affecting the results mani-
taken months or even years to build. fested by decreasing productivity, deteriorating quality,
falling numbers, increase in customer complaints etc. it is
Given these limitations, can managers count on subordi- well worth initiating a whole measure of action to stem the
nates to come forward with problems before they become rot.
critical? The answer is an obvious NO, not entirely. Good
managers seek to make most of honest forthright commu- Turning hints into Information
nication which is by far the best source of information about
problems managers have to solve. At the same time, they When managers see changes in the behavior of people they
learn to recognize subtle signs of danger and develop and oversee, they have to do their best to analyze the hints and
refine alternative sources of information to fill in the gaps. gather supplemental information. Many managers who
have built good relationship with their employees often rely
However, the flow of information does not remain steady
8 PR COMMUNICATION AGE June 2016
