Why Your Employees Are Not Listening To You

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How do you transmit important messages? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Do you ever get the feeling that you employees are not listening to you?  As a manager you may get that impression ever now and then.  It most likely stems from the fact that they are not listening to you.  I have a few quick tips to increase the likelihood that your team may actually listen to your next message:

  1.  Mix your mediums:  There are times that I may change a policy or procedure and I need to ensure that everyone is aware of the change.  I may send an email out to my entire team, or I may hold a departmental meeting to announce the change.  Sometimes I put notices in the employee lounge and other times I ask my managers to announce the changes in team meetings with their teams.  I like to change up the way that I communicate with my employees frequently; I think it helps to keep their attention.  Have you ever had a manager that communicated an important message in a memorable way?
  2. Repetition is crucial:  If the message I need to get across is really important, then I will ensure that the message goes out more than one time.  The more important it is, the more likely I am to put the message out multiple times.  There have literally been thousands of studies that support the fact that people will comprehend information more effectively if it is presented multiple times.  If you really want to get crazy send your message out multiple times using different forms of communication.  If you are unclear about what I am talking about, please reread point #1.
  3. Try not to be so negative:  People tend to tune out negative messages.  I know I do.  See if you can send out a positive message from time to time.  There are absolutely times that I have to send out negative information, but if you are mingling it with a few positive announcements then I think that you will find you get a much better reception.

What did I miss?  If you were going to put out an important message that you really wanted each person on your team to fully comprehend, how would you do it?


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