Jim Trinka, PhD, was Chief Learning Officer for the FBI. His study of manager-employee surveys in government and industry revealed what surely must be one of the best-kept secrets in leadership. For example, by focusing on “developing others,” and “communication” competencies, managers can increase their overall leadership effectiveness by 50-60 percent.
So let’s look at the art of communication – or actually how to overcome mis-communication – for a moment.
All of us miscommunicate at times. Reasons for it vary depending on the person and the situation. But being conscious of the concepts below can help ensure we enhance the effectiveness and the impact of our messages.
Miscommunication can occur through either:
- Insufficient communication, or
- Communication which lacks clarity
Konrad Lorenz developed an hierarchy of elements that focus on both aspects of miscommunication. Lorenz was awarded a Nobel prize for Physiology or Medicine and based his career and research on the instinctive behaviours of animals.
The Lorenz Pyramid takes us through different levels at which miscommunication can occur, starting with our thoughts all the way through to the actions that ultimately occur as a result of those thoughts. This is important as it helps us see how miscommunication can lead to a lack of action and innovation.
Concept 1: Thought is not said
This is the fundamental starting point for miscommunication. How often have you had a great idea which was never vocalised? How often have you wanted to tell someone that they are doing a great job, but have missed the right opportunity? Or to provide some corrective feedback, but have felt uncomfortable about doing so?
The result of this communication inaction can lead to all sorts of consequences ranging from the failure to innovate or improve through to missed opportunities to encourage appropriate behaviours and everything in between.
So – what does this mean for us as hoteliers? We have to both be prepared to act on our thoughts and become more consistent in those actions while also encouraging a culture where our team feels comfortable in being able to express themselves.
This is particularly relevant in the area of feedback. They say that for feedback to be effective a person needs to receive at least four times as much positive reinforcement as corrective. Often I hear leaders say that will be difficult to achieve, and they will have to “create” situations to deliver this positive feedback and it will end up being insincere. I counter this by saying that the leader does not have to deliver all the feedback in person – they can create a culture where team members acknowledge each other’s performance and feel comfortable letting their colleagues know how they are valued.
Concept 2: Said is not heard
In other words, do you always vocalise your thoughts in such a way that your communication partner can clearly hear what you are saying, as well as can clearly hear the message that is being conveyed?
In his book “Outliers” Malcolm Gladwell tells a story about an Avianca flight in January 1990 which crashed in the US killing 73 of the 158 people on board. Research afterwards showed that there were a number of issues that contributed to the tragedy, including weather. However one of the most significant factors included miscommunication, particularly from the perspective of “said is not heard”.
Due to the very challenging weather conditions there were a lot of planes in a holding pattern waiting to land and the pilot of the plane is heard to repeatedly ask for instructions from ATC (Air Traffic Control) to be repeated. As Gladwell writes in the book: “On nine occasions, he also asked for directions to be repeated. ‘Tell me things louder,’ he said right near the end. ‘I’m not hearing them’.” Even though ATC were obviously “saying” something the pilot could not clearly “hear” what was being said.
Whilst the consequences of our communication may not be as tragic as this situation, we have a responsibility to ensure that we are communicating in a manner and an environment that allows others to hear us. We should avoid asking a team member to do something in passing – we should stop and ensure that they have received the message loud and clear. We should make sure that the message intention, such as urgency, is also clearly heard. And so on.
Concept 3: Heard is not understood
One of the worst questions in the English language is “Have you understood?” because you are asking your communication partner to make a judgement that they are not qualified to make in many situations. They have to apply their filter to what you have just told them – and their filter might be different from yours. How do they know for certain what you meant, or what you were trying to communicate?
Returning to Gladwell’s story about the Avianca flight, the co-pilot “told ATC that he didn’t think the plane had enough fuel to reach an alternative airport”. When the ATC told them “Just stand by” and then later cleared them to land at the airport, the pilots must have assumed that they were being bumped to the head of the long queue of planes waiting to land. In fact they were just being added to the end of the line and the pilots did not raise the issue of fuel again. And the plane ended up running out of fuel and crash landed.
Particularly in the multi-cultural environment that exists in most hotels, there are many opportunities for miscommunication through a lack of understanding – there are language barriers and there are cultural barriers that mean that we have a different way of interpreting things. Even within the same culture we have many and varied interpretations of things like urgency, value for money, importance, punctuality and so on.
Our role as an effective communicator is to ensure that our communication partner has clearly understood the message. And when that message is of particular importance we can ask for confirmation from them by simply adding one more word to the question by asking…..”What have you understood?”
Concept 4: Understood is not remembered
Are the important elements of our communication easy to remember? Are we using a medium which is appropriate for retention and ultimate action? Are we adapting our communication style to the audience which makes it easier to have an impact?
The answer to these questions can help us to choose our communication style carefully. Things like making sure in our presentations we include facts, figures and graphs for one thinking style to make sure that our message is memorable for that audience. At the same time using personal recommendations from respected people and the impact that our idea will have on the team or the guest to address the needs of another thinking style (see my eHotelier article “How to be a Successful Public Speaker” from 11 February 2014).
Also, if I have made a verbal commitment with someone, I may need to follow it up with an email to ensure the commitment is remembered. Or make sure I give minutes of meetings with the appropriate agreed actions in a timely fashion for the relevant follow up.
Concept 5: Remembered is not done
The final link to turning your thoughts into actions through this communication journey lies in our ability to create a motivating environment for people to perform to their best. Notice that I don’t say “motivate them”, because that implies it is possible to motivate somebody to do something they won’t, or don’t want to normally do, which we can’t.
I believe people should come to work motivated. That is their job. The job of the team leader or employer is to create an environment that captures and nurtures that motivation.
Think about it – how often have you seen someone start a job full of energy, hopes and aspirations only to find them six months later with none of that original enthusiasm. And how often have we seen people who know exactly what to do, but they just couldn’t be bothered, so they cut corners or don’t perform to their best?
It is not enough that people know what to do, they have to have the will to actually do it! And that comes from the culture that is created in their environment.
Through the above concepts we can see how many potential pitfalls there can be in the communication process. Yet it is through the awareness of these that we can ensure that these pitfalls do not lead to miscommunication and therefore, ultimately, inaction.
About the author
Timothy Millett’s training roles have seen him deliver programs across Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa and America ensuring cultural sensitivity as well as a broad base of experience in lecturing, teaching and training.
A graduate of the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, Switzerland, his hospitality career spans management and director positions in Front Office, Guest Relations, Public Relations, Food & Beverage and Training with organisations including the Regent of Melbourne, The Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and Mövenpick Gastronomy. He was also a founding staff member of the internationally renowned Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School in Australia.
Tim is currently the Director of Training and Development at iperform, an organisation that specialises in Sales and Service, Leadership and Effective Personal Organisation programs.
