Effective Strategies for Team Engagement Series: Step 2 Communication

Work with Kimberly 1:1 to build stronger teams and lead with confidence.

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Kimberly Benoit dives into the second strategy of genuine engagement: clear communication. She unpacks the concept through three essential elements: transparency, assumptions, and feedback. She shares insightful stories from leading during the pandemic, offers practical advice for balancing honesty and authenticity, and challenges leaders to rethink how well they really know their teams. From giving frequent, meaningful feedback to establishing predictable communication rhythms, this episode is full of actionable strategies you can start using right away.

#ClearCommunication #EmployeeEngagement #Transparency #Leadership #Burnout #MentalHealth #PandemicLeadership #DifficultMessages #AppropriateTransparency #CommunicationChallenges #TeamMorale #MessageDelivery #Authenticity #Feedback #InformalFeedback #Assumptions #ProfessionalGoals #TeamMotivation #WorkplaceFrustration #DevelopmentPlans #CommunicationVehicles #FeedbackCulture #CourseCorrection #CommunicationRhythms #TeamMeetings #LeaderAccessibility #RadicalCuriosity #ComprehensionAlignment #MessageClarity #PredictableLeadership

To learn more about Kimberly J Benoit or how you can work with her, check out her website, kimberlyjbenoit.com, or find her on LinkedIn.

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Transcript

0:00

Want to boost engagement and cut burnout, then clear communication is your game changer. Today we're gonna be tackling the second pillar or strategy of real engagement. I'm going to break down the power of transparency, challenging assumptions, and giving frequent feedback. Plus, I'll share practical tips for building strong communication rhythms. Remember, leadership isn't just about what you say. It's about what your team really hears. Let's get to it.

Kimberly Benoit: 0:27

Welcome to, we've all done it, the podcast for leaders who get the work done, but find the people part of leading frustrating. I'm Kimberly Benoit, author, award-winning former corporate executive and leadership coach with over 20 years in the corporate world. I've seen it all. The good, the bad, and the downright messy. If you've ever avoided a tough conversation, played favorites without realizing it, or just wondered why is leading people so hard, you're in the right place because we've all done it. This is your space for real talk, real solutions and no judgment. Together, I'll share practical strategies to help you navigate workplace drama, build stronger teams. And lead with confidence. No more pretending, no more suffering in silence. Just honest, actionable leadership from someone who's been in your shoes. Are you ready to lead differently? Let's do this. Hey everybody. So today we're gonna hop into the second pillar of genuine engagement. So we're gonna be talking about clear communication. Uh, and I wanna start with a very powerful statistic. I think it's just huge. It comes from the American Psychological Association and it says, employees who report high levels of clear communication from leadership are 70%. Less likely to experience burnout. Holy smokes. 70% less likely to experience burnout when they get clear communication from leadership. So this isn't just about making sure message is received, this is about helping people have incredibly healthy mental health. All right, so. Today we are gonna talk about clear in communication and how that relates to engagement, and we're gonna really dig into three distinct elements, transparency, assumptions, and feedback. So let's get started. So before we jump into transparency, I wanna tell you a quick story. About to make it relevant for you about this. So I'm gonna go back into the pandemic. Mm, fun times you were leading during those times. Uh, bless you. I what we, that was, that was special times. And so what part of what made that special and what made it so challenging wasn't just going into the virtual environment, but for many leaders I know, including myself, we were required to. Share very difficult messages sometimes on a daily basis with our teams messages. We didn't like messages, we didn't support messages that were just, you know. We knew we're gonna gut our team. We knew that our teams weren't gonna like'em. It was gonna create engagement problems, morale problems. And so as a result, we had a lot of leaders really struggle with how to communicate something in a way that was with integrity, but didn't submarine the message because we hated the message too. And so it became a big question of how do I communicate with transparency and but maintain my authenticity because I don't wanna be fake and pretend like I like what I'm having to say. So with that in mind, let's talk about what is appropriate transparency. What does that actually mean? Because the reality is we are always not just in the pandemic, but throughout your entire career, we are required to, we are, we are the company. And so we are required to share these messages and get our teams on board many times with policies that we don't love. So here's what I want you to do. You have to start thinking about it differently. This isn't about whether or not you like it. This is about understanding. Do you understand why the decision was made and sharing the why with your team, even if you don't agree with the why, the why is still valid, right? It is why the decision was made by people and powers that be way above you. It means being open about challenges, constraints, um. What is actually going to happen, when it is going to happen? Giving as much fact as possible and keep, and you can keep your opinion out of that. That is being transparent. And the other part of this is also quite critical, is acknowledging what you don't know. Because frequently we are communicating messages where we may not have all the pieces of the puzzle and not knowing something is absolutely okay in human. What is not okay is pretending you do know it all, um, maybe because your emotions are getting involved in it and you start to include emotion and opinion in a message that really just requires you to state fact. So if you want to have appropriate transparency, I encourage you to get back to the why. Get back to the challenges. Get back to the facts that you know them, because you're not gonna compromise your integrity by simply sharing, sharing what you know to be true. All right, the second component, so getting'em into assumptions. So when we talk about communication, I have always been fascinated when I work with leaders and they're talking about their teams and they're talking about engagement challenges and. I start asking them questions about their team and, um, they can't answer certain things like what are their professional goals for each team member that reports to you, what is, what are their professional goals? What frustrates them right now at work? What it motivates them at work? Can you answer those three things? And frequently I find people say to me, well, I'm pretty sure this is what they're interested in. Or, you know, I think what would be good for this young lady is she is a rising star. I think she's gonna be, and then I would challenge and say, well, does she want that? It sounds like you want that for her, but does she want that for herself? And often they don't know. So what I want to do in this moment is we have to start challenging how, what we want for our team and what we think we know about each of our team members and get very real about who are they? Do we actually even know what they're working on? I. What is important to them? Um, because why this is so critical is because you can't invest and support their growth if you have no idea in what way they want to grow. Because there's a very different development path or, um, development plan for someone who is interested in. Rising a corporate ladder versus someone who has no interest in being in leadership but continue wants, who's very much wanting to continue to grow and enroll. How you're gonna lead those people, those two people. Not that you're gonna lead them the same, but how you're going to encourage development is going to look different. You can't do that if you don't know. So I encourage you. To ask yourself, have you taken the time to have this kind of dialogue with your team so that you can appropriately support them and invest in them in a way that shows that you are engaged in them, in the way that you're asking them to be engaged in their work? Alright, third feedback. Oh, this element is the one that usually causes nightmares for people. So clear specific feedback is the engine of growth and alignment. I know that sounds insane, but it actually is, and the truth of it is a lot of leaders are very uncomfortable giving feedback even when it's positive. It is something about that dynamic that many people shy away from. And, um, research. Is that clear though, is that frequent feedback matters more than formality? So teams that have like receive informal feedback actually show 28% higher engagement scores than those who only receive formal quarterly or annual reviews. And I can attest to that. I have worked in organizations that had feedback friendly cultures that genuinely were, I got feed informal feedback every day. If I gave a presentation, people would come by and say, Hey, this was great. Hey Kim, just FYI. You still use your hands too much when you talk. Hey Kim, you know what? Did you know you have a typo on slide seven? But you know what? The message was great. Your communication was clear. I. Those little informal things help guide people, and I loved it because I could immediately and informally get a sense if I was moving in the right direction on specific issues I was working on. Versus teams where I only got maybe formal feedback twice a year. So it's a lot hard, harder for anyone to course correct when they're not being told what they're not doing well. So I want to encourage you, if you are one of those people who shies away from feedback, really lean into it. Think about it differently. Change if you change your mindset about. Informal feedback and then make that a culture on your team that is coming from one of positivity, not maliciousness. I guarantee you're gonna see a shift, trust me on this. Alright, so I wanna talk about some practical ways that we can help you enhance this clarity further, in addition to what we just said is when you are considering. Delivering a message, I want you to make sure you're using the right vehicle at the right time for the message you're trying to communicate. So, for instance, um, you may need more than one vehicle to communicate a message. So I'll give you perfect example. It, let's say you have a constructive feedback session to give, you know, it's gonna be emotional, it's probably gonna be tense. That needs to be face-to-face, followed up by an email reiterating what took place in that meeting. So you're gonna, you pro for that situation a minimum. You want two methods of communication. Um, if you're just communicating, you know, you have pizza in the break room, that could be a text, could be, it could be an email. You know, it doesn't have to have five different methods of communication. It all depends on what the me what are you trying to say? Um, and how does it need to be communicated in order for the best level of understanding? Don't, don't like. Take the easy way out. Don't do what some leaders did. Uh, talking about the pandemic, I knew some leaders that were so scared of their team and delivering a hard message. They just simply sent a text message and that was it. And they checked the box that they told their team. Don't do that. As you are a leader, you have accepted this responsibility, and I'm here to help you step into those big leader pants because these are the moments that. You asked for. It's all a part of what being a leader is. These are the tough ones, but you, we, we can do this together, I promise. So just remember, put thought into what it, what it's gonna take for you to communicate this well, even if it makes you uncomfortable. Second, I want you to think about your communication rhythms. Predictable communication patterns actually reduce anxiety. So think about it. You're an employee, like how you like to know, how often are the team meetings? How often are my one-on-ones? Do I have guaranteed time where I know. When I can communicate with my leader or not, your team wants that same rhythm. They want that same certainty. So when people know they'll receive information, they're gonna spend less mental energy wondering and worrying about when something may come. So like that's pretty simple to set that expectation. Third, I want you to practice some radical curiosity. Ask questions when you have communicated something particularly hard. Messages ask things like, what did you understand from what I just shared? How does this impact your current responsibilities? I, what questions do you have for me? This confirms understanding and demonstrates that you're gonna have aligned comprehension. It is so important that everybody walk away with one you knowing you said what you intended to say and they heard what you needed them to hear.'cause so often we say ama, we say things and we think it's amazing. That doesn't mean our team understood. So close the gap. Make sure that there's alignment there on the message given and the message received. Alright everyone, so this week another challenge for you. I challenge you to identify one piece of information you've been withholding or a conversation you've been procrastinating on and find a way to compassionately I. Clearly communicated. Um, it could be constructive feedback, it could be a challenging organizational issue. Um, it could just simply be checking back in with your team to make sure you can answer those questions around what are their goals, what are their frustrations, and what are their, you know, motivators right now. Maybe it's just checking in with them to make sure you actually know those three. The answers to those three questions. All right, everyone. So in our final episode, we are gonna be exploring the third pillar of genuine engagement, which is consistency. Ah, we're gonna discuss why predictable leadership creates the culture needed for true engagement to flourish. And I just wanna remind you that clarity isn't just the way you say it, my friends, it's the way they hear it. All right, until next time. I've got two things before I let you go. One. If you've ever gotten any value from the show, please leave a five star review. It really helps and absolutely makes my day. The second thing is, if you have any thoughts you'd like to share with me, please shoot me an email at podcast@kimberlyjbenoit.com. I'd love to hear from you. All right, see you in the next episode.