Leadership - Communicating Effectively

HOW TO GUIDE

for Academic & Support Staff with Leadership /

Management Roles

• Introduction – The purpose of the How To Guide 2

• Why effective communication is important for those in leadership and management

roles at Cardiff University 2

Practical tips for effective communication

• Leadership in Action (Effective Communication) - Self Assessment Tool 3

• Practical guidelines on effective communication for good equality and diversity practice 4

• General good practice – communication 4

• Communication options 5

• Getting the best from face-to-face communication 6

Appendix

• Finding out more – a selection of external weblinks on communication 7

Introduction – the purpose of the How To Guide

The Leadership “How To” guides are primarily aimed at helping with the
leadership and management, both of individuals and teams. The guidelines
can be of use when leading people from any category of staff. The objectives
of these guides are threefold:

1. To offer guidance on how to get the best out of existing Cardiff University
HR policies and procedures.

2. To suggest information and sources of further support, both within the

University and external to it that can be of use to the leader.

3. To offer practical tips on key areas of good practice in human resource

management and leadership.

There are three “How To” guides that support leadership and management.
These are:
Communicating
Effectively

Leadership
Essentials
Managing Developing
Performance People
Each guide is complete in itself, but together they provide a useful range
human resource management practice tailored for those in leadership roles
within the University.

Why effective communication is important for those in leadership and

management roles at Cardiff University

Leaders, at all levels within the University, are responsible for communicating
effectively to those they lead. Firstly, it is the leader’s role to make explicit the
vision of what their area of work intends to achieve and secondly, how that
vision fits with the University’s vision for the future.

Another aspect of the leader’s communication role is to facilitate dialogue with

those who do the research or the teaching or deliver the support services
within the University as well as maintain the appropriate level of dialogue with
important external stakeholder groups, such as the NHS, Welsh Assembly
Government and the business community. Through this communication, ideas
and suggestions for improving how the institution functions can be
encouraged and supported so that these improvements are made. In addition,
through dialogue with individuals as well as groups, leaders ensure that
concerns are voiced, issues and risks identified in a timely way. In this way
the views of all people can be taken into account when decisions are made or
actions taken.

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 Practical tips for effective communication

Leadership in Action (Effective Communication) - Self-assessment Tool

This is a self-assessment tool to help all people in leadership roles focus on the key actions
that other people expect from them in terms of their leadership. There are expectations that
the leader will take the lead role in communication.

Key actions for Leaders Self-assessment

never sometimes often always
Ensuring that others understand what the
key goals of the University are.

Ensuring that others understand how the

key strategic objectives of the School /
Directorate link to the University’s goals.
Ensuring that others understand how their
individual objectives fit into the key School /
Directorate objectives.
Ensuring that others understand how their
work fits with the work of other individuals
and teams within the School / Directorate.
Keeping others up to date with what is
happening in the University and the School
/ Directorate and how that may affect their
work.
Consulting others when changes to the
work methods or work roles in the School /
Directorate are planned.
Briefing others and giving them
opportunities to ask questions or raise
issues when changes to the work methods
or work roles in the School / Directorate are
introduced.
Agreeing with others responsibilities for
transmitting, cascading and/or briefing key
information to other people in the School /
Directorate.

Actions to improve: (Those that score never or sometimes)

What needs to change How to change When by Who can help

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Practical guidelines on effective communication for good equality and
diversity practice

Good practice as regards equality and diversity when communicating means:

a. Ensuring that all staff have access to appropriate information and

resources that enable them to fulfil their job role competently. Also,
ensuring that the y have been explicitly informed about how gain access to
the resource they need and have been directed where to locate relevant
information.

b. Ensuring that there is a clear structure through which staff receive relevant
information and that staff are informed of this structure. For example, in a
small team, staff may be given information which is relevant to them on a
one-to-one basis by a line manager. In a larger team, communication may
be by team meetings or email.

c. Ensuring that communications would not reasonably be interpreted as

offensive or intimidating in either language or tone.

d. Ensuring that all staff have opportunities to offer suggestions, share ideas,
raise concerns and ask questions about the way work is done or can be
improved within their School / Directorates. This individual approach
values the diversity of people within the University community, helps to
eliminate potential barriers to continuous improvement of its processes,
and contributes to creating an inclusive University culture.

General Good Practice – Effective Communication

Good communications:
ü Are polite / respectful at all times.
ü Are concise, clear and appropriate to the target group.
ü Avoid implicit assumptions and information and make information,
guidelines, instructions, assumptions and expectations explicit.
ü Discourage exclusive communication processes in favour of inclusive
communication processes wherever appropriate and possible.

Good Communicators:
ü Encourage engagement and dialogue – actively seek information,
opinions, ideas from others.
ü Listen first (seek to understand before seeking to be understood).
ü Practice active listening - summarising what people have just said and
asking intelligent follow-up questions to demonstrate listening.
ü Ask questions and allow others to ask questions.
ü Express their own feelings and allow others to express theirs.
ü Maintain their own self esteem and helping others to maintain theirs.
ü Use email appropriately to supplement face-to-face interaction, not in
place of it.

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Communication Options

In broad terms communication is either done face-to-face or at a distance,

usually in writing either by electronic means (usually as emails) or with printed
documents. Both means have their advantages and disadvantages (see
below). However, face-to-face communication is particularly required of those
in leadership roles. This is because it is extremely difficult to influence the
behaviour of individuals and motivate teams, solely through written means.

Face-to-face Written

One-to-one Team Meetings, Personal Info. on web, Newsletters,

meeting briefings presentations, email, letter, in doc’s, brochures,
training memo articles, etc. etc.

High Impact and likely influence on individual behaviour Low

Advantages Advantages

§ Immediate feedback. § An automatic record.

§ Can be tailored to audience and § Can be concise.
mood. § Can be refined and edited to
§ Flexible. minimise ambiguity.
§ Can encourage dialogue. § Allows time for thought.

Disadvantages Disadvantages

§ Time consuming. § Easy to ignore.

§ Cannot always guarantee § Greater possibility of being
attendance / participation. misconstrued.
§ Nearly always requires follow-up
activities.
§ Can become side-tracked away
from original purpose.

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Getting the best from face-to-face communication

One-to-one Team Meetings

Meetings Briefings

Best suited for: Best employed, for: Most suitable for:

§ Individual § Transmission of § Consulting people.

instructions. top-down § Discussing issues in
§ Counseling about information / depth.
personal problems / update. § Generating ideas.
issues. § Team sharing of § Resolving problems.
§ Annual Appraisals or information. § Reaching decisions.
formal performance § Agreeing collective
reviews. responsibilities.
§ Discussion of
individual
development needs.
§ Individual coaching
and/or mentoring.
§ Discussion of
discipline issues.

Good practice: Good practice: Good practice:

§ Allow easy access § Brief (10 to 30 § An explicit theme or

(“open-door”) but minutes d uration aim.
encourage making ideal). § Scheduled & notified
of appointments. § Regular so people adequately in advance.
§ Ensure privacy, can plan § Written agenda.
comfortable attendance (daily, § Duration planned (to
surroundings and weekly, monthly). allow enough time for
allow sufficient time. § Information only. effective meeting).
§ Ideally, listen 80% § Questions only for § Key people invited i.e:
and talk 20% only. clarification. those involved, those
§ Encourage people § Problems / issues affected or those who
you plan to meet raised are then contribute as
with to give you taken either one-to- designated
advance information, one meetings or representatives.
where appropriate, planned group
so that you can meetings of
adequately prepare involved people to
for the meeting discuss in depth,
resolve problems or
make decisions.

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 Appendix

External web links on communication

The Plain English Society

http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/
The Plain English society provides a lot of free guidance on how to write clearly and
succinctly.

Smythe Dorward Lambert

http://www.smythe.co.uk/
Smythe Dorward Lambert started as a consultancy in internal communication in 1989
and its site includes some good case studies of internal communication supporting
the change process.

Business Open Learning Archive (BOLA)

http://sol.brunel.ac.uk/~jarvis/bola/
This website contains a sizeable archive of articles and information covering most
major business issues, including ‘Power, Organisations and Management’.

Program on Negotiation
www.pon.harvard.edu
The Program On Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School’s website contains
information on the program itself, and the Harvard Negotiation Project.

Negotiate Ltd
www.negotiate.co.uk
Gavin Kennedy’s negotiation business is a useful source of information on
negotiation, in addition to his books and negotiation workshops.

International Transactional Analysis Association

www.itaa-net.org
This website contains information regarding Eric Berne and TA, including news and
events, the history of TA, and publications and resources.

Body Language

The Association of Neuro-linguistic Programming (ANLP) is a good starting point

which offers ideas on introductory materials concerned with body language.
http://anlp.org/index.asp?CatName=Resources&CatID=11