The seven principles that guide our managers‘ communications

What should you make sure to do when giving feedback? How can managers create a safe environment for their teams? And how should managers communicate large changes and decisions?

 

One of the main questions managers are asked is how they can communicate with their teams in the best way for both sides. Naturally, one might think that each manager comes with their own set of communication expertise and ability and that they learn the nuances with time, naturally assimilating their company’s corporate culture.

But we at monday have learned that even when new team leaders come with rich experience and proven managerial skills, they still need time to learn the company’s principles. In order to make sure all company managers are on the same page, we developed a management course that provides all managers with the tools for good communication with their teams based on the company's principles. These principles will be outlined in this article.

We have also dedicated an episode of our podcast where Eran Zinman, the co-founder and co-CEO of monday, talks about the principles and gives examples that really occurred in monday. You can listen to it in full here.

It's important for us to stress that we're talking about what has worked for us here at monday. These are principles that we have gathered and enhanced based on our experience and our corporate culture.

 

Treat others as equals

The first principle pertains to a manager's personal style of communication, and it stems from our desire to build communication on an equal footing. Hierarchies often form between managers and members of their team, which is something we wanted to prevent. We expect, therefore, that managers will talk to members of their teams as equals.

A formal distance between managers and their teams can create a gap between what an employee can say and what they feel like they can't say. Our goal is to close this gap and to let the employee feel that they can talk with their manager about anything—if a particular difficulty arises, if the employee is worried about something, if they want to give feedback or they have a strong opinion about something that they see from their perspective but that the manager is unaware of. Distance can create two realities: an employee tells their manager one thing but feels or understands something else entirely. Treating others as equals can help both sides to talk freely and openly about even the most difficult things.

So how does a manager treat an employee as an equal? Here are a few examples:

• Admit mistakes: a manager needs to feel comfortable saying sentences like "I thought it needed to be done one way, and it turns out that it needed to be done another way. I was wrong." When a manager admits having made a mistake to their team, they're conveying that this is something that can happen, and with the right approach, you can learn from every mistake. The hope is that we can convey to both managers and team members that admitting to mistakes is something that it is better to be open and honest about and that it enables greater openness within the team.
• Saying "I don't know”: managers love to show confidence, that they know exactly where they're going and what the move they have chosen will lead to—that they always completely understand all the details. But it's important not to hide the truth, and when you don't know, say you don't know. This also encourages team members to raise their hands when they don't know something themselves.
• Know how to listen: sometimes when managers want to lead something new, they can come from their meeting already completely convinced about what to do. One of the things that we want to stress is managers' ability to really listen to their teams.

Group meetings

Meetings have acquired a bad reputation. Many of us can feel sometimes that we have meetings about nothing or that group meetings are becoming unproductive. One of the problems can be that meetings are becoming a round of updates on what each individual on the team has been doing. This both wastes time on something that has better and simpler solutions today, and it can lead to a situation where everyone tries to emphasize their own achievements and not allow the team to really be open to what the meeting was supposed to help them with, like red flags to pay attention to, difficulties that arise from a particular task etc.

One of the tools that managers have to prevent meetings from becoming a round of updates is for managers to be open and honest with the team at the meeting. One of the aims of the meeting is to encourage people around the table to talk about things that are bothering them so that together, we can propose solutions. A meeting is an open discussion, and it is the manager's role to enable openness there so that everyone feels that what they have to say is really being listened to.

 

Weekly one-on-ones

Let's start with what these meetings don't need to be: meetings where employees update their managers about everything they're working on. There are more efficient ways to keep up-to-date with their work.

So what can be a productive one-on-one? A meeting where the manager can give an employee the space to say what's really bothering them, where they see problems, what they've been holding onto and don't feel like they can share in a broader forum. The very fact that the employee can let out what's bothering them, even if there still isn't a practical solution to the problem, will already increase that employee's productivity afterward.

Three tools that can help a manager in one-on-ones:

1. a) Listen and let the employee unload.
2. b) Give positive reinforcement. This can be very helpful in a restricted forum
3. c) Give real, constructive feedback based on what the manager sees from the sideline.

Giving instant feedback

Sometimes managers tend to think things through, sit with them for a while and only give feedback when a task is in its final stages. But instant feedback is a tool that can really help any manager. The closer feedback is to the event, the more significant it is. Real, direct, unconvoluted feedback can help both a manager to unload and an employee to get a better understanding of the problems they're facing.

If you give feedback, it's also important to understand what the problem was and come with concrete solutions to fix it. Without solutions, it's very easy to get confused or to feel like it's just a reprimand. The purpose of feedback is to allow the employee to see how they can lay out a way to solve the problem.

 

Communicating big decisions and changes

How do you inform the entire company about a large change, and how do you communicate an important message to staff? At monday, we've reached the conclusion that for us, the best way is to refrain from a large announcement that comes from somewhere surprising so as to not turn the event into something that falls onto workers like thunder from the clear blue sky. Meetings where big announcements are dropped cause superfluous drama, and it's hard for management to answer employee questions at such meetings and to let them participate in the moment.

At monday, we never communicate surprise announcements throughout the company. We create limited circles that can communicate the message to the following circles. Finally, we raise the issue at the biweekly company meeting, after most people in the company are already familiar with the issue.

 

Avoiding large unveilings

People have a human tendency to work on something for a long time, polish it down to the final detail, and finally have a celebratory unveiling at a forum with 30 people. One naturally expects thunderous applause and a warm word from their manager. But then come the questions, and other team members have comments, and maybe the employee didn't ask good questions during their work, or maybe they only now understand that they weren't working in the right direction. What happens in the end is that the employee makes a huge effort, is tense leading up to a particular event, and, in the end, his hope is shattered, and what he had imagined would happen doesn't.

This is why we try not to get into a situation where an employee gives an unveiling of their task. When we come to that meeting, we want most of the team and managers to know what that employee is going to reveal. If a task is assigned to an employee at monday, as soon as the next day, we already get updated by them, talk with them on Slack, give them the opportunity to start sending us the first thoughts that come to mind, understand the right direction for their work with them and allow them to be open with us about the task. Scheduling project-status meetings can help everyone track the project along the way so that on the day of presenting the project, nobody is surprised by the outcome or feedback.

 

Holding clear discussions

How can we hold more effective discussions in the company? We have a few rules:

• Present right at the beginning the reason why we have come together and what we are trying to solve. It's important to see that we generally agree on what the problem is.
• Really prove that there is a problem, with data, insights or intuition. But it's important to prove and not just declare that there is a problem.
• Finally, the meeting will be successful if not only do you manage to solve this specific targeted problem, but you are able to build a framework to solve other problems of this type in the future.

Ultimately, our way of communicating with our employees rests on principles drawn from the corporate culture we have built here at monday. This is how we think managers can communicate better with their teams and manage their time and that of their teams most effectively, saving time and relying on managers' ability to trust their teams and instill in them the confidence that they need to complete their tasks. Communication is the basis on which every company is built, and clear, direct and good communication can not only help to conclude tasks, but create a better and more pleasant work environment for everyone.