{"id":11289,"date":"2013-01-04T03:45:01","date_gmt":"2013-01-04T10:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=11289"},"modified":"2013-01-04T03:45:12","modified_gmt":"2013-01-04T10:45:12","slug":"communication-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=11289","title":{"rendered":"Communicating with More Experienced Team Members"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"iStock_000017291344XSmall\"(This article is part of a series originally published in Japan by ALC Press English Journal, and is written in “Global English”.\u00a0CLICK\u00a0HERE<\/a>\u00a0to see the accompanying video, spoken in “Global English”.)<\/em><\/address>\n

QUESTION: \u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve just started to manage a new department and I don\u2019t know how to communicate with my more experienced subordinates. Some of them have worked for this department for more than 5 years and they know much more than me.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that they make light of me, or put me down or anything, but I\u2019m very worried about what they think of me. What can I do?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

ANSWER: \u00a0Congratulations on your new management role! I\u2019m glad to hear that you\u2019re concerned about what your subordinates think of you. Earning the trust and respect of your people should be among your highest priorities, and it sounds like it is.<\/p>\n

Listen first.<\/strong>\u00a0In my opinion the single best way to communicate with people is by listening to them. Instead of focusing on impressing your subordinates with your knowledge and experience, be curious about their wisdom, perspectives and insights. Since your employees have a great deal more experience than you do working in this department it is even more critical that you seek their guidance. Listen with great interest to what they say, as if their words contain the seeds of your own success, as they surely do.<\/p>\n

Listen generously.\u00a0<\/strong>You may be surprised at how generously listening to people transforms your relationship with them. Most conversations are like two televisions facing one another \u2013 both people are talking, but neither one is listening \u2013 so when someone really listens it makes a strong positive impact on the person who is talking. Generous listening demonstrates that you care, builds trust, and increases the confidence of the other person. This makes it more likely that they will share their ideas and opinions openly with you in the future.<\/p>\n

Hold weekly one-on-one meetings.<\/strong>\u00a0Schedule weekly face-to-face meetings with each of your subordinates. Make it clear that this is their time to use as they wish, not yours. Encourage them to speak openly with you about anything that\u2019s on their mind. Ask them to share their perspectives on the performance of the team and make suggestions for improvements. Some useful questions to initiate these conversations are \u201cWhat\u2019s working well?\u201d, \u201cWhat\u2019s not working well?\u201d and \u201cWhat\u2019s missing that could help us?\u201d One particularly magical question is \u201cIf anything were possible, what would you instantly change that would dramatically improve our team\u2019s performance?\u201d<\/p>\n

Socialize one-on-one after work.<\/strong>\u00a0Invite your team members out individually for a casual discussion over a beer in the evening. Ask for their feedback on your leadership effectiveness. While they may hesitate to make negative comments, one way to encourage honesty is to ask \u201cIf you were determined to help me increase my effectiveness in leading this team, what advice would you give me?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hold weekly team meetings.<\/strong>\u00a0This is a much better way than email to share information critical to your business. But don\u2019t limit these meetings to one-way broadcasts of information. Facilitate open discussions of issues of importance to your department and your business in general. Clarify your department\u2019s purpose, goals and priorities. Discuss how to exceed the expectations of your most important stakeholders.<\/p>\n

Clarify your expectations.\u00a0<\/strong>You are the boss \u2013 the person in the position of power \u2013 so your employees are naturally wondering what you think about them. Make sure you regularly share your expectations of them as well as express your appreciation for their contributions to the team\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

As smart as you are, unless you\u2019re a Steve Jobs clone, you\u2019re probably not smarter than your entire team. Put aside your own anxiety and focus on building the confidence of your people and the strength of your team. Provide the resources they need to be successful, remove obstacles and irritations, reward great performance, and correct off-track situations promptly and tactfully. This approach to leadership will win you the admiration of your team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(This article is part of a series originally published in Japan by ALC Press English Journal, and is written in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,849],"tags":[910,1192,93,1190,1194,1191,1193],"class_list":["post-11289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-communications","category-team-leadership","tag-expectations","tag-generous-listening","tag-listening","tag-new-manager","tag-one-on-one-meetings","tag-promotion","tag-socialize"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11289"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11329,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11289\/revisions\/11329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}