How well do you communicate with your employees? To answer that question, ask yourself two other questions:
• How often are you surprised by what happens in your office? If your answer is ‘frequently,’ then you need to take a sharp look at how comfortable your employees feel about talking to you. If they’re afraid to bring you bad news, or if they think you’re too busy to answer questions, you need to change your behavior. Make time in your schedule for people to visit with you, and be aware of how you respond to their concerns.
• Do employees comment on business issues? If not, it may be a sign that you’re not sharing enough information and keeping people up to date on the issues that affect your industry. Don’t force information on them if they don’t want it, but make it available so you can take advantage of workers’ intelligence and abilities.
—Adapted from ‘How do you communicate with subordinates?’ by Stephen Pruitt