If you want to make internal communications more impactful, start with your people managers. According to Gallup, “70% of team engagement is attributable to managers,” which is a great reason to help them be effective communicators and leaders. While we shared this stat in an earlier post about employee engagement, it bears repeating.
Strong managers—with equally strong communication skills—can generate employee loyalty and get their team members invested in what’s next for your organization. Their ability to create enthusiasm and business alignment can help ensure employees are doing work that matters to them, the business and those they serve. In short, people managers can help their team members focus on the behaviors and actions that produce desired outcomes.
Here are five tips to get people manager communication right.
1. Go beyond show-and-tell.
Manager toolkits, talking points and the like can be useful, but only if they are used by managers. While it may be tempting to believe “if we build it, they will come (or, in this case, use it),” this is probably not the case. You may have to win managers over first, by setting expectations, providing a clear explanation of what’s in it for them and building confidence in their ability to communicate effectively.
2. Explain the why.
People managers can be hesitant to share information if they don’t feel prepared to answer employee questions. And often the information they receive focuses on what is happening but doesn’t help them understand (and answer) why something is happening and how it impacts their team or department. Being able to answer tough questions with confidence and consistency can make people managers more likely to actively communicate with their teams. This is also a great way to build trust and transparency across the organization.
3. Make the “ask” explicit.
All too often in communication audits and focus groups, people managers will say they don’t always know what to do with the information they receive. Is it for their eyes only? Are they expected to share all or part of it with their teams? And, if they are expected to share information, is it enough to simply forward an email or should they be sharing that information in different ways? If you leave that up for interpretation, they may take the path of least resistance and do nothing with that content.
4. Show your appreciation.
The to-do list for most managers can be daunting. If you are going to add to it, you may want to offset some of that pressure by making them feel valued and appreciated. It’s not only a nice thing to do, it can also make them “1.2x more likely to feel like their workload is manageable,” according to The Evolution of Work: Findings from the Workhuman IQ 2023 International Survey Report.
5. Create clear goals to build accountability.
It’s important to let managers know what the communication is meant to accomplish and how success will be tracked and measured, as well as their role in ensuring success. Ideally, the communication goals should be strategic rather than tactical in nature and aligned with business KPIs tied to retention, performance, operational objectives or engagement indicators, such as likelihood to recommend or feeling connected to the purpose or mission.
While message penetration is important, the focus should be on driving employee perceptions and behaviors and business results. The idea is to hold managers accountable for both communicating and driving desired outcomes.
Here are some additional tactics that can be used to activate your managers and help them communicate more effectively.
- Leverage the power of in-person meetings to build knowledge, buy-in and excitement about the important role people managers play in the organization’s ongoing success. As one of the fastest-growing sectors in the event industry, internal meetings and events are a great way to unite participants around a shared purpose, mission or business objectives. (American Express 2025 Global Meetings and Events Forecast). Getting different groups of cross-functional managers together for learning, skill building and relationship development can be a great way to energize your people leaders at all levels of the organization, help them successfully support business goals and assist them in strengthening their communications with their teams. In-person meetings can vary in cadence, structure, agenda and location to create an impactful experience based on your goals, objectives, vision and outcome for the meeting.
- Tap into AI and other technologies to make messages more relevant. One of the biggest challenges in cascading and sharing information is that high-level messages may not be immediately relevant to employees in different parts of the organization. People will want to know what it means for them individually and for their team. And that creates the possibility of a lost-in-translation moment, unless we help people managers bridge that gap. AI and other technologies are poised to change this dynamic, aiding in both the creation and distribution of targeted messaging.
Need help boosting manager effectiveness?
At JPL, supporting managers is a key element of our approach to internal communications—and that’s something that never goes out of style. We can create communication strategies to boost manager communication competencies, measure success and drive results that matter to your organization. We can also help with everything from creating manager training events and communication audits to designing recognition programs and information and knowledge sharing resources for managers. Whatever challenge you are facing, we are here to help. Let’s chat. Reach out at [email protected].
