Where is leadership?
Companies must realize that competing on technology or price will not yield long-term differentiation. The only true lasting competitive advantage they have is a smart, dedicated, informed, and engaged workforce.
As authors like Robert Reich in The Future of Success and Thomas Friedman in The World is Flat have made clear, a company’s talented people represent the one capital asset that can’t be duplicated by the competition. (See Roger D’Aprix in The Credible Company: Communicating with Today’s Skeptical Workforce).
Yet “where is leadership?” is one of the most common pieces of feedback companies receive in employee engagement surveys…leading to disengaged employees. I see two drivers for this: 1) leaders are not visibly and actively engaged with the workforce on a consistent basis and 2) mid-managers do not have the skills, ability, or maybe even the desire, to effectively cascade information to their teams in ways that matter.
This is more important today as organizations are under constant revolutionary change. Employees are bombarded with news outside of the office they cannot control. Let’s ensure that inside the office, they are confident in leaders’ ability to remain transparent, removing the skepticism that leads to cynicism.
Common employee feedback
Here are some key themes highlighting communications gaps leaders can turn into opportunities. Later we will look at what you can do to eliminate this type of feedback from your organization.
🔹 Transparency: “We’re dedicated to our work, but we feel kept in the dark about big company decisions.”
🔹 Accessibility: “Our top leaders are practically invisible day-to-day. It feels like we can’t approach them with questions or ideas.”
🔹 Clarity: “Management’s updates are often so full of jargon and buzzwords that we end up more confused than informed.”
🔹 Frequency: “We only hear from the bosses when something’s wrong or at a quarterly meeting. The long silence in between makes us anxious.”
🔹 Engagement: “Communication feels one-way – leaders talk at us, but we never get a chance to share our ideas or feedback.”
The implication is clear and it’s a call to action: Our communication methods aren’t keeping up with our employees’ needs. Ironically, at the same time employees tell us they feel uninformed about strategy and changes that affect them, they simultaneously complain that they are drowning in information overload.
This isn’t a communications team problem. It’s a leadership opportunity.
Your quarterly Town Halls aren’t cutting it - let’s go back to 1633!
The best leaders don’t rely on one-way broadcasts or occasional updates. They are accessible, available, present, and transparent. They use a portfolio of touchpoints, not just to communicate, but to truly connect.
We need to reframe communication as dialogue, not distribution. If we want employees to feel connected to the strategy, we must invite them to the conversation. And we must hear them.
What if our Town Halls resemble what they were initially intended to be? The first Town Hall meeting was in Massachusetts in 1633. It was a forum for town members to vote on issues. The purpose was to debate ideas. Corporate town halls today are more like status reports – they don’t typically harness discussion and goodwill between leaders and employees – rather state what was done last quarter and what is planned to be done next quarter. They leave employees feeling like ‘that is work being done by others elsewhere’.
I think more frequent, focused, single topic Town Halls could really advance ideas and encourage increased engagement from the audience.
At my current client, we hold Leader Listening and Learning sessions. That second word—learning—matters. It signals that leaders aren’t just there to talk. They are there to hear, to understand, and to take action. They answer directly during the Q&A sessions and follow up with longer form answers via the company portal.
Frontline communication
One major communications breakdown happens in the middle. Big messages are shared at the top but don’t make it to employees in a meaningful way. Too many assume those communications will take care of themselves and leave it to the frontline leaders to handle. Change practitioners know how critical this role is to the success of change. This level shoulders three big expectations: recognize their own needs in change; lead others through the change; and keep running the business.
Roger D’Aprix believes a great frontline leader must be able to address and answer six fundamental questions that tend to define the communication relationship between any employee and his or her manager.
The first three questions cover the basic needs of each and every employee:
1. What is my job? [What is expected of me? What constitutes success or failure?]
2. How am I doing? [Am I meeting or exceeding expectations? What do I need to work on?]
3. Does anyone care? [I’m doing what you ask - who even notices?]
The next three questions demonstrate an employee’s commitment to the success of the company after the first three are met:
4. How are we doing? [Are my team’s needs being met and are we performing?]
5. What is our vision? Mission? Values? [Do I have a line of sight from my role to the organization’s larger purpose?]
6. How can I help? [This mindset is earned by the company and supervisor. It represents the gift of engagement.]
We expect executives to communicate vision, but we don’t equip frontline managers to translate it into real talk for their teams. In fact, most supervisors see communications as an extracurricular activity to do after everything else is done. But you can’t disconnect the two, because engaged employees drive performance results.
Accountability is a critical factor here - frontline leaders need to know communications is their role. Setting that expectation, then following up through measurement AND modeling at the senior leader level go a long way towards meeting the needs of employees.
That quarterly Town Hall may tell all employees where the company is headed and how it is going to get there. The frontline leader must then be able to translate that into ‘what does all of that mean to me” for the employees on his or her team.
I built a Leaders Communications Toolkit for a Customer Experience Transformation program to give leaders simple, practical formats and talking points to spark dialogue, not just deliver information, and to keep messaging consistent across regions.
In the toolkit, we included:
A message from the sponsor to the top 100 leaders
Kickoff scripts for local leaders to introduce the big change to their sites or teams
Coaching tips to model what we expect when we connect daily work to strategy
FAQs, including the tough questions we anticipated
A consistent communications checklist, to take the guessing game out of the equation for the managers, and so employees can anticipate what to expect
It’s not a silver bullet, but it’s a start. Sometimes leaders just don’t know where to begin or how to continue the conversation after the initial announcement. Maybe they don’t even know they should! We cannot assume great communications skills come with a title.
Check in, measure, follow up – up and down the organization chart.
Employees closest to the work know best
When employees don’t feel informed, we lose trust. When they don’t feel heard, we lose insights. And when they don’t feel connected, we lose momentum.
Your performance results can’t afford the impact that has on the bottom line.
The employees closest to the work, and closest to the customer, often have the best ideas for how to improve. But they won’t speak up if they don’t feel included or if they don’t have the avenue to share.
What do your current channels really reveal about your communications priorities?
What can leaders do? A practical prescription for effective communication
The author of The Credible Company and Communicating for Change, Roger D’Aprix, offers a logical and tested strategy to inform skeptical employees in times of turbulent change. Based on the principles of Information, Needs on the Job, Face-to-Face Communications, Openness, Research, Marketplace, and Strategy, INFORMS provides a winning framework for those who want to create a culture where employees can flourish in pursuit of worthwhile goals.
Information must be reliable, accurate, and timely.
Needs of the audience refers to the human needs of every worker and the kinds of communication most likely to motivate them to want to engage.
Face-to-Face communications is the channel of choice. We are social animals and depend on visual and verbal clues to understand others.
Openness drives out distrust and suspicion. The more open, the more successful.
Research and understand your organization, its priorities, its culture, the marketplace, the brand promise and tie employees to all of it.
Marketplace needs sometimes get lost in times of chaos, change, and urgency yet a focus on the external market and how it drives strategy provides the frame of reference needed. It can give us the WHY we need to inform on what could feel like random events.
Strategy is a critical component of effective communications. A proactive communications strategy based on audience needs and market needs provides the context and framework required for the frontline manager to connect each employee to the bigger picture.
This isn’t about perfection. It is about progress.
By being transparent, accessible, clear, frequent, and engaging in their communication, leaders can build trust, improve understanding, and boost overall employee engagement.
Let’s revisit those key themes highlighting leader communications gaps and turn them into opportunities
TRANSPARENCY
“We’re dedicated to our work, but we feel kept in the dark about big company decisions.”
Many frontline employees express frustration when decisions, changes, or performance updates aren’t openly shared.
Recommendation
Provide open, timely updates on company goals, performance, and changes. Leaders should share what they know when they know it, explaining the reasons behind decisions rather than waiting until everything is final – building trust through honesty. And you don’t have to wait for the next Quarterly Town Hall - share relevant news today.
ACCESSIBILITY
“Our top leaders are practically invisible day-to-day. It feels like we can’t approach them with questions or ideas.”
When executives remain distant, employees feel they lack a voice.
Recommendation
Make leadership visible and approachable. For example, regularly walk the shop floor, hold informal Q&A sessions locally, and maintain an open-door policy (including virtual “office hours”). Some CEOs even share their direct phone or email to show they want to hear from employees. Approachable leaders signal that input is valued, fostering a culture where people feel comfortable speaking up.
CLARITY
“Management’s updates are often so full of jargon and buzzwords that we end up more confused than informed.”
Overly complex or vague communication leaves employees unsure how to proceed, and important details can get lost if messages are hard to parse or feel overwhelming.
Recommendation
Use clear, straightforward language and cut the jargon. Break down complex ideas into plain terms and clearly outline expectations or next steps. Many business issues stem from unclear expectations – leaders should ensure their messages answer “what does this mean for us?” so everyone knows what to do. Don’t be afraid to test your message on a smaller audience to increase the likelihood you make the impact you expect. Your time, and theirs, is precious so don’t waste either by missing your mark.
FREQUENCY
“We only hear from the bosses when something’s wrong or at a quarterly meeting. The long silence in between makes us anxious.”
Irregular communication makes employees feel out of the loop and fuels speculation. In fact, surveys consistently show that employees want to hear more frequent updates from management about what’s going on.
Recommendation
Check your calendar – how can you take advantage of the space in between the big meetings? Communicate on a consistent cadence – for example, a brief weekly update or an ad hoc town hall – not just during crises. Invite a guest from another part of the company to share at your staff meeting. Regular, proactive communication (even if it’s just sharing minor news or progress) keeps everyone informed and prevents rumors that arise when leadership goes quiet. It also builds precious credibility which reduces anxiety, positively impacting performance.
ENGAGEMENT
“Communication feels one-way – leaders talk at us, but we never get a chance to share our ideas or feedback.”
When employees can’t contribute, or don’t see their input acknowledged, they become disengaged. Many employees say they want a chance to provide feedback to leadership but there just isn’t an avenue for it.
Recommendation
Create two-way communication channels. Invite employee input through surveys, focus groups, listen and learn sessions, town-hall forums, and close the feedback loop by responding or making visible changes in response. Leaders should actively listen and show they’ve heard the team by addressing concerns in follow-ups or implementing feasible suggestions. Employees who feel heard are far more likely to support initiatives and stay engaged.
The best leaders are always learning how to communicate better so employees never have to say, “I wish you did.”
Need help assessing and rebuilding your communication toolkit or upskilling your leaders and managers?
