How to make every manager a change manager
I love managers. There, I said it! I love empowering them, equipping them, and l (mostly) loved being one for the majority of my in-house career.
Although they sometimes get a bad rap, as the most trusted link between leaders and employees, they play a critical role in translating executive vision into meaningful understanding and day-to-day execution – or they should.
When it comes to leveraging managers to communicate change, leaders can’t just equip them with messaging; they need to make sure managers have the mindset required to lead and communicate an organization’s strategy and never-ending changes effectively.
So many organizations invest time and resources into executive and external messaging and big announcements, and then seriously underinvest in equipping, enabling, and engaging managers so that they can translate big-picture strategy into day-to-day operating plans, drive organizational and behavioral change, and champion company culture.
Here are four of the major missteps I see leaders make with managers when it comes to enabling and empowering them to communicate change
1. Leaders provide managers with the same message everyone else gets (at the same time)
When a company is going through some BIG THING, they often hone the executive message, do the PR, make the announcement, and then send an email that is a reworking of the press release to the entire company as one stakeholder group. Not good. Or, everyone hears the same announcement at a town hall.
In both instances, guess what happens? The second everyone reads the email or the town hall is over, everyone goes to their managers with questions, and all the manager can say is, “Hey, I know what you know.” They're at a huge disadvantage, and so is the leader, because they didn't proactively activate their #1 street team: managers.
2. Leaders give managers a playbook to decipher and translate on their own
Again, the company is going through some BIG THING. They hone the executive message, maybe do some PR, and then they send an email to managers that still just sounds like press release with a sentence that says, “Please share this with your teams.” Or they send the dreaded "playbook" in an effort to help their managers out.
But the only thing worse than getting the same info at the same time as everyone else is getting the same info at the same time as everyone else and then having to decipher, translate, and communicate it to others in real time. What is the manager supposed to share? Why? What is this all for?! How long is utilizing this playbook going to take!?!?!?!
3. Leaders keep managers out of the inner circle without elevating them to their own circle
This is the mindset side of #1. When you communicate with managers just like you communicate with everyone else and you treat managers just like you treat everyone else, you’re eliminating your own opportunity to leverage an additional layer of leadership and you’re reinforcing your opinion of managers with those managers: You are everyone else.
It's not that managers are more important humans than other employees. They're just their own stakeholder group, and should be treated and communicated with as such.
4. Leaders fail to acknowledge the manager's role and operationalize how managers can exercise their power
This is the social and system version of #3. Failing to acknowledge the manager's role and operationalize how managers can exercise their power at your organization means that you can't set up the culture and the structure that enables you to amplify your message and ensure that strategic action actually takes place on the ground.
Instead, equip managers with the messaging and help everyone adopt the mindset – here's how:
1. Managers don’t need to be in the innermost circle; elevate them to their own strong circle
Elevating managers doesn't mean they need CEO access and information; they need their own. People always ask me, "But what am I supposed to do if no one can know about a change ahead of time?" An M&A or a leader exit are good examples of this. My answer is always: in lieu of information, share your strategy. Don’t share the details; share everything else.
2. Publicly acknowledge your managers' roles and operationalize how they can exercise their power
Leaders love to say “Ask your manager if you have any questions,” without equipping managers with what they need in order to answer any questions in a defined, aligned way that does not cause extra stress for the manager!
Cascading messaging and behavioral change through managers is an excellent strategy if and only if you have cultivated a culture, systems, and processes of facilitating managers to do this, and if everyone knows this is part of the culture; or "how we do things around here."
3. Provide managers with tailored messaging in advance (the more layers in your org, the more layers of messaging)
I don’t think I’ve ever come across a situation in which I think everyone should have gotten the same message at the same time. Unfortunately, the more important and consequential the change, the more likely the leader is to share it with everyone at one time, because they don’t know how to not do that.
Again, if you can’t share info with your managers or the wider employee population, share your strategy. And the more consequential and complex the change, the more layers of communication there should be.
4. Don’t just give managers what they should communicate; communicate with them
Don’t just hand off playbooks or manager messaging! Communicate and collaborate with your managers as colleagues and fellow strategists. Act like you’re in this together, because you are. That’s how you can do your work at scale and actually lead successful change at your organization.
Managers are invaluable when it comes to communicating change
When resources are tight, teams are lean, and every move counts, turning every manager at your organization into a change manager, especially when it comes to communicating change, is the surest way to scale your organization's work, amplify your impact, and strengthen your teams.
Whether you're creating a communication strategy to use with your managers, you're looking to expand your managers' capacities to lead and communicate change with and to their teams, or you're thinking what on earth does in lieu of information, share your strategy actually mean!? Commcoterie can help.
