If you’ve read our past four newsletters, you’re probably well on your way to developing the value habit. You have a flexible plan that has prepared you to deal with a range of possible scenarios. You’re careful to select projects that fit your objectives and strategies. You’re getting all your people moving in the same direction. You’re closing the gap between what you know about making your company valuable—and what you’re actually doing about it. But, how about what you’re saying? Are you also “talking the talk”—using language consistent with those strategies and objectives? Talk? Words? Aren’t actions more important? Sure. But, your words also matter. Using the right words helps to reinforce your strategy and speed you in the right direction. Using the wrong words can lead you away from your goal. Value-inhibiting behavior #4: You use language that obscures or undermines your focus. Words that stress means over ends, or peripheral matters over essential ones, confuse communication and may even undermine otherwise successful efforts. Is it possible you may be guilty of this? Are you talking about "cutting costs," for instance, when what you’re really trying to do is "improve operating efficiency"? Correcting this behavior is a lot more difficult than it sounds. There’s a temptation to avoid the whole problem by sticking with grand pronouncements. The risk is that your audience will make up its own meaning for what you intended to say. Hint: it probably won’t be one you would have chosen. Think about the conversation you start at one end of the bar and how it is distorted by the time it reaches the other end. Value-creating behavior #4: Be sure the words you use inspire the actions you want. Using the right language to inspire value-creating behavior has nothing to do with political correctness, eloquence, or spin. It’s about simple efficiency: creating the shortest distance between what you believe and what you want to happen. Of course, the first step is to spell out your strategy. Then be sure it shines through every thing you say and write, including the questions you ask. If you’re interested in profit, for instance, then say so; don’t focus all your conversations on cutting costs. If your aim is to improve operating efficiency, don’t talk about slamming in an ERP system. And if you’re driven by innovation, don’t constantly focus on avoiding risk. This is especially important in communicating with your people. After all, the very fate of your company depends on what they do each day. And, people take their cues from what their bosses say and what they ask about. You may think you’re about customer service and building long-term relationships, for example, but if your managers harp instead on meeting sales quotas or following certain procedures, making those strategies work will be very difficult. Employees will spend most of their time on the tasks their bosses actually ask about. They’ll give short shrift to the rest—and may never get around to them at all. Worst of all, seeing the disconnect between the stated strategy and what bosses actually ask about will destroy employees’ belief in the vision and their confidence in management. You’ll wind up like the folks who spent millions on an ad campaign touting their company’s refusal to relax its high standards, just as management had abandoned all principles and begun to cave at the slightest hint of conflict. CNN goes global Say you live in Rome or Islamabad. Would you like to hear the words "foreign" or "international" used to describe news from where you live? When Ted Turner formed CNN he banned these words, instructing everyone at the new network to use the word “global” instead. It worked: CNN became the first 24-hour, all-news network and changed the way the world saw breaking news. Today CNN reaches nearly one billion people around the globe. You don’t have to issue such a dramatic decree to take advantage of the power of language in your own realm. All you have to do is become conscious of the words you and your colleagues use to communicate with your shareholders, customers, partners, vendors and employees. Then ask yourself this: Is the message we’re sending the one we want to send? | Steps: | Spell out your strategy. Always tailor each communication, internal as well as external, so it’s consistent and explicitly aligned with that strategy. Always evaluate your people against that strategy. Insist that every manager do the same.
|
Related Content:
Subscribe to The Value Habit
You will receive The Value Habit, Deloitte’s new monthly newsletter dedicated to driving enterprise value Enterprise Value Map™
Order a copy to help accelerate the connection between actions you can take and shareholder value Straight Talk on Enterprise Value
Order the book that inspired this new newsletter Driving Enterprise Value - Upcoming Webcasts
View upcoming Webcasts Driving Enterprise Value - Archived Webcasts
View archived Webcasts | 
