Communication is the single most important skill for success.

Without great – or at least good – communication, none of the other skills necessary for career success can come to fruition. Strategic thinking, tactical planning, management, customer relations – anything you can think of as a quality or skill of a good manager, supervisor, and leader ultimately requires them to be good communicators as well.

This brief assessment touches on some of the most important components of great communication within organizations.

For each of the nine questions, choose the answer that most closely represents the action, thought, or decision you’d normally make in each situation.  There may be questions where you’ll wish you could select more than one answer; choose the one most closely aligned with your personal way of doing things.

1.  When telling employees about a significant upcoming change (strategic direction, a big new project or client acquisition, a reorganization, a major milestone, changes in senior leadership, etc.), it’s best to:

 Send out a company-wide email blast

 Conduct an all-hands meeting, either in person or via a conference call or video.

 Don’t make a fuss. The less people know about change, the less resistance and anxiety they’ll feel.

 Have senior leadership inform their direct reports, who then inform theirs, and so on.

 Combine multiple methods and multiple timings for your communication.

 Hold division or department meetings with senior leadership.

2.  To give positive feedback, you:

 Say, “Thanks! great job!”

 Offer in-the-moment specifics about what they did especially well.

 People are smart enough to know when they’ve done well. It’s better to reserve feedback for times when correction is needed.

 Make a note to include a commendation for
a job well done in their next performance review.

3.  To give corrective feedback on a serious issue (a poor decision or a significant mistake – we’re talking more than typos in an email here!), you:

 Make sure they understand what went wrong and what led to the mistake.

 Let them know without question that they missed the mark. Being too forgiving leads to more problems down the road.

 Make a note to include your displeasure in their next performance review.

 Calmly explain exactly what they did wrong and let them know you expect them to do better.

4.  Your department is in the middle of a big, exciting change initiative, and one of your team asks about the long-term goals and expectations. You:

 Are surprised to realize you don’t have a good answer.

 Give them the answer that was given to you.

 Ask questions to learn what they currently know and to help them understand more fully.

 Really? They don’t already know? They should know by now!

 Base your explanation on their role on the team.

5.  You’re frustrated by a disconnect with a colleague – it seems like you’re constantly at odds with each other. In trying to resolve it, you:

 Take a stand. It’s important to have boundaries and not appear to be a pushover.

 Know it’s not the best option, but you can’t help thinking about how much this person annoys you.

 Invite your colleague to have an honest, open conversation about what’s going on.

 Swallow your pride and act like a team player – that’s what’s expected of you.

 Separate your feelings from the facts, consider how you’ve contributed to the problem, and modify your behavior accordingly.

6.  To be effective in a negotiation, you:

 Take time before the meeting to get clear about what you really want.

 Anticipate the worst-case scenario so you can rehearse what you’ll say.

 Try to understand the other person’s point of view, based on what you know about them and the situation at hand.

 Listen carefully to what they say so you can negotiate your position more effectively.

7.  When an employee gets emotional (upset, angry, etc.), you generally:

 Try to discuss the matter rationally.

 Encourage them to calm down.

 Think to yourself that at this point in their career, they should be aware that these emotions don’t belong in the workplace.

 Listen to what they say and reflect back what seems to be bothering them.

 Find yourself empathizing with their upset state and getting upset as well, or feeling attacked and defensive in response to their anger.

8.  When you need to make a significant decision – or when you’re coaching an employee through the process – you typically:

 Evaluate the risk factors for each option.

 Trust your gut instinct.

 Consider which of the available options would be the most interesting for you and your team.

 Think about what resources are available to bring the different options to successful completion.

 Measure each option against company values, vision, and mission to determine strategic alignment.

9.  The relationship between communication, strategy, and culture is:

  Communication is the thread that ties all of it together.

 There is no relationship; each can be managed independently of the others.

 Without good communication, you can’t implement strategy.

 You need effective communication to build your culture and implement strategy.

 The organizational culture must be solid before you can have good communication or effective strategic execution.

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