In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, effective communication is the cornerstone of successful collaboration and business outcomes. For Chief Information Officers (CIOs), ensuring seamless communication isn’t just a priority; it’s a crucial strategy.
That’s where communications redundancy steps in. It’s a critical practice that every CIO must understand to safeguard their organization’s operations in an increasingly digital world.
Communications Redundancy and its Effects
At its core, communications redundancy involves having multiple backup communication methods in place within an organization. These backup channels act as safety nets to ensure uninterrupted connectivity when unexpected disruptions occur. It aims to minimize the risk of data loss, miscommunication, and downtime—ultimately ensure business continuity.
1. Ensures Continuity
For instance, if a company relies on both traditional phone lines and internet-based communication tools, it can maintain operations if one system fails. During a power outage, traditional phone lines may still work while internet-based tools fail, allowing employees to stay connected.
2. Minimizes Downtime
Businesses heavily rely on data centers to maintain online services. Communications redundancy, such as backup servers and network connections, ensures continuous service availability. For example, if a primary data center experiences a network outage, redundant systems seamlessly take over, preventing service interruptions for users and maintaining business operations.
This minimizes downtime and ensures uninterrupted access to critical online services, like cloud-based applications or e-commerce platforms.
3. Enhances Data Security
In the digital age, protecting sensitive information is important. Businesses use redundant data storage systems, like cloud backups, to safeguard data. If one storage system fails, data remains accessible through the redundant backup. This is critical in preventing data loss and maintaining customer trust.
Navigating the Fine Line: Avoiding Overcommunication
Grammarly’s 2023 State of Business Communication report with The Harris Poll found that miscommunication can cost businesses in the U.S. $12,506 per employee yearly. Moreover, 69 percent of workers were left feeling stressed or anxious due to unclear workplace communication.¹
While redundancy can sometimes work for you, there’s also such a thing as overcommunication. Overcommunicating can come off as you are distrusting your employees due to how much you repeat your message.
Here are some important qualities of good communication skills to take note of when talking with your members. Self-assessment can help identify your strengths in these areas during your conversations.
- Clear and Concise – Communicate with precision. Ensure that your message is free from vagueness and confusion.
- Factual and Complete – Base your message on facts alone to eliminate any biases. Don’t leave out any information and make sure you communicate truthfully.
- Empathetic and Engaging – Consider the other person’s perspective and how they would feel once you say what you have to say. Keep an open mind and show understanding and empathy towards their situation. Moreover, great leaders encourage interactions through relevant and impactful questions.
- Confident and Trustful – Convey confidence in your message to demonstrate your expertise. This helps people trust you. Simultaneously, show that you trust your team by asking their feedback and opinions.
Practical Strategies for Applying Good Leadership Communication
There are several ways to communicate effectively at work. Here are some areas where you can improve your communication skills, leading to better results with and for your team.
Document communications at work.
While it’s typically sufficient to communicate information once, some leaders resort to communication redundancy to ensure they achieve their goals.
To strike the right balance—communicating effectively without overwhelming your team—encourage team members to seek clarification by asking questions. This approach enhances their comprehension of your messages.
Additionally, consider documenting your communications, especially during meetings. Prepare presentations or PDFs for post-meeting distribution. Promote notetaking among your team members. If appropriate, delegate the responsibility of recording meetings and sharing copies with everyone. This practice enhances transparency and accountability in your communication efforts.
Clearly communicate the corporate purpose through actionable steps
Effective leadership communication also affects the purpose of a company. McKinsey surveyed over 1,000 U.S. workers and found that 82 percent of them believe in the importance of purpose. However, only 42 percent of these respondents think that their company’s purpose is effective.
Employees want to do meaningful work and contribute to society, but only 11 percent and 21 percent of purpose statements focus on these respectively. ²
Go beyond just stating your purpose statement and create actionable steps that involve your employees and encourage your customers and business partners.
To involve your employees, thoroughly discuss with them your purpose statement and ask them what impactful activities they can do based on this purpose. This not only builds trust but also improves employee engagement.
Plan ahead and create a timeline for the activities you think can be done within the upcoming year. Set a budget and ask people to volunteer for the activities they would like to be a part of. Set goals and measure the effectiveness of each of your activities.
What’s important here is to make what you communicate a reality for everyone involved through realistic actions and hopeful outcomes. Making your purpose a reality can also create a sense of belongingness for everyone participating.
Related Reading: Inclusive Organizational Transformation: Fostering a Culture of Belonging
Attract top candidates through effective job postings.
Effective communication extends to your job postings when it comes to attracting top candidates. According to a survey involving 805 American job seekers, these are some of the green flags identified by the respondents:
- 57 percent sought clearly explained responsibilities.
- Another 57 percent desired clearly defined benefits.
- 54 percent appreciated a clearly defined compensation range.
On the other hand, the red flags identified include:
- A whopping 65 percent were deterred when no salary range was specified.
- 50 percent were discouraged when the experience requirement seemed too high.³
Notice here that job seekers want and appreciate clear communication, where the most important information is posted for them to see. In creating your job posts, make sure you are clear and precise. The key is to entice job seekers to send in their applications. Remember that there are a lot of opportunities out there for them and they can always find one with a better job posting than yours.
This could also mean that there is poor communication internally among hiring managers and employers. When it comes to this, make sure that you communicate with your team members and share with each other the important information provided by the candidates.
This makes sure that during interviews, candidates would repeat themselves less and you can conduct fewer interview rounds.
Cultivate a growth-driven environment to engage and retain employees.
A Gallup study focused on optimizing employee communication reveals intriguing insights. 26 percent of employees strongly agree that their manager’s feedback contributes to their professional growth. Conversely, employees exhibit 2.8 times higher engagement when they maintain regular dialogues with their leaders about their achievements and aspirations.
On the flip side, merely 22 percent strongly believe that their organizational leaders possess a clear vision for the company’s future.⁴ This highlights the need for more effective communication regarding the company’s direction.
Providing feedback to your employees can greatly impact their stay at your company. This is because you are able to communicate with them that they have growth opportunities waiting for them. You can do this regularly and effectively with other leaders who would be willing to mentor or train your team members.
Asking for the help of your leaders helps your whole team grow. Your leaders can practice and develop their leadership skills while your employees increase their skill sets. They can also help in creating a supportive environment founded on good communication while they’re at it.
Related Reading: Employees on What Defines a Great Company Culture
Effectively communicate to improve your business results and team productivity.
Your leadership can be more effective when you communicate your plans effectively. Doing this can help your team understand you better and follow your mapped-out plan without having any doubts.
Document your messages as much as possible through a channel accessible to everyone involved to make sure they have something to go back to in case they get confused or forget what they have to do.
RASO360 CAN HELP YOU CONNECT WITH THE BEST CANDIDATES YOU NEED
In the midst of managing your existing teams, the need for additional candidates to drive your business forward can be pressing. That’s where Raso360 steps in to simplify your journey.
Our expertise lies in connecting you with top-tier candidates across various domains such as IT, Engineering, Accounting & Finance, Digital Marketing, and more. Whether you require Staff Augmentation, Direct Hire, or Staff Leasing solutions, we have you covered. Get in touch with us today to explore the transformative possibilities, we can offer your organization. Your future success awaits.
References
1 “Poor Communication Causes Work Stress—Here’s Why You Need to Address It Now.” Grammarly, Updated 21 Feb. 2023, www.grammarly.com/blog/poor-communication-work-stress/.
2 “Purpose: Shifting from Why to How.” McKinsey & Company, 22 Apr. 2020, www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/purpose-shifting-from-why-to-how.
3 ” Armstrong, Martin. “What Can Make or Break a Job Posting?” Statista, 14 Sept 2022, https://www.statista.com/chart/28252/dos-and-donts-job-postings/.
4 Robison, Jennifer. “Communicate Better With Employees, Regardless of Where They Work.” Gallup, 28 Jun. 2021, www.gallup.com/workplace/351644/communicate-better-employees-regardless-work.aspx.
