“No team ever failed because of too much communication.
It is almost always the opposite.”

At Acme Inc., we believe that good communication is the bedrock for all successful relationships in business and in life. From good communication flow trust, understanding and teamwork both with our customers and with each other.

Acme Inc. Is A Communication Company “When in doubt, over-­‐communicate.”

When in doubt...over-communicate!

Acme Inc. is an organization that builds trust and relationships with each other and with our customers through excellent communication. Excellent communication stems from adhering to four principles:

1. Clarity: Good communications are clear and easy to understand, black and white without vagaries and euphemisms.
2. Candor: Good communications means saying what needs to be said no matter the perceived personal or professional risk.
3. Caring: Good communications means listening. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Listening shows you care.
4. Courtesy: Good communications means never losing your temper with customers or co-­‐workers.

Excellence In Communications At Acme Inc.:

• We will strive for face-­‐to-­‐face meetings in areas of subjectivity and opinion.
• We will reserve email for objective information only.
• We will embrace courageous confrontation that is intended make us better.
• We will ask ourselves, “Am I listening or just waiting to talk?”
• We will respond to internal and external communications in 1 business day.
• We will communicate courteously at all times with our customers and co-­‐workers independent of how they treat us.

The Bottom Line:

Acme Inc. is a company I made up.  Imagine working in an environment where people communicated as described above.  This is what good can look like!

The longer I consult the more I see communication as the Number 1 issue preventing companies from achieving their goals.  It does not matter whether it is a Fortune 500 or a locally owned family run business – Communication is the crux of most of the problems.

What does good look like?  This is an attempt to define good communication for people who are leading teams.  Defining what good looks like for your team could improve communications and thus improve trust, performance and your leadership.

Question:

What do you feel like when someone communicates well with you?  Isn’t that worth repeating with others?