Your questions answered, Inside Track, March 2010
As a senior manager I keep getting told I need to be more visible; I don’t see what more I can do. What do you suggest?
Firstly, who is telling you to be more visible? Visibility of senior managers , like communications are factors that surveys show are always in deficit in organisations. And usually they stand for something else. So ask yourself what is going on round here that makes people say they want to see more of me.
Secondly, and perhaps inconveniently for you, face to face communication with your staff is essential. No-one has ever experienced motivating leadership from all staff emails and occasional ‘school assemblies’. If you have lots of staff who undertake transactional or customer facing work then being with people is a vital part of your role. Other things you do may be less important from the point of view of creating a productive organisation.
Thirdly, think of the quality rather than the quantity of your presence with staff. Think back in your career to those interactions with senior managers that left a positive mark on you. Identify what your staff might need most right now – purpose, direction, being part of a joint effort, honesty, and confidence etc.
Make sure you have every week some human one to one conversations with staff that don’t see you every day. If you have spent 5 minutes with someone and demonstrated a genuine interest in them and their work that experience will be related to half a dozen other people and a little bit of your visibility will rub off on them.
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