Nina sounded upset and frustrated as she spoke with Dinesh, her new manager who joined to head Yeti Ltd, a big player in the travel and tourism space. Nina worked as an internal communications specialist with the firm of over 5000 employees spread across 3 cities in the country. Dinesh was taken aback by her feedback on the team and he pondered his response. Here is how the conversation flowed.
Dinesh: “Nina, your comment is intriguing to say the least! Can you throw more light on why you feel the way you do?”
Nina: “Let me explain Dinesh. This is my third year with the team and the organization and to me it seems like this function isn’t considered important”.
Dinesh: “When you mean ‘isn’t considered important’ can you elaborate how you arrived at this conclusion?”
Nina: “You know it the way your stakeholders treat you. The way they approach you and the language they use to describe you. It is frustrating to know that all the hard work we do isn’t even noticed, leave alone recognized”.
Dinesh: “What feedback have you heard? I am very new to this place so it is early for me to gauge the mood among stakeholders. Do you do a formal study among your internal clients?”
Nina: “You don’t need a formal study or a survey to get to know where you stand. Clients come to us at the last minute, we are always pressured for time and we end up as the scapegoats when communications doesn’t land well. The team is demoralized. I am sure some of them are even considering quitting.”
Dinesh: “That is interesting. What have you done about it?”
Nina: “What can we do? Our former manager, who recently left the firm always said yet to every request and we ended up front-ending the need internally. He never took the time to brief us well and hardly represented us in key meetings. I will be surprised if our employees even know if there is an internal communications function in this organization!”
Dinesh: “Well, I understand this is indeed very troubling for you. It isn’t the best spot to be in.”
Nina: “We are seen as ‘pen pushers’ who just get the job done and send out mailers day in and out. No one knows what it takes to create those fancy designs that everyone wants.”
Dinesh felt uneasy and at one point began to doubt his decision of joining Yeti. He however wanted to dig deeper and come back to Nina and help her elevate the team’s impact and value.
If you were in Dinesh’s shoes what would you have done to improve the current perception and get back the respect the team so badly needed?
Share your views here.
Interesting dialogue and dynamic. I feel Dinesh was very genuine in wanting to understand how to help. Yet, the more data he tried to get, the more Nina seemed frustrated. Based on the Process Communicationm mddel by Taibi Kahler, different people see the world through different lenses. Each requires a different language for connection as well as different psychological needs. Based on this dialogue, it seems Nina wanted to be recognized for her (and her team) dedication, commitment, passion for their work they do. Instead of Dinesh asking questions to help solve the problem by asking for lots of data questions, try offering words of recognition of their conviction, passion and dedication, then ask their opinion of what Dinesh can do to help improve the situation.