Not So Simple

Telling our staff that something is simple can undermine their confidence and over time cause them to discount our judgement.  Before speaking, we need to ask ourselves, “Is it really simple, or am I guilty of cheerleading?”

This communications fault came to mind when I read “Top 10 Ways to Make YourselfLook (and Be) Smarter” by Whitson Gordon.  While each of the techniques is quite valid, many of them are not simple at all, for example, ‘Learn a Second Language’.  Taken together, adopting all ten techniques, which he calls ‘simple tricks’, would change your life.

Communication bombards us.  Our mindset is to ignore most of it.  Thus, when we are trying to communicate with our staff, we need to be a ongoing solid, reliable source of relevant information.  As managers, we must build a reputation that engages our listeners simply because we are the ones speaking. 

If something is difficult, we must acknowledge the difficulties and outline the steps that will be implemented to reduce problems.  We can portray something as simple if it is easy and will require only casual effort.  The balance is to reduce pessimism about the hard things without over-simplifying the work we have to invest.