When a company is formed, the CEO or whom ever is responsible for the initial configuration of the company hires people.. usually because they need someone who already had knowledge in that area.. I am not sure what good it does for a CEO or Business man to Hire a Mechanic, IT personnel, HR, mechanical/ electrical/ Manufacturing civil engineer if the CEO is going to say “I want things done and it is my way or the highway” without allowing for input on how things are suppose to be done or, the time and resources it takes to get things done.
This is just one example of communication in the work place being less than effective. Often it appears that the communication or lack there of is due to lack of trust. Rather than trust the people doing the work a leader in what ever position would rather Manage (micro manage) things them selves. What this person may not understand is that they are really doing more damage to them, the company, and everyone the company deals with.
Another example of how this affects everyone. I recently encountered a company that their sole interest was sales. They contracted all of the other portions of the company’s operations to organizations that were already in place. Sounds pretty streamlined right? May not be as clear cut as that. The sales force worked hard and created ample accounts and recruited enough reps for a full sales team in several locations. Sales were good until, the operations side of things kicked in. Months passed with no products installed. Customers were becoming edgy. This is where the communication comes in. over the months of sales. Training after training occurred. changes took place to ensure information from customer to corporate was smooth, accurate, and efficient. In return Reps were fed information that was in turn given to customers on timeline, and how the process of installation works. All of the information being fed to the customers later appeared to be false. As this information’s validity failed, communication from corporate stopped. Rather than feeding accurate information to the sales team enabling them to properly manage the expectations of the customers, False information was given making things sound better than they are until it was too late. Customers began to cancel accounts, reps began to leave the company. Accounts under contract were frustrated because they could not get an accurate update on the status of their install. Because of all of the problems, Reps stoped turning in new accounts causing the company to loose hundred of thousands in sales.. All this because communication was no transparent and given to the people that needed it to do their jobs properly.
In summary, If you are one that hold information, are you giving it to those who need it to do their jobs? If you are the one that needs information and are getting radio silence, it may just be time to move on.. it is hard to say you are not getting information. Fraud, Hiding things going wrong, disorganization. Any of these problems usually end with everyone loosing unless communication is restored.