Different ways managers and leaders use to communicate

Different ways managers and leaders use to communicate

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Different ways managers and leaders use to communicate

Different ways managers and leaders use to communicate

Kim-Rochelle A. Harker

Columbia Southern University

Dr. Crum

Organizational Communication

16 November 2019

Communication between a manager and the employees or other stakeholders is key to the operation of all business. For Walmart, each message has specific audience. There can be a message for the general public, a message for employees alone, and a message for investors, employees and other stakeholders. In this regard, Walmart utilizes every technique of communication in order to ensure that the messages reach the designed audience in the most effective way. Currently, Walmart CEO Dough McMillon communicates to the stakeholders about the progress, new organizational strategies and policies changes using several methods. This paper examines the communication methods of Walmart CEO and analyze whether they are effective and applicable by other leaders and managers.

McMillon uses several channels to communicate his message to reach the desired audience. For instance, live streaming of the discussion, face-to-face with the stakeholders, recorded videos and phone calls (Mulhern, 2009). The recorded videos are mostly for the general public and they can be posted on social media with a caption of the summary of the main message with a link that directs the user to the full video. This is more effective because recent trends include communication via social media, where users constantly check their pages and timeline for news or any interesting events. Managers should invest heavily in social media to relay the key messages that are meant to all stakeholders like launching a new store and depicting its positive trend in the market, which will be accessible by almost every user on the social networks like Twitter and Facebook. This method is also effective because there is always feedback where people comment on the post about their views and opinion on the CEO’s message and may provide some insightful suggestions.

Using phone calls is also a good channel for better leadership that Walmart CEO uses. In fact, a good leader will use phone calls to communicate with employees and other key stakeholders in order to relay messages in a clear and effective way (Cohen, Benesty & Gannot (2019). There is a chance of the recipient of the message to ask for clarity and ask some questions about any alternatives to the instructions or the message relayed. In fact, direct phone calls are quicker an appropriate for urgent messages especially where there is no downtime for assumptions and action is required almost immediately. In this regard, all managers and leaders must include direct phone calls in order to get things done with immediate effect as well as convey a more understood and clarified information.

In the annual general meeting of Walmart 2019, McMillon used live face-to-face communication to relay his messages about the achievements and strategies of the organization for the next plan. This is a good communication strategy because the audience gets a chance to interact lively with the CEO and get firsthand information about the organization processes and activities. However, live face-to-face communication in such a big meeting is usually not effective because the audience only plays the listening part and no questions or clarifications are asked from the leader. According to Cohen, Benesty & Gannot (2019), live face-to-face communication can be effective when in boardrooms or one on one with the stakeholders as long as they are few in number. This is because they will have a chance to put in some of their opinions and ask for clarifications as well as convey feedback during the communication process.

Having seen the communication channels in the discussion above, it is important to conclude that a communication method is more effective when it allows for feedback from the recipients of the message. This is because feedback increases the clarity of the message and ensures that the intended message is put to use in accordance to its intention.

References

Cohen, I., Benesty, J., & Gannot, S. (Eds.). (2019). Speech processing in modern communication: Challenges and perspectives (Vol. 3). Springer Science & Business Media.

Mulhern, F 2(009). Intergraded marketing communication: from media channels to digital

connectivity. Journal of marketing communications.

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