Tips to Better Communicate with Senior Management

Understanding your audience is critical in effective HR communications. Having a crystal clear picture of your audience: who they are, how they like to receive information and what information is important to them will help you get the response you need. You spend much of your time crafting a variety of communications that are widely sent to employees. But do you spend time understanding the best way to talk to your executive audience?

This week, we share an interview Roberta Fiore-Kittell, an Executive Coach and Partner at OptimaHR. Roberta provides insight and tips to help HR managers better communicate with senior management. Today’s blog is the first of two parts.

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Tips to Better Communicate with Senior Management (Part One)

Interview with Roberta Fiore-Kittell, Executive Coach and Partner at OptimaHR.

How is communicating to the senior management different than communicating to the rest of the company?

Effective communication starts with knowing what’s important to the senior manager and knowing the lens they look through.  A senior manager’s lens is driving and running the business and what’s going to help it be more effective. What this means is that you need to have a much broader focus when communicating with senior management than you would when communicating to employees globally.

Time is at a premium, so focus on the most critical things you need to tell a senior manager. If you only have three minutes, what would you really say? Someone communicating to senior management should focus on the three most important things they want to get across. You should know: Am I informing them of something? Trying to get buy in? Trying to persuade them? Know your purpose in coming to the table.

How do you know what are the most important things to a senior manager?

A senior manager is more likely to pay attention to the things that are more important to him or her. That’s a question to ask the most senior leaders: “What are the most important things I need to tell you?” Ask what they want to know.

If HR could approach communicating with the senior manager more as a consultant would approach this, it would be helpful. Of the senior management team, what is your critical customer base?

Many people overcommunicate, so many senior managers discard the information if it’s too much. Ask the senior managers “over the past year, of everything I’ve communicated, what has been the most valuable?” And is there a means of communication that you liked the best?

Many times, HR managers work with senior management teams rather than individually. What should they do to ensure a successful meeting with a senior management team?

Make sure you do your homework beforehand. If your purpose is to meet with them collectively, you want to have the “meeting before you have the meeting.” Get as much information and opinions together before you walk into the room.  The information you gather will help you understand your audience and tailor your message appropriately.

Next week, The Inside Voice will publish Part Two of Roberta Fiore-Kittell’s interview with tips on communicating to senior managers.