UPWARD AND LATERAL COMMUNICATION

Providing employees with a means of communicating upward to their leaders is important in any organization. However, it’s not the panacea it’s often presented to be. That’s because noncohesive leadership teams that have not aligned themselves around common answers to critical questions are not in a position to respond adequately to employee input and requests. In fact, getting more input from employees often only exacerbates frustration in an organization when that input cannot be digested and used.

Still, there is something to be said for providing people in an organization with channels for upward communication, whether that takes the form of employee surveys or roundtable discussion forums. What is key to making these effective is that leaders not give the impression that they are abdicating responsibility for decision making by giving employees a vote. Great organizations, unlike countries, are never run like a democracy.