A classic survey by the Novations Group explored why senior management teams have a hard time communicating effectively with their employees. Its findings remain relevant today.

The top two findings from that survey were that senior managers rely too little on follow-up communication and too much on email.  Interestingly, the study found that few employees (only 3%) feel senior management communicates too frequently.

The complete survey results are as follows:

* Senior managers rely too much on email – 35%
* Senior managers assume a single message is enough – 30%
* Senior managers have no feedback loop in place – 28%
* Senior managers messages are often unclear – 24%
* Senior managers communicate too much, too often – 3%

The message for senior managers:  communicate more informally and more often with employees; they want to hear from you!

Here’s something else about this survey: it’s not just senior managers that have problems communicating with their team members. In fact, many of these same survey results apply to first level and middle managers too.

So, what does this mean for you? If you’re a first or middle level manager, your employees probably want you to communicate more informally and more often with them.

Check with your team and ask them if they are getting the information from you that they need.

You may be surprised by their answers!