As a Business owner I am sure you can relate to the idea of Stress. Stress can come from many places, working long hours, poor cash flow, staff issues, too much work, feeling like you are doing everything yourself, tension in your personal life, feeling like there is not enough of you to go around.
Unfortunately, stress is one of those things that you simply cannot afford to ignore. Stress simply does not go away through ignoring it; in fact it grows!
We have spoken many times about the cost of poor communication. It has been shown in research to cost up to 32% of profit. For a business making $500K pa, this is $160K, that's not small change.
So you have a business and there are issues, perhaps management is not perceived as approachable, perhaps there is relational tension as different staff clash with each other, perhaps staff don't feel valued or understood.
Gallup found that 95% of staff will leave a job due to problems with either their boss or co workers. This is that relational stuff they feel just can’t be solved.
The sad thing is that many times they either haven’t tried, because they believe it won’t change anything, or they don't have the skills to have these hard conversations. We have all been there, it just feels too hard and we believe that the grass is greener on the other side.
Now it may be, but what happens when you come up against the same issues in a new workplace? Isn’t it better to have the skills to deal with it when it happens again? It is not that difficult, I promise.
So, Poor communication costs the Business owner in many ways;
- Low productivity
- Poor engagement
- Bad Customer service
- Low Morale
- Wasted time
- Stress
- A Leadership gap
- Poor retention
- The costs of new hire
I am surprised that the cost to business is not higher than 32%. When you look at the list above it may surprise you too. However, every business is different and will face a combination of the issues listed above.
Over coming posts we will tease out these issues and go deeper into how they may be affecting your business and what you can do about it.
The real cost of poor communication is hard to measure as many businesses don't have measures in place to capture this. From my perspective the most important thing is to understand the foundation cause of the issue. For example if it is productivity, is it because staff don't feel motivated, are not supported, are confused, are working without the resources they need, do not know what to do. There are many layers and it is critical to understand what is going on so you can address it and fix the problem.
You go into business to kick goals, have some freedom, create a legacy, do what you love and make a difference so let's make it happen!
We are here to resource you so that you can create the business of your dreams, kick those goals, create a highly productive team and future-proof your business.
If you have questions you can get in contact via our website or our Facebook page. Don’t keep struggling alone, there are answers, there is support. You can create a team that is productive and engaged and create a business that is profitable. If you would like support to grow your business with a Communication Strategy unique to your needs you can get in touch or check out our online courses.
Until next time Care, Connect and be a Courageous Communicator.
Let’s grow your business one conversation at a time.