Do men or women make the best business leaders? It’s a debate that’s been very slowly coming to the boil since the mid-1980s.

Although there are many more women in junior and middle management positions nowadays, there are remarkably few female senior managers.

However, the growing emphasis on transformational leadership – in other words, the boss as inspirational role model – is shifting the argument in favour of women.

Scholar Bernard Bass, who introduced the concept of transformational leadership, reckons that by 2034 the majority of high-level leaders will be women. His prediction is based on research that shows women are more likely than men to listen to, stimulate and develop team members. As well as being more inspirational, research also shows women are generally more ethical than men.

A survey of male and female senior executives in 2005 found they shared a perception of gender differences in leadership styles, which the subsequent report characterised as ‘women take care, men take charge’. Both male and female respondents saw male peers as more effective at delegating and influencing upwards, and female peers as better at rewarding and supporting team members.

There is no doubt that such gender-based stereotyping persists in the workplace today. But if the transformational leadership trend continues, these preconceptions will begin to undermine stereotypical male qualities.

So what’s a chap to do?

Men have been winning the battle of the sexes since an early male forebear first hitched up oxen and used their combined strength to drive a plough.

Today’s businessman now needs to put his shoulder into debunking the gender stereotyping that men have been nurturing for five millennia.

• Click here to find out how you measure up against gender stereotypes.

Engaged employees perform better and are more willing to go the extra mile to make each project a success. This is great from both a customer and business point of view – because when staff are enthusiastic about a business, they’re motivated to help it grow and do well, and to promote it in public.

But when organisations reach a certain size, maintaining employee engagement becomes more challenging. With each additional layer of management and each new branch that’s opened, there’s a growing danger that the people responsible for leading a business lose touch with the people on the front line – often without realising it.

That’s why employee surveys are so important. They help employers gauge how staff really feel about their work, their organisation and their place within it – and they can use the results to drive organisational change that boosts both morale and motivation.

To do that effectively, employee survey results need to be as accurate and complete as possible. The average response rate to an employee survey stands at about two thirds. We’ve found that you can lift that to 80%, 90% or more – thanks to good internal communications.

Below are just some of the ways you can boost your response rates with good communications. They don’t cost much to implement, but the results they offer can be worth a small fortune.

1. Give the survey backing at every level

This is something that most organisations are good at, but it’s still crucial. Ensure that key figures from the Managing Director/ CEO downwards communicate their enthusiastic backing for the survey – and the potential it has for positive change. If the survey is backed at all levels, staff will be more motivated to take part and more likely to put faith in the process.

2. Be clear when the survey is coming

Don’t fall into the habit of talking about the survey happening ‘next year’ or ‘next March’ or staff will double-book key survey dates. Always communicate the exact dates clearly so employees have plenty of opportunities to get them in their diaries.

3. Use consistent and relevant branding

Brand the survey, use it consistently and make sure it has a title that’s relevant to employees. ‘My View, My Say’ works well. Even the more prosaic ‘Staff Opinion Survey’ works well – if you brand it up as ‘SOS’ for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution!

4. Reassure staff their participation is confidential and anonymous

You’ll only get accurate feedback if staff know their contributions are confidential and anonymous. Unless you make this clear, there’s a danger that survey participants will tell you what they think you want to hear – not what they really think.

5. Appoint survey champions

Choose popular employees who like to broaden their skills and knowledge to act as survey champions. They are invaluable at communicating the benefits that good survey results can bring to an organisation (and individual employees), and are very good at reinforcing key messages such as timings, confidentiality and anonymity.

6. Create a resource all staff can consult

Be open about the process and share information. Staff will have questions they won’t necessarily want to ask (or have time to ask) the survey champions, so make sure there’s information about the survey on the intranet. FAQs are particularly important for helping staff understand the process.

7. Link the survey to successful change

The most important of all. Employee surveys always highlight issues that need to be improved. Even if it’s something as simple as refining a procurement system to make ordering goods more simple, be sure to communicate that any change has been made in response to survey feedback. If you do it will bolster confidence in the survey system and increase the response rates and reliability of future surveys.

If you communicate effectively in all of the above ways, your employee survey is likely to succeed and generate results. But there are also pitfalls – when you communicate with staff about a survey, be sure to avoid these pitfalls:

• Management speak. Don’t use it – it alienates staff from the survey process. Use clear language that communicates benefits clearly.
• Vagueness. Don’t be vague. Commit to dates and stick to them – it reinforces belief in the process.
• Promises. It goes without saying, but don’t promise what you can’t deliver! You might get a great response and highly valid feedback – but only promise changes that you are confident can be made.

Above all, good internal communication is about listening. If staff feel they are listened to, they’ll support initiatives like employee surveys – and back change enthusiastically. And if they’re motivated to do that, they’ll be keen to communicate what they do to the outside world too.

theblueballroom has been shortlisted for the Institute of Internal Communication 2011 ICon Awards in the ‘best agency’ category. The awards represent one of the communication industry’s biggest events of the year and recognise excellence as well as outstanding contribution within the internal communication sector. theblueballroom has had a fantastic year developing new and existing client relationships and delivering new online channels in the UK and globally. We are delighted to have been shortlisted for the ‘best agency’ award, particularly in our 10th anniversary year.

Our award entry highlighted our journey over the past 10 years, when we launched a company that intended, through better communications practices, ‘to make work better’ and now partners with several like-minded clients who are the best advocates of great internal communication, delivering strategic solutions and creative concepts.

The overall winners in each category will be announced on 17th November, in a gala evening and dinner at the Landmark Hotel, London. The evening will also be marked with the presentation of the IoIC’s Communicator of the Year Award to the founders of Help for Heroes – long standing friends and clients of theblueballroom.

‘Thinking outside the box’ was once voted Britain’s most despised business jargon by researchers, but I love it.

Whether it’s the extra-keen sycophant intern trying to impress, or senior managers scrabbling around for funky phrases, I honestly believe these made-up phrases boost morale in the workplace. Why wouldn’t they? Understanding this sort of lingo makes you feel important and part of a team, all speaking the same esoteric language.  Coining a phrase, then having it catch on is even better. To me, there’s an upside to business jargon from whatever angle you look at it.

I’m going against the grain here because most people hate this sort of talk, but there’s a certain cheesiness to it that makes me smile! It’s simple – this is the kind of language that motivates me!

With the globalisation of business, there are a lot of people speaking English as a second language who need to establish common ground quickly. It’s also used by clever people who suck up linguistic sophistication not from literature or theatre but management consultancy paperbacks, where a different type of English altogether is being created.

I’ve taken the liberty of sharing some of my favourites (most of which, admittedly, I’d never heard before) with you from a great website;

Bring to the table [exp.]: The contribution (or lack thereof) that one makes to a group. “What do you feel you would bring to the table if you were hired for this position?”

Captive lunch [n.]: When management wheels in the sandwiches at 12pm, just when you thought you could escape to run a few errands.

Lipstick on a pig [exp.]: An attempt to put a favourable spin on a negative situation. “Tim’s sales numbers are terrible. Even he can’t put lipstick on that pig.”

Meat and potatoes [v.]: Basic or traditional. “Your meat and potatoes approach isn’t going to work with this crowd.”

Peel the onion [v.]: To remove all superfluous layers and get to the heart of an issue. Leave this one at home.

It’s no surprise that the ones that tickled me the most are food related.  My healthy (and not obsessive) display of interest in all things foody does not go unnoticed in the office, so I wouldn’t want to let anyone down.

It’s even more fun to see how many you can fit in to a few sentences:
At the end of the day, if we’re all singing from the same hymn sheet, we’ll cut the mustard just fine. I’m off now to eat my lunch al desco while brainstorming ways to improve employee engagement.
That makes me chuckle.

• Got any fire-new jargon, or a preppy sentence packed with pap? Why not share by submitting it on a comment below.

Back in April this year, we blogged that MacLeod was back in vogue, for the umpteenth time. Well, last Friday some of our team attended the IoIC’s seminar on Employee Engagement, and, true to Mr Cameron’s word back in the Spring, there it is again, the panacea for economic downturn. I sound cynical, but actually it is frustration that you can hear in my tone. Frustration that we have in our midst the means to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps as UK PLC, and yet we still seem to be talking about it rather than living it.

So this is why it was so great to hear from the horse’s mouth. Not that co-author of the said MacLeod report, Nita Clarke, would like to be referred to as equestrian, but her passion and convincing stance on the way employee engagement really can be the difference between failure and success had me believing we can do this, and that what we do, and the way we do it, is the way forward.

The most encouraging moment during the seminar had to be seeing the number of big corporates’ logos on screen who are now signed up to the Task Force to make employee engagement synonymous with working in Britain today. In amongst the statistics that prove its worth were stories of employee engagement that show not only that it indeed works, but that there is no way we are going to get out of the current economic situation without it. Knowledge equals power, and used to be the preserve of the CEO’s office, but now, knowledge is everywhere, so it is much more critical that we engage the whole workforce – you can’t spin them a yarn anymore about where the company’s priorities lie.

There was much debate about ‘transactional’ and ‘emotional’ engagement, following both Nita’s presentation and that of Angela Baron of the CIPD, which broadly translates as ‘in it for yourself’ or ‘in it for the company/cause’. Needless to say, a healthy mix of the two is what we want, a ‘corporate citizen’ as Angela put it, and Nita walked us through 4 key enablers to get there, so now there’s no excuse. Everyone needs to own engagement and just make it the way things are done.

From O2 to First Direct, there ARE organisations doing this, despite my frustration, so in support of Nita’s shout out for great case studies to keep on strengthening the argument, I thought we’d share the email address through which you can log your examples of sound employee engagement: employee.engagement@bis.gsi.gov.uk – Please feel free to share your examples with us too.

Acquired wisdom, however, says that R&R doesn’t have to cost a dime. Hats off to Vistaprint CEO, Robert S. Keane, who spent some of his extremely valuable time writing a personal note of thanks to our team here at theblueballroom, for a whole load of work we had done – but he added, “not just for your results, but also for your approach and attitude which I know were appreciated by everyone at Vistaprint you worked with.”

Robert gets it about reward and recognition; he also gets it about the value of communications. “I firmly believe,” he says, “that our ability to communicate effectively with our people, ensuring companywide clarity of vision and strategy, will be one of the keys to our ongoing future success.”

For the whole glorious story about our work for Vistaprint, contact me at the office and I’ll happily share the experience, and that’s with our client’s blessing.

Thanks indeed, Robert S. Keane.

Are you concerned with how comms is delivered within your business? Of course you are. Yet all the effort you make to create great communications in your business can fall at the last fence with poor communication skills. While you may have all your channels in place, developing the communication skills within your organisation is a vital piece of the jigsaw – and, from our experience, it’s often missing.

Poor communication within any business can undo a lot of the good that you do and stifle dialogue and employee morale. This makes up-skilling staff outside the internal communications department as important as your channels.

Implementing a learning and development programme has broad advantages in any organisation; it demonstrates investment in your people and their personal development; it promotes knowledge sharing and a ‘best practice’ culture; and clearly it will gain you a reputation as a good employer and foster employee loyalty, meaning people are less likely to be drawn to opportunities outside your business.

Understanding an organisation and the way it communicates, theblueballroom team of learning and development experts are able to help organisations identify communication skills gaps and then address them. We develop our tailor-made programmes with your HR or Communications Managers to fit with your business objectives and corporate culture, ensuring you invest in the right communication solutions for your business.

If you missed our recent blog on budgeting for internal communications and the importance of listening to your employees, you can read it here.

For many companies now’s the time when budget planning looms, and where cuts have to be made, an axe can hover over communications. The all too common notion of communicating with your workforce as a ‘nice to have’ is misplaced. If a workforce is the foundation of success, a, secure, informed and motivated workforce makes for continued strong growth.

Assuming you manage to safeguard your communications budget, here at theblueballroom we’re wondering what you are going to do differently next year to maximise your spend? The best practitioners not only align their activities with what the business needs but also with what employees want – and they know that from listening.

The employee opinion survey can be a useful tool for identifying areas within your business that require additional or adjusted spend. Offering employees the chance to express their views on a variety of topics relating to where they work can help identify areas of strength and weakness, giving you invaluable insight.  You can then gauge the relevance of your communications strategy and allocate budget far more appropriately.

While such surveys are typically owned by HR departments, internal communications professionals need to grasp the opportunity to work together with the business to promote participation in the survey and then to drive awareness of any actions taken as a result. By monitoring, evaluating and then changing, you are also showing your workforce that their opinion matters, that you care how they’re feeling about work, and that you are prepared to do something about it.

theblueballroom knows your organisation can present you with numerous challenges: new strategies, mergers, acquisitions and restructuring. Even ‘business-as-usual’ needs robust internal communication. It is widely acknowledged that effective employee communication is a key factor in the smooth running of any business. This may come as a surprise to you, but employee communication is particularly important over the summer months.

A recent study conducted by Regus found that job satisfaction over the summer  is crucial. Many employees weigh up their work situation from June to August and over a third of employees actively seek alternative employment during September. This should be a real wake up call for employers and a call to action – to ensure you have engaged your staff in the business, and that their commitment matters to you.

The corporate arena can fall short on employee engagement, particularly in tough economic times. Driving sales and profit forecasting are of course important, but it is crucial for directors not to isolate themselves from the driving force of their business – their staff. Happy staff after all will result in increased productivity.

Helping employees discover their strengths, making development opportunities available, involving employees in business decisions and congratulating employees for good work, are all steps in the right direction. But what are the things that really make the difference? The Regus survey identifies ‘respect’ as being the most important factor in retaining your employees after the summer months. The following table is the result of interviewing 400 UK business professionals about what makes for a happy workplace.

Statistics courtesy of Regus

Treating staff as such by ensuring your internal communications are as engaging as your external marketing messages is something directors can’t afford to ignore.

What came across loud and clear from the speakers is how important it is for internal communications practitioners seeking to work with company leaders to understand the business and what makes business leaders tick.

This is especially true in the first few weeks in a new company. Christina Fee, who has been at easyJet for less than a month, has devised 10 killer questions to ask, such as ‘What keeps you awake at night?’ Getting leaders to talk about what worries them gives a framework on which to build your communications approach. Asking clear questions, developing business knowledge very quickly and building relationships with stakeholders are all key, said Christina.

Dean Capon agreed that it is absolutely critical to understand the business. You can’t be expected to know everything about the business but you have to be prepared to learn quickly. Equally important is the need to be a good corporate citizen and to be seen as someone who rolls up their sleeves and gets on with the job.

The need to be open and honest and to say when things are not going well was reinforced by Christopher Wade. Providing relevant information by tailoring your messages for the target audience will aid credibility in the eyes of management and operational staff across all levels.

Engagement is very much driven by communications. That was the message from Friedrich-Georg Lischke of Mars Drinks who began his career in FMCG at Procter and Gamble, before moving to DHL where he developed the customer service offering in the logistics industry. Friedrich said that if you love your job, others will recognise this and love theirs too. When it comes to communications processes, you need to walk the talk.

The event was also the venue to launch theblueballroom’s latest offering – Learning and Development – which will provide a range of services, from one-to-one leadership coaching to group facilitation and train-the-trainer sessions to develop communication skills that are critical for business success. The service provides an alternative to the more typical ‘off the shelf’ training and will build communications capability hand in hand with other channels and processes

Sheila Parry, founder and MD of theblueballroom, said: “Being ten certainly feels like a milestone and many people are asking us how we’ve done it and what the future holds. Internal communications can make the difference between high productivity and low, between a happy workforce and a miserable one, between a loyal team member and a loose canon. It’s great to be in a position to work with companies to establish great ways of working. We want people in our clients’ organisaitons to say ‘I love my job’. When they say that, we’ll know that we’ve done ours.”

Wendy Gerbert