Greater employee bandwidth starts with stronger communication

When employee goals are well-aligned with organizational goals and leaders help them stay accountable to evolving needs, employee performance increases up to 22%, according to Gartner.

• Why it matters: For that alignment, productivity, and accountability to work, teams need "documented goals that cascade from the top all the way down," Axios HQ CEO Roy Schwartz told Asana. "Visibility of goals across an entire organization" will make it super clear if teams become misaligned or work on something that "will not ultimately drive one of your goals."

That's why, as a leader, the three of the most muscular uses of your time are developing long-term strategy, communicating it clearly, and empowering the teams that will bring it to life. It will create a more informed, engaged, and resilient workforce.

• “Let's say you have a 1,000-person company, and every person on the executive team who has a department is doing a weekly update," Roy told Asana. "They're sharing that with their team, but they're also sharing it with the executive team."
• "Everyone knows what everyone else is doing and why they're doing it. That makes collaboration, transparency, and knowledge much easier within an organization. And if you get into those good habits, your company will thrive.”

At Axios HQ, we call that communication and employee engagement strategy "Up, down, and around," and we use it every week to make sure employees get access to the information they need to stay aligned, motivated, and productive at work. 

But to make it all work, leaders also need to treat workplace communication like the collaborative team sport that it is. It's "kind of like going to the gym. Everyone wants more collaboration just like everyone wants to be more fit, but you’ve got to put in the work to do it," Roy said.

• "The pivot you’re going to see in the next few years is leaders will realize time spent communicating effectively, thinking about prioritization, and valuing the efficiency of the message will all have value."
  

Go deeper: Download a free workbook to optimize any internal workplace communication.