The leader can and should use his or her network to share and exchange ideas with
employees, and to show them the necessity and benefits of his or her plans for
change.
But there is also a lack of communication in the opposite direction, i.e. from
employees to managers, as Drucker observed: “Most conflicts stem from the fact
that people do not know what the others are doing, how they work, what priorities
they have or what results they expect. And they don’t know this because they didn’t
ask and therefore nobody told them” (Drucker 1999a, p. 16). Successful managers
ask their employees: “What should I know about your strong suits; about your way
of working; your values; and what you want to contribute?” According to Drucker,
in order to work together in a good and trusting way, people do not have to like each
other, but they do need to understand each other.
It is especially important to conduct the regular employee interview more often
than just once a year (in which executives often “give away” much) and instead
have a dialogue, free of hierarchy, in the context of everyday work in order to
optimize processes; to have a continuous, open, largely unregulated and non-
bureaucratic exchange of experience and information.
Drucker claimed that communication is at the same time perception, expectation
and demand. Moreover he noted that information and communication can be
clearly distinguished from one another: “The more we succeed in liberating infor-
mation from its human component, that is, from emotions and values, expectations
and perceptions, the more accurate and reliable it is” (Drucker 2004, p. 309 ff.).
Information does, however, depend on communication. Conversely, communica-
tion is not necessarily dependent on information, according to Drucker. In fact, the
best communication can consist solely of shared experiences, without any logical
information. In this respect, perception always takes precedence over information –
especially in businesses.
I feel Drucker’s call for the separation of the factual and the emotional levels
(information and emotion) of communication is unrealistic. Interpersonal commu-
nication is never free of feelings, interpretations and connotations. It is the task of
the leader to sense this relationship and the constant “ping-pong game” between the
two levels and to adjust their own communication – verbal or nonverbal –
accordingly.
The question arises: How can executives get messages “across” and establish
real contact in the communication situation? Firstly, it is important that they inform
their employees in a timely manner. And if they do, they should not only present the
results or the bare facts of the decision, but also explain how and why it was made.
Employees do not just want to be informed, but to be taken seriously and be
involved. They want to understand part of the process and not just the last link in
the chain. If they are granted this sense of inclusion, they are also more willing to
accept painful or unpleasant decisions.
That’s why good leaders are also gifted storytellers. That does not mean that they
like to hear themselves talk or to embellish the truth. It means that they can make
their visions vivid using words, images and symbols in the minds and hearts of their
listeners; that the enthusiasm of their words is infectious. The stories they tell
138 3 Systemic Leadership or: Designing a World That Others Want to Be Part Of