“Never assume anybody knows anything.”

That’s Lesterism #1, a truth about communications from Les Potter, ABC, International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Fellow, and a senior lecturer at Towson University in Maryland.
Employees need the scoop
Les explains, “Organizations are funny; you can never assume that any individual organizational member knows what is going on — strategy, major issues facing the organization, organizational performance, organization happenings, news about other employees, etc.”

The May issue of my newsletter, Wordnerdery, talks about the importance of leaders in putting strategies and issues in context. It includes suggestions such as describing the benefits of a change and reinforcing what’s staying the same. These may seem basic, but I share an example where an executive hadn’t realized how much employees need that context.

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