Bit by bit, your workplace is changing.
As the old industries disappear, and along with them, control styles of management, so new structures and new systems are taking their place.
Where once the manager sat atop the pyramid, and issued commands to the team below, today there is every chance that it is the team that sits astride the pyramid and issues information to the manager below.
Today, it is teams that have the information and knowledge. It is the teams that know how the business’s customers feel. And teams that can manage by themselves.
All this means a re-think on the traditional nature of communication.
Where once the predominant flow of communication was from the top downwards, in a one-way flow, in today’s information age, communication is multi-directional and purposeful. It goes anywhere and goes where it is needed.
That can be up or down, horizontally across, and all ways diagonally.
And one of the key skills of this kind of communication is Upward Reporting.
This skill requires: knowing how to get and keep the ear of your boss; reporting in a timely fashion; knowing what he or she needs to hear;...