Don’t break the chain

I knew what was important to my boss because she would often talk about it.

And it was important to her because her boss talked about it.

If I failed to talk about it with my direct reports, the chain was broken.

It’s a weakness of the “tone at the top” approach. If one manager breaks the chain, some of the front-line employees don’t get the message. The higher that manager sits in the organization, the more employees are impacted down the line.

When the entire organization needs to hear an important compliance message, the E&C team will make sure that they target all three audiences: the c-suite, middle management, and the front line.