**Upward Communication: Workplace Communication Skills — Transcript & Summary | SozAI** Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/upward-communication-workplace-communication-skills/ Alex Lyon explains three practical methods for gathering high-quality upward communication from employees—simple surveys, skip-level meetings, and dedicated one-on-one question sessions—to avoid disto ## Key Takeaways - Upward communication does not happen naturally; leaders must design processes to obtain it. - Simple, focused surveys yield faster, clearer, and more actionable results than lengthy questionnaires. - Skip-level meetings bypass distortion at intermediate levels and provide more authentic information. - Dedicating part of regular one-on-one meetings to upward questions keeps communication lines open and builds the habit over time. - Better intel leads to better decisions, which is central to effective leadership. ## What the video covers - Most organizations are designed so communication flows down the chain of command; upward communication must be deliberately cultivated. - Information passed up each level tends to omit negative details and emphasize what makes the passer look good, distorting reality by the time it reaches decision makers. - Good intel is essential for decisions to resonate with the people who must implement them, and communication and leadership are two sides of the same coin. - Method 1: Run very simple surveys with one to four questions on a specific issue, so results go directly to the leader and need little interpretation. - Lengthy 30-50 question surveys from consultants or academics produce overwhelming results that require heavy interpretation with too much room for misreading. - Free tools such as SurveyMonkey can be used for quick surveys, and existing online data like Glassdoor reviews may offer additional insight. - Method 2: Hold skip-level meetings with people one or more layers below, bypassing middle management to receive more unfiltered information. - Skip-level meetings require some courage and may meet pushback from middle managers, but they are an invaluable source of high-quality intel. - Method 3: In regular one-on-one meetings with direct reports, dedicate every third or fourth session entirely to upward-focused questions such as what needs to change and how the leader can improve. - All three methods are nearly free and require only modest time, attention, and creativity, and together they establish dedicated channels for upward communication. ## Chapters 1. 00:00 Introduction: Why Upward Communication Matters 2. 01:15 How Information Gets Distorted Up the Chain 3. 02:30 Method 1: Simple Surveys 4. 03:00 Method 2: Skip-Level Meetings 5. 04:00 Method 3: Dedicated One-on-One Upward Sessions 6. 05:30 Closing Question and Wrap-Up Answers ## Questions about this video Why does upward communication often become distorted in organizations? At each level of the chain of command, the person passing information upward tends to leave out negative details and highlight what makes themselves look good. Even unintentionally, this means the message reaching the decision maker is often far from reality. What makes a survey an effective upward communication tool according to the speaker? Effective surveys are simple, with one to four questions focused on a specific issue, so the results go straight to the leader and can be acted on immediately without heavy interpretation. Long surveys of 30 to 50 questions tend to produce overwhelming results that are hard to interpret. What are skip-level meetings and why are they valuable? Skip-level meetings involve a leader meeting with people one or more levels below their direct reports, bypassing middle management. This provides purer information that has not been filtered through intermediate levels, though it may meet resistance from middle managers. ## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown 00:00 Speaker A In another video I talk about how most organizations are designed so that communication flows down the chain of command, and unless you are deliberate about this, you're not going to get good upward communication. 00:12 Speaker A So we're gonna talk about three ways that you can gather high quality, upward communication. 00:17 Speaker A So we're going to talk about three ways that you can gather high quality upward communication. 00:35 Speaker A are two sides of the same coin. If you wanna become a better leader you've gotta work at your communication. 00:41 Speaker A Let's unpack the details. 00:49 Speaker A You need good intel if you want your decisions to resinate with the people who have to follow through on them. 00:56 Speaker A (soft music) 01:06 Speaker A So, at each level the person passing the information up tends to leave off negative information and emphasize anything that makes themselves look good. 01:15 Speaker A Hello again, friends. Alex Lyon here, and this channel, Communication Coach, is here to help you increase your impact so you can lead all the people around you to higher levels of excellence. I believe that communication and leadership are two sides of the same coin. If you want to become a better leader, you've got to work at your communication, especially how to gather good upward communication, because gathering upward communication is the key to making better decisions. 01:26 Speaker A So what you want to do is develop a process to make sure you get high quality intel, or high quality upper communication that's not distorted. 01:35 Speaker A You need good intel if you want your decisions to resonate with the people who have to follow through on them. 01:42 Speaker A And when I'm talking about simple I'm saying one, two, maybe three or four questions. 01:47 Speaker A One of the big problems that I talk about in my book, however, is that oftentimes when communication gets passed up the chain of command, it gets distorted. 01:52 Speaker A They don't need a lot of interpretation. What ends up happening a lot of times is academics or consultants like me get involved and sometimes we ask surveys that are like 30, 40, 50 questions and the results are overwhelming, 02:05 Speaker A So at each level, the person passing the information up tends to leave off negative information and emphasize anything that makes themselves look good. Even if they don't realize they're doing this, what ends up happening is that by the time that message gets to you, the decision maker, it's often way off and no longer represents reality. 02:11 Speaker A So if you ask a really simple survey you get those results and you can take action on them immediately. 02:17 Speaker A So what you want to do is develop a process to make sure you get high quality intel, or high quality upward communication, that's not distorted. The three tips we're going to talk about today do that. 02:22 Speaker A If your organization is big enough you might already have data that's online on something like Glassdoor.com, you can take a look at that. 02:29 Speaker A The first way to do this is through a very simple survey. And when I'm talking about simple, I'm saying one, two, maybe three or four questions. A survey that you put out on a specific issue, and the data, the results, go directly to you. They don't need a lot of interpretation. 02:35 Speaker A The second way is skip-level meetings. When you skip one or more levels of your organization you're getting information that's more pure. 02:43 Speaker A What ends up happening a lot of times is academics or consultants like me get involved, and sometimes we ask surveys that are like 30, 40, 50 questions, and the results are overwhelming. They need a lot of interpretation. There's too much wiggle room for how you might understand what you're looking at. 02:48 Speaker A You can ask them questions directly and draw them out a little bit and then you're gonna get pure information that hasn't been distorted at each level. 02:56 Speaker A So if you ask a really simple survey, you get those results, and you can take action on them immediately. There are many free services that you can use to do this, like SurveyMonkey online. If your organization is big enough, you might already have data that's online on something like Glassdoor.com. You can take a look at that. But those are two simple ways that you can get a survey out and get information back really quickly. 03:03 Speaker A You want to make better decisions. Start skipping people in the middle. You're probably gonna get push back from some of the middle management folk who don't understand why they're not involved but you have to work on this. 03:15 Speaker A The second way is skip-level meetings. When you skip one or more levels of your organization, you're getting information that's more pure. So maybe you're meeting with people one-on-one, or maybe you have a group of people meeting with you. You can ask them questions directly and draw them out a little bit, and then you're going to get pure information that hasn't been distorted at each level. 03:21 Speaker A Let's say you supervise six or seven or maybe 10 people directly, they report directly to you. 03:27 Speaker A Now, this takes a little guts, and it takes a little getting used to, but these skip-level meetings are an invaluable source of high quality intel. You want to make better decisions? Start skipping people in the middle. You're probably going to get pushback from some of the middle management folks who don't understand why they're not involved, but you have to work on this. It's really important to your leadership. 03:36 Speaker A Maybe every third meeting, or every forth meeting. Dedicate that meeting entirely to asking them questions. 03:42 Speaker A And the third way is anytime you're meeting with your people one-on-one. Let's say you supervise six or seven, or maybe 10 people directly, and they report directly to you. You want to dedicate every so many meetings to upward communication only. So let's say you're meeting with everybody individually about once every couple of weeks. Maybe every third meeting, or every fourth meeting, dedicate that meeting entirely to asking them questions. Draw them out. You're mentoring them and you're helping them in those other meetings, but every third or fourth meeting, ask: "Hey, how are things going? What needs to be changed around here? How can I be a better leader?" Like skip-level meetings, this takes some guts, but the more you do it, the more you get used to it, the more those lines of communication are open, and the more likely you are to get higher quality intel that has not been distorted. 03:56 Speaker A this takes some guts but the more you do it, the more you get used to it and the more those lines of communication are open and you're more likely to get higher quality intel that has not been distorted. 04:06 Speaker A All these ways are just about free to do. They only take a little bit of time, a little bit of attention, and a little bit of creativity in terms of drawing this information out. But those are three ways that you can establish dedicated channels for upward communication. 04:15 Speaker A But those are three ways that you can establish dedicated channels for upward communication. Question of the day. 04:22 Speaker A Question of the day: What are your favorite ways to gather upward communication? I would love to hear your comments in the section below. 04:28 Speaker A So thanks, God bless and I will see you in the next video. Topics: upward communication leadership skip-level meetings employee surveys management communication workplace communication organizational communication one-on-one meetings feedback chain of command Study this video - [Flashcards from this video](https://sozai.app/tools/ai-flashcard-generator/?from=transcript&id=81804) - [Quiz on this video](https://sozai.app/tools/quiz-generator/?from=transcript&id=81804) Free, made by AI from this transcript. No signup. --- This is the markdown twin of https://sozai.app/transcript/upward-communication-workplace-communication-skills/ — the same content, without the markup. Published by SozAI (https://sozai.app). Reuse and quotation are allowed with attribution and a link back. Machine-readable index: https://sozai.app/llms.txt · data API: https://sozai.app/api/