How to: Give Information

What does this look like?

Effective managers:

• are willing to share information
• know what information to pass on to who
• communicate effectively
• use information to empower their team.

How can I do this?

1.    Know what information to share with who

It’s not only your staff you need to share information with. Remember to pass on relevant information to your manager and your peers.

Think carefully about what information you share. Most people already feel overloaded and don’t want unnecessary information. Only pass on information if it’s clear it will benefit the recipient. Distinguish between ‘need to know’ and ‘nice to know’. Think twice before you ‘cc’ someone.

If there’s something you’re unsure about sharing, think about:

• whether it would be kind, courteous and respectful to share
• whether it’s ethical to inform or not inform
• what’s making you reluctant to share.

If you can’t decide whether or not to share certain information, check with your manager.

2.    Don’t withhold information

Don’t be the source of surprises. If you have a habit of keeping information to yourself, think about what holds you back from sharing. Address those issues. Recognise that by not sharing information you could be impeding the performance of your team and undermining your relationships.

3.    Share your thinking

It’s useful for your staff to understand how you arrive at decisions. Try to share your thinking and reasoning. Staff can also learn from you this way.

Unpack your reasoning by:

• describing the issue
• explaining the pros and cons of different approaches to addressing it
• explaining how you weighed these up and arrived at your decision.

4.    Share the big picture

People appreciate being aware of the big picture. They like to know:

• how what they’re doing fits into the broader goals and context of the organisation
• what other people are working on and why.

Allocate some time at meetings to share information about the bigger picture. Ask your staff what they’d like to know.

5.    Communicate information effectively

When sharing information, follow the fundamental principles of good communication:

• be succinct and brief
• summarise and emphasise main points
• use visual aids, diagrams and examples
• chunk information and use headings
• adapt to your audience—adjust your tone, pace, style and message to suit
• invite others to share their views.

Avoid:

• repeating the same words
• going into too much detail
• speaking too fast or forcefully
• using filler words like ‘uh’ and ‘you know.’

You may find this challenging if you…

• don’t communicate consistently or clearly
• tend to tell either too little or too much
• don’t give information at the right time
• don’t think about who needs to know what by when
• hoard information and don’t think it’s important to share
• rely too much on one way of sharing information.

You may not be giving information appropriately if you…

• give people more information than they can handle
• give people unnecessary information
• give information prematurely and it changes.