They Changed the COO and Forgot to Tell 100 Employees

That actually happened at one of my client companies. A hundred-person business changed its Chief Operating Officer — the second most important person in the organization — and no memo ever went out. No announcement about who was leaving, who was arriving, or what it meant.

They didn't do it maliciously. They just assumed people knew.

People didn't know. And that's the thing about communication: leaders consistently overestimate how much has actually landed.

If you want to keep your best employees, you have to be a leader worth following — and a huge part of that is being a great communicator. Some of us come by it naturally. Some of us are introverts and it never comes easily. But abdicating this responsibility will hurt your company badly over time.

Overcommunicate on Purpose

My rule is simple: overcommunicate. What feels like too much to you is usually about right for everyone else.

Tell them how the business is doing. You don't have to open your books. But your people should have a sense of where things stand. Do they get KPIs — the handful of numbers that show whether the business is on track? Could you share a simple graph or chart once a month?

And share it even when things aren't going well. People can handle hard news. What they can't handle is a vacuum — because in a vacuum, everyone invents a worse story than the truth.

Announce changes. New leadership, new clients, new processes, new direction. If it would matter to you, it matters to them.

Build the Rhythms

Communication shouldn't depend on you remembering. Build it into the calendar:

• Company-wide meetings on a regular cadence

• Weekly meetings run by each manager

• Daily standups where the work makes sense for them

Gallup found that when a manager has one meaningful conversation a week with each direct report, employees are four times as likely to be highly engaged. The rhythm is what makes it real.

If You're Virtual, Double It

If your team works remotely, communication matters more — considerably more. People sitting alone at home can feel genuinely isolated, and they don't get the hallway context that in-office employees pick up without trying.

The informal channel doesn't exist in a virtual company unless you deliberately build one.

The Bottom Line

I know this takes time, and for some of you it isn't natural at all. Do it anyway. Investing in your employees by communicating well pays off — in trust, in engagement, and in people who stay.

Want help setting up a communication rhythm that actually sticks? Grab a free 30-minute session with one of our HR experts, and let's build one.