Managing Geographically Dispersed Branches

Since the third quarter in 2009, the US economy has slowly been working its way out of the recession, with the gross domestic product growing from between 0.1 and 4 percent during that time. Every business needs to take advantage of every possible opportunity to expand and thrive while mitigating those things that are threats to their product or service production.

One unique form of business structure is a central corporate office with branches. These branches should help grow the business as they can target customers more locally than a large corporate office. However, organizations and corporations that operate with a central headquarters and multiple branches or offices face some unique challenges. This structure offers particular difficulties when working to align and implement goals. When goals are not well communicated and then strongly aligned, the result is always less than optimal corporate performance. Employees are less engaged, processes become fragmented, and the bottom line suffers. With thin margins and a slow economy, this lack of performance might be the difference between success and failure.

In addition there are things that become uniquely difficult for companies with multiple branches when trying to communicate corporate ideas. These include:

Trust

When you are working within your branch, this problem is lessened, however, when working across branches it is magnified. When you have little or no face to face contact with your colleagues, developing relationships is more difficult. Without daily interaction and a chance to get to know each other on a personal level, team members may not have the motivation to make the team function well.

Communication

Communication is difficult in the best of circumstances. Spreading people out in geographically diverse areas makes it more difficult. About 60 percent of communication is nonverbal, 20 percent is intonation, and only about 10 percent of it is in the words. When the primary form of communication is email, the non-verbal and the intonation is lost. With the phone, the nonverbal clues are lost. It is much easier to offend in email or miscommunicate in other ways as each person receives and reads the information from their perspective. These communication breakdowns present a challenge to team effectiveness.

Differing management styles at the branches

Each manager may enforce common polices differently. While that may work if there is not interaction among or between branches, when the company tries to work in teams that cross the branches, friction may arise.

Community Cultural Differences

Many of the organizations that we work with have branches that are in dissimilar communities. This difference itself can lead to branch cultural differences. This is especially true in companies that have branches in urban, rural and suburban areas.

Unclear Measures of Success

Measures of success should be communicated from the corporate level down. Each branch should understand how they are being judged and what part of the strategic goals this ties to.

When working with these companies, it becomes clear that there are things that separate the successful from those that fail.

Those that succeed have a clearly identified vision. This vision is one that inspires the employees to reach. A nonexistent, fuzzy or non-inspiring vision will lead to nonexistent, fuzzy, and non-inspiring work.

Successful organizations have non-negotiable values. These values guide decision making.

Those that succeed also have strategic goals. These goals were formulated after thoughtful consideration of the businesses internal strengths and limitations, along with a careful review of the external opportunities and threats. The goals will require the employees to stretch to get to them, but all understand that the goals are attainable. The goals connect directly to the work.

Successful companies have a method of holding everyone accountable. It is fair and applied across the organization.

Successful companies have managers that know and use their employee's strengths.

Those that succeed also hire or promote managers with great communication skills. Communication is key, so successful companies will also train managers to improve their communication skills. This training includes specific feedback about the manager's preferred communication style, and how and when it is working well and not working well.

What can organizations or companies do beginning tomorrow to increase their likelihood of success?

Clarify their vision, values and strategic goals.
Communicate them in as many formats as possible.
Develop their managers with a focus on planning and communication.
Make sure that there is some in person time for the managers in particular to get to know each other.
Identify behavioral and communication styles for their managers and ask the managers to use this information as they develop their plans.
Organizational successes in managing dispersed and diverse branches require solid communication skills. The vision and values, along with the strategic goals must be communicated in a way that creates buy in. Understanding your individual communication styles and the ability to interact with others is an essential first step in supporting successful management of a disperse and diverse organization.

If you are interested in understanding more about your communication style, how to maximize its impact and how your behaviors may appear to others, click here to take a free copy of the profile that we use and recommend for organizations with multiple branches.