What is Communication?
The Five Pillars of High-Performance are Direction, Collaboration, Communication, Agility and Drive. When all Five Pillars are demonstrably strong in an organisation, we find that team members are highly motivated, innovation is in abundance, and productivity is optimised. We will review each pillar over the coming weeks.
Today’s Virtual Coach is focussed on High-Performance Pillar #3: Communication
The Communication pillar assesses vehicles used to communicate, as well as the created environment to encourage open and honest dialogue. We also consider how feedback is delivered and received, and how information is shared. We ask questions such as:
- Are your communication systems fit for purpose?
- Do team members feel safe to voice their opinions?
- Do these communication systems support the effective sharing of information?
- How is feedback shared with team members?
- Are there opportunities for positive and developmental feedback to be shared amongst peers?
- Do team members feel confident to disagree with others when solving challenges and pursuing forward progress?
Communication: As A High-Performance Leader
Honest and open dialogue with colleagues and team members, encouraging opinions and ideas, providing productive feedback, embracing healthy conflict, and approaching challenging conversations with confidence and courage.
By optimising your own communication as a leader, you will find yourself more regularly involved in healthy debate and open discussion (with contribution from all team members), alongside emerging efficiencies in decision-making, problem-solving, and the sharing of objectives.
Communication: A Case Study
When Google commenced its rapid growth, one of the biggest challenges wasn’t just building great product — but keeping thousands of people aligned, connected, and motivated. Google realised early on that innovation thrives in an environment where people feel safe to speak up, share ideas, and even challenge leadership, and they majored on how to build a strong communication culture.
That’s where a variety of Google’s communication initiatives began.
- TGIF: Every week, employees could attend “TGIF” (Thank God It’s Friday) meetings, where anyone — from interns to engineers — could ask the founders tough questions about company decisions. Nothing was off limits. This openness helped build a rare sense of trust and transparency and encouraged people across the organisation to engage in open communication more regularly too.
- Coaching: Managers were trained to act more like coaches, holding regular one-to-one sessions focused on growth, not just performance. These provided a great opportunity for feedback to be shared in less formal settings than traditional HR-driven reviews.
- Feedback: 360-degree feedback and OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) were deployed to keep goals clear, and progress visible. Managers ensured that individuals understood how their work contributed to wider organisational goals, to help them feel included and valued.
Over time, these simple habits transformed Google’s teams. People felt heard, valued, and safe to take risks — and that psychological safety led to higher productivity, creativity, and loyalty.
But We Don’t Have Google-Sized Budgets!
The good news: you don’t need to be a tech giant to create this kind of environment. Our work with the Five Pillars of High-Performance has demonstrated that organisations of all sizes are able to excel in communication. Our advice? Start small:
- Encourage open dialogue. Make space for honest questions and ideas — even the uncomfortable ones.
- Give and invite feedback regularly. Focus on growth and learning, not blame.
- Model transparency. When leaders share openly, it sets the tone for everyone else.
Implement these small development steps straight away, and let us know how you get on. You’re In Cool Company!
When communication flows freely and feedback is part of the everyday culture, teams don’t just perform better — they thrive.
