Communication is not just a department down the hall. It’s a leadership responsibility. And it is the glue that is holding your whole company together.

As a leader, you have a responsibility to communicate to and with employees. All day, every day.

Culture and employee experience aren’t what you say they are. They’re what your employees say they are. They define your culture based on what you say, do, think and feel. They take their cues from your decisions and actions, seen and unseen. And they translate all of that into what they say, do, think and feel, demonstrated by their own decisions and actions, seen and unseen.

This is the crux of your challenge. And your opportunity. You don’t know your employees all that well, you don’t know what they want or need to be successful, and you aggravate that situation by cranking out a steady stream of communications, culture initiatives and leadership interactions that your employees don’t like, don’t trust and rarely reflect who they actually are.

The result? Higher turnover, difficulty attracting qualified talent, more lost time accidents, ongoing quality issues, lower engagement, increased union interest, lack of innovation, lack of motivation, and a low trust culture.

More is not better. Better is better. When faced with these challenges, most companies default to doing more. But doing more of the wrong stuff is never the right answer.

Instead, do less of the right stuff. And do it really well by building it around truly knowing your employees and what they actually want.