No surprise that when team communication is off, each part of work gets impacted. From employee satisfaction and productivity to business success and revenues. So, you can say team communication is a vital part of successful team building, and it is fruitful to take a bit of time to evaluate your team communication skills and how you can improve them. Enhanced communication between team members can be beneficial in more than one way, like team building, agility, efficient performance, receded workload, etc.
In this article, we will show how to improve your team communication. With these 7 tips, you can help your team leaders and employees work together and help them take their communication skills one step further.
1. One-To-One Interactions
One-to-one interaction can be a powerful medium to improve communication between team members; as a result, overall team communication will improve. Also, this type of one-to-one interaction is often preferred when dealing with sensitive issues that need to handle with delicacy. This way, team members not just avoid miscommunication only but also save valuable time for the team.
Preparing a one-to-one interaction whether in person, via voice call, or video call — shows your team member or other associates that their time is priceless. These interactions serve as trust-building lines while providing an excellent opportunity to compile honest feedback and the viewpoint of the team member. So, try to add one-to-one interactions as much as possible to your list.
2. Timely Progress Updates
Each team has definite objectives, milestones, and deadlines that they must meet. However, they can miss their deadlines if team communication is not compelling. As a result, employees will get demoralized, which may affect the whole client experience.
While you try your best to achieve your set goals and deadlines, find out who is involved and requires routine progress updates. Once you have found out, ensure to update them on time whenever you achieve your set objective or the deadline changes. To acquire this kind of efficiency, many companies use top-notch project management tools or employee intranet to streamline these updates.
3. Optimize Your Team Meetings
Team meetings or discussions are the foundation of business communications. Yet, if the team does not share the same preferred communication channel, meetings will become a hassle and time scraping. To solve this problem, you need to optimize your team meetings and communication strategies.
For example, using muted meetings, where all members spend their time listening and consulting or using a collaborative tool such as Google Docs. A meeting facilitator handles it, and conversation is limited to any area of dispute. This technique will profit team members who are bashful or feel comfier sharing their ideas in writing compared to speaking to the group.
Furthermore, it is essential to plan for a team meeting every day. Or you will not utilize your meeting time properly. Determining the specifics of meetings and its outcome can help keep conferences on track and sidestep unwarranted pursuits. Maintaining things focused and brief makes it more comfortable for parties to stay engaged and energized. So, optimizing your meetings can help your team in more than one way.
4. Intentional Communication
Increasing the amount is not the same as enhancing the quality, when we talk about workplace communication. Inappropriate types of communication, like water-cooler talk, is time consuming and can lead to a dispute between team members. Therefore, every interaction must have a precise intent to evade pointless or hostile communication.
After setting the intention of the next interaction, ask yourself- Who are the meeting attendees? Team members, Managers, or Clients? Expected outcome of this interaction? Will I require to show details of it to others?
Such questions can be useful to achieve desired outcome or meaning of the interaction that saves you valuable time.
5. Write in the Active Voice
Team or business communications can be tiring to employees due to passive voice. They make the content sound dry, fancy, and unfriendly. And that is not the impression you want to make on your team or associates. Also, in the passive sentence, the action is accomplished indirectly.
On the other hand, using an active tone allows you to make your communications more straightforward and compelling. And the subject is doing the action in this voice. Furthermore, diverting to an active sentence can help you be more concise and offers more opportunities to involve your readers.
6. Effective Communication Medium
Whether your company functions in a classic office workplace or virtually, you should have various communication channels in your arsenal, such as voice calls, texting, email, collaboration apps, etc., because some clients prefer specific contact channels. When deciding what channel will be preferable, determine the goal of the communication, your audience, and the expected result.
Besides this, when interacting, ensure that you are utilizing the channel in ways that are convenient and easily accessible. And everyone knows the selected communication medium, like how to get into the meeting, etc. Furthermore, if you speak with a group that includes associates beyond your core team, try to avoid using jokes or team-specific terminology.
7. Response Time
Response time is another crucial aspect of effective communication. In almost every case, it is important to provide quick responses while communicating with others. Team members or managers getting a fast response that exceeds their expectations are the most satisfied.
Providing repetitive and swift responses can be time-eating, so you can use automation software to automate some processes or pre-schedule content to solve this problem. Always remember to maintain uniform responsiveness in your team meetings and chats.
Conclusion:
No doubt, communication is one of the most crucial business skills. You do not have to do anything complex or take time-consuming practices to develop your team association.
I hope these useful tips help you improve your team communications and make your team more efficient in their day-to-day operation, customer service, and other tasks.
