Imagine a basketball team. They have the best players, a successful coach, qualified management, and state of the art facilities. However, this team never wins. Why? More than likely, it’s due to fragmented communication between coaches, players, and management.
This analogy illustrates that, even with superior resources, none of it matters if your team lacks communication. Here are 5 ways to improve communication at work.
Get to know your employees!
Having strictly formal relationships with your employees can be intimidating, patronizing, and polarizing. Ask them for their feedback. Discover their strengths, aspirations and long term goals. You can also ask them good-natured, simple questions about their life outside of work. The more “genuine” you are with them, the more genuine they will be with you.
Cut out the middle person.
Everyone played the game “telephone” as a child. Meanings tend to get lost in transition. Deliver messages directly, sincerely, and clearly to in order to reduce confusion. Have an open door policy, especially during periods of change.
Hold office meetings!
Admittedly, meetings have a reputation for being boring. They don’t have to be! Meetings build good working relationships. As a manager, you determine if your meetings are a positive experience or a time waster. Remember: it’s not the instrument that makes a good melody; it’s the musician playing it!
Feedback, Feedback, Feedback.
Feedback shapes employee behavior and performance. Providing consistent, sincere, and timely feedback is essential for maintaining a reliable means of communication within a workplace. Even if you cannot offer a raise, you can offer praise!
Stay the course
Create a strong mission, a clear vision, and stay the course so everyone can be on the same page. Deviating away from goals sends mixed messages to employees and causes confusion at all levels of the organization.
Successful communication isn’t built overnight. It is achieved through careful, consistent planning, training and hard work by everyone involved.