As a manager, you are obligated to do everything it takes for your team to be able to function cohesively and cordially. It begins with understanding the significance and mechanism of effective communication. Communication, in simple terms, means transmission of ideas, thoughts, emotions, etc from one person to another. However, effective communication also involves certain steps on the part of the receiver, such as decoding the message as intended, comprehending the same and giving feedback.
When you have a two-way dialogue with your team members, it eliminates the prevailing confusion and helps the team members achieve a sense of direction with respect to their responsibilities. Here is a list of simple and pragmatic ways to turn the usual conversation with your team into a meaningful and productive exercise.
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E-mails
E-mail is a great way to convey your message in an official setting. An e-mail helps you clearly define the tasks assigned to each team member, deadlines and contact persons in case of discrepancies and so on, facilitating excellent coordination.
Keep your e-mails short, precise and to the point. E-mails also serve as a proof that a message has been conveyed. Include in Cc or Bcc the people who must know about the subject of communication. It is equally important to keep irrelevant people off the list to avoid confusion and maintain confidentiality, whenever necessary.
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The Good Old Face-to-Face Talks
Depending upon the issue at hand, you might want to take an alternative from sending the usual mass e-mails to your team members. Talking to each team member personally at regular intervals is a good idea. This technique comes in handy when you want to discuss with your team members about their performance, learn about their work style, any difficulty they might have in gelling with the rest of the team or in scenarios where their behavior sabotages the course of the team work.
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Boardroom Meetings
The boardroom is the place where you bring your entire team together, often to discuss issues relevant to all team members. Change in major business policies, upcoming new projects, discussing issues relating to the current standard operating procedures (SOPs) and inviting suggestions to resolve the same are a few examples where boardroom meetings prove useful.
Now that we have discussed the most viable modes of communication with your team, let us see how we can furthermore accentuate its effectiveness.
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Listening skills hold a special place in the concept of communication. Being a good listener means patiently hearing out your team members as well as catching onto both verbal and non-verbal cues. It is all about reading between the lines. If you don’t listen, how will you know what crisis your team members are facing?
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Maintain the right attitude as you converse with individual team member or the entire team. Your approach should reflect seriousness, genuineness, authoritativeness, confidence and empathy.
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Vagueness can kill the purpose of your meetings, wasting time and efforts put forth by both parties. Make sure you convey your message unambiguously.
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Strictly follow the agenda for one-on-one talks and board meetings to keep them on track and within the specified time limits.
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Do not forget to request feedback from your team members. It will let you know if they have fully understood the what’s and why’s of your conversation.
Communication is like the magic wand of the business world. The simplest of the simple and toughest of the tough issues can be resolved by communicating effectively with the concerned person. Patience, time and the ability to connect with people is all you need to communicate effectively with your team.
