4 Time-Tested Ways To Improve Communication With Your Team

Be it your personal or professional life, effective communication is crucial everywhere. No relationship can thrive without honest and open communication. And the same thing applies to businesses as well.

An ideal workplace is where communication between employees is open, friendly, and yet professional. Projects get completed on time and the operations run smoothly as ever.

Sadly, most of us find ourselves stuck in a toxic professional relationship. Why? Because in the majority of workplaces, poor communication goes unchecked. Miscommunication, arguments, different languages in the multicultural team and cutthroat competition add up to everyone’s stress. However, this doesn’t mean nothing can be done to improve communication in the workplace.

Fortunately, we have listed some ways that will surely help your team communicate better.

1. Earn Your Employees’ Trust

Have an open-door policy with your employees so that they can come up to you with queries, problems, and ideas anytime. This is extremely crucial to build a rapport with them. Take your team out for lunches, dinners, drinks, and encourage brainstorming and effective communication. Bonding outside the workplace plays a huge role in helping them feel comfortable at work.

Moreover, whenever you are finalizing a strategy, make sure you ask for your team’s input. This makes them feel valued and respected. Furthermore, it encourages the open exchange of ideas.

2. Be A Good Listener

Being a manager is not only about guiding your team on the journey to success. But it is also about forming strong relationships while on this journey. And as you know, communication is a two-way process. So, listen actively.

Whenever your team members share an idea or a problem, first listen, try to understand them, and then communicate your stance. Some conversations might require you to listen actively for long periods of time. So, be patient. Give your employees opportunities to communicate freely.

Additionally, always be open to constructive criticism. No one is perfect, and neither are you! If your employees are providing you with reciprocal feedback, listen carefully before responding.

3. Use Technology To Enhance Communication

Team building exercises are key to building healthy relationships and improving productivity at the workplace. They also help enhance communication. So, rather than role-playing and conducting group activities that no one likes, leverage the power of technology to get the group together and indulge in fun games. Set up a few board games, display games every week. Host a speakeasy party every month.

You should also invest in virtual team building kits and bring your teams together, and increase collaboration and communication for remote workers.

Most often than not, it gets difficult for remote workers to be a part of the team. They feel under confident and intimidated. Sometimes, it even gets difficult for them to share their experiences and problems. Therefore, you should focus on virtual team building.

To take advantage of advanced technology, you can set up and apply for cloud-based communication software like a VoIP system so everyone in your team, including the remote workforce, will be able to communicate with each other conveniently. If you’re a Vancouver-based business owner, B1 Communications is one of your best choices for reliable and excellent service providers in Vancouver.

4. Provide Feedback In A More Thoughtful Way

Read carefully! This is crucial. All of us have received lousy feedback that changed our lives in a certain way. For some of us, the changes were good. But for the rest, it didn’t lead to a positive change.

That being said, be mindful when showering your employees with feedback. Sit with them and discuss their qualities/ shortcomings so that they can strive towards becoming better. Don’t be all bossy when it’s not needed.

Also, follow the same rule when giving compliments. Do not over exaggerate. Appreciation should feel honest.

Conclusion

Effective communication is essential in getting the job done. It builds a sense of trust, increases productivity, boosts morale, and helps everyone work together to achieve a common goal. Therefore, improving communication should be the goal of every business owner/ manager.

To help you with the same, in this post, we listed 4 time-tested ways to improve communication with your team.