Team Communication Doesn't Have To Be Hard: Read These 5 Key Tips
Team communication, a term frequently used in the business world to describe how teams work together to bring workplace effectiveness and efficiency.
But, have you ever wondered if your organization has an effective communication system in place? And if you do, how exactly has it helped the management and the employees?
It is necessary to understand that team coordination is an essential component for enhanced team performance. Without the lack of a robust communication system, it is impossible to collaborate effectively and efficiently.
This article will discuss some essential tips to enhance your team communication practices and help you in the long run.
The Benefits That Come With Good Team Communication
Better team communication has innumerable benefits, and below are some of the important ones that an organization must be aware of.
1. Builds Trust and Understanding
What are the two most essential parts of an effective team? The answer is quite simple-trust and understanding between team members. When employees trust each other, they facilitate better collaboration and have a mutual understanding of everyone's strengths and weaknesses.
Improved communication will allow you to maintain a consistent workflow in the workplace. And to achieve that, you, as a leader, must maintain good team communication.
2. Enhanced Problem-Solving
Teams need to develop problem-solving skills that will pave the way to enhanced performance. It is achievable only when there is good communication between team members. It will help teams brainstorm ideas and enable them to come up with feasible solutions. A unified team will pursue a common goal to attain success.
Recommended Resource: Problem-Solving Skills for Managers.
3. Better relationships between employees
We have already discussed beforehand how trust and understanding between team members are possible with better team communication. In that same way, communication also helps employees to foster healthy relationships within the team by building transparency, facilitating peer bonding, appreciating each other, etc. Furthermore, better employee relations builds a sense of belief and reduces conflict.
4. Promotes Team-Building
Team-building, as we know, is pivotal in organizational success. And it is not possible if the internal communication among team members is not robust and transparent. However, when team members’ communication mechanism is sound, it builds faith and shared confidence. They rely on each other to perform better and achieve success in the long run.
Read more: Team Building Activities for Work.
5. Positive Work Environment
Imagine a workplace where employees don’t communicate and stay busy with their work. Will employees or teams work efficiently in such an environment? The answer will be an obvious no. However, when there is a communication flow between the team members, it inspires positivity, the enthusiasm to do better work, and project management becomes a lot easier. They become eager to return to the workplace because they enjoy the psychologically and technically sound working environment.
Some Statistics you need to know.
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About 75% of employers rate teamwork and collaboration as “very important.” (Source)
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86% of employees and executives cite lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures. (Source)
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60% of companies don’t have a long-term strategy for their internal communications. (Source)
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57% of employees report not being given clear directions, and 69% of managers are not comfortable communicating with the employees in general. (Source)
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33% of employees said a lack of open, honest communication has the most negative impact on employee morale. (Source)
Practicing Team Communication
Now that you have an idea of the important benefits of good team communication. Let us look at 5 key tips on how you can practice and promote it.
1. A robust Communication Channel and training
Indeed, a robust communication channel is the right way for team members to enhance their interaction. Organizations need to have the best tools and resources to help teams collaborate and interact efficiently. It is also essential to train them with communication fundamentals, such as strong conversation skills, enhanced presentation skills, management skills, and much more, in addition to the equipment.
These activities would enable the business and teams to work better and communicate effectively like a well-oiled machine in the long run.
2. Open Door Policy
Open door policy is a work culture or a communication policy that encourages transparency, openness, trust, and feedback between the organization’s managers and employees. It provides teams the liberty to walk up to their managers and discuss their needs. The more interaction the team members have with their managers, the better are the chances that there will be a significant increase in productivity and positive results.
Open door policies help empower employees, encourage inclusion, and engage them in significant innovations to boost organizational growth.
Learn More: Open Door Policy at the Workplace.
3. Be Clear about Responsibilities
Teams won’t perform efficiently if they are unsure about what tasks they are responsible for. As a manager, make sure that the entire team knows their job responsibility and that each team member is clear about what is expected of them. And to do that, teams must communicate effectively. A transparent communication system will allow you and your team to share correct information to reduce errors and conflicts in the long term.
4. Fun Stuff to boost morale
Team building activities have long proven to improve team communication among team members. And to elevate the efforts, it is important to include activities that employees love to do. Take the team out for weekly lunch, host after-work parties so that everyone can connect, and curate a dedicated break room where employees can indulge in fun exercises.
The activities mentioned earlier will lead to an employee-centric work culture that will boost morale, improve team communication, and enhance productivity.
5. Conduct Surveys and work on the feedbacks
The most powerful method for pointing out any defects in the communication system is pulse surveys. It produces feedback in real-time that employees believe is essential for the system to become more effective. After conducting a survey, it is necessary to work on feedback to fulfill the survey’s real purpose. Work on the critical problems, devise a solution, and implement them to make communication smoother and hassle-free.
Recommended Resource: Employee Pulse Surveys: A Brief Guide.
Summing it Up
Effective team communication is an essential component for enhanced team performance, and without the lack of a robust system, it is impossible to collaborate effectively and efficiently. It promotes team-building, faith, and mutual trust that is pivotal in organizational success in the long run. Verbal communication and necessary communication skills are of significant importance for team leaders to promote healthy communication in the team.
So, as a manager and a leader work on a system that every employee will look forward to and pave the way for teams towards improved performance and engagement.