Communication has always been the most powerful tool in engaging employees in the workplace. The modern age has brought new ways to communicate with your team. When they’re engaged, employees are also more efficient in completing their projects hence contributing to common objectives. That’s why managers are always trying to find new ways to communicate with their teams and make them more involved and productive than before. If you’re too looking for ways to improve workplace communication, here are some ideas to help you out.
Statements Instead of Questions to Communicate with your Team
Because of their duties, most managers turn into order-giving machines. When you give orders, you actually leave no room for employees to ask questions. As a result, your whole communication becomes a one-way street that is ineffective and purposeless. What you leave room for is for employees to reject your instructions. In this case, team communication isn’t your only problem. It’s because you use questions to give orders or instructions, and employees can feel free to say yes or no. If you replace questions with assertive statements, you’ll immediately share your expectations with employees and assert yourself as the authority. They’ll have no other choice than to do what you asked them to.
Communication Training
Most people don’t realize that communication is one of many soft skills. This means, it’s not inherent to every human being, but a skill one can improve if necessary. So, if your team doesn’t communicate as well as you want them to, you can train them to become better at it. The communication training doesn’t cover only the art of conversation, but also presentation, business correspondence, etc. The training doesn’t have to cost your company anything if you have a skillful HR department to lend you a hand. If you’re already giving this a thought, these internal communication examples might help you find inspiration for the training.
Deadlines
If you give instructions to your team without setting deadlines, they mightn’t make it a priority. In this case, they’ll leave until the very last moment or won’t do it until you repeat the request. As you can see, the communication isn’t as effective as it should be. More importantly, such situations undermine your authority as the manager. If you don’t remind them to do what you asked, it shows you’re okay with that. If you do, it looks like you’re breathing down their necks. All you have to do for your employees to take your instructions seriously is attach deadlines along with them. By doing this, you’re holding them accountable for the task they have to complete.
Coffee Breaks – A Great Way to Communicate with your Team
Employees drink coffee because it gives them the energy to get through the day. Also, they use their coffee breaks to chat informally with their colleagues in the workplace. The break allows them to relax and reset in between meetings or assignments. The quality of relationships between employees impacts the way they communicate. That’s why you can encourage employees to grab a cup of coffee as a team whenever they want to. As a matter of fact, you can also encourage them to spend time together outside the office too. It’ll give them the opportunity to bond more without managers supervising them.
Weekly Meetings
Some managers like to start and end every week with meetings. They use the meetings at the beginning of the week to announce the upcoming projects or set intentions. The meeting at the end of the week serves for reflecting on the accomplishments and drawing another work week to a close. Starting and ending your week with meetings reduces the need to organize additional ones throughout the week. This means, your team has more time to focus on doing their work and contribute to business success. These weekly meetings are essential for remote teams too. It’s an effective way of sharing information and maintaining face-to-face communication in the virtual work environment.
Boost Morale when you Communicate with your Team
For a long time, team-building activities have been used in the workplace to improve internal communication. However, not all employees like to participate in them. What you can do instead is get the team together and let them play cards or any board game people like. Another game most people like is the escape room. Since you have a whole team to play, your company can get a discount too. Once the team is in the escape room, they’ll have to work together to find a way out. Such an exciting activity will bring them closer in a fun way.
Conclusion
Executives and team leaders always want their employees to perform better in the workplace. To accomplish this goal, you should first engage them in organizational activities. The best way to involve employees is through communication which has to be effective to yield desired results. For this reason, finding new ways to communicate with your team is always a good idea.
