There is no doubt at all that one of the key things in all business is communication. As long as you are able to keep everyone communicating properly, you are going to find that everything flows much more smoothly, people are happier with their jobs, everyone knows what they are doing and the whole business just works better. However, it’s one thing to know all this, and quite another to actually put into place the practices that are going to better connect your teams. In this post, we are going to take a look at some of these practices specifically, so you can see how you might be able to do this in your own company.
Encourage Leaders
A lot of people look to business as a chance to lead. While that is necessary up to a point, there is also an argument to be made for encouraging your employees to be leaders themselves. When you do this, rather than trying to get them all to be followers, you actually empower them from within to speak up more, say what they mean, communicate properly and clearly, and so get so much more done. If you start to do this today, you are going to notice a huge difference.
For one thing, encouraging people to be leaders means that they are going to be more confident in what they are saying. A room full of this kind of confidence generally gets a lot more done, so make sure that you are doing this as best as you can. If nothing else, you will find that the general communication in the office increases, and this can only be a good thing for morale, as is making it clear that you trust individuals to be leaders in their roles.
Ask Questions
As a manager, you are often going to have to spend some time sitting back and listening. They say that a good leader listens more than talks, and that is definitely true. As long as you are asking a lot of questions, you are going to find that people respect you more. But on top of that, and most importantly, they are going to feel that it is actually important what they say, and that you really want them to speak up. Over time this is going to lead to a culture of people saying what they really mean, and offering up suggestions for improvement wherever possible.
That can only be a good thing. And you will find that many of those suggestions are exactly what the business was just crying out for. Get into the habit from today of asking your employees as many questions as possible about what they think, and make sure that it is really clear you are listening. This is going to be one of the most powerful things you have ever done for your employees, and for your business as a whole.
Be Specific In Feedback
We all know that feedback is really important. If you provide plenty of feedback, people know where they are going right and what they might be able to improve upon. They are more likely to then work on those things, and overall you just have so much more chance for your teams to work fluidly and successfully. That is going to make for a much better experience overall, so it’s something that you are going to want to think about. Something that you should make sure of in particular is that you are being specific in your feedback, as the more specific you are, the more likely it is that people are going to be able to work on that feedback as well as possible.
If you are struggling to give someone specific feedback, that probably means that you are simply not fully aware of what you really think. Simply, this means you need to spend some more time thinking about it by yourself before you bring it up with them. Many managers fail to do this basic thing, but if you do start to do it you might find that you are going to have so much more of a chance for people to improve. It really could make a huge difference.
Provide The Right Tools
Communication in the workplace is obviously about so much more than these interpersonal and oral forms, and you need to make sure that you are thinking about all of the other kinds too. When it comes to these other forms, you should make sure that you are providing all of the right tools to your staff, as without them you are going to have so much less in the way of good communication and connection between people and between teams. So what are some of the tools that you might want to think about providing?
For a start, you should make sure that your business is using some form of essential communication suite. Something along the lines of Microsoft Teams could be good, but the specifics are really up to you, so just make sure it’s something you can be happy with as a team and as a company. Then it’s all about providing some of the specific tools. In some cases, that means giving certain people a company cell phone, along with using WilsonPro to ensure better coverage throughout the business’ premises. You might also need to provide computers at other times. It’s all about keeping everyone connected through the use of the right tools.
At all times, you should be prepared for an upgrade of those tools, or at least to make sure at regular intervals that they are going to be checked to be still working and worthwhile. If you do that, you will be able to better connect your team and ensure that they are always using the right tools for the job. That can really help to keep things flowing smoothly in the long run.
Encourage Dissent
This idea might immediately sound dangerous to many managers, and a lot of people won’t read further than this for fear of putting some real harm on to their business. However, if you want your people to feel fully free to speak up and have a voice, you should make sure that you are doing a little something to encourage their dissent. That doesn’t mean that you want to actively create it where it doesn’t exist. We are talking about encouraging people to openly express what they are feeling about the company and their work, even where that is negative.
It’s simple. You can let people stew over these things, complaining about them to each other and people outside the business, or you can let them say it freely to you, thereby allowing you to pick up on it early and work on it before it becomes a huge problem. This is not only one of the best things you can possibly do for morale, it is also a massive boost to communication across the board and how everyone feels about each other. It is one of the best ways to ensure your teams feel fully connected to one another.
Use A Buddy System
If you have ever heard about this being used in other places, you will no doubt have heard some great things. A buddy system is simply where you allow people to be paired up so that they have people they can go to if they are in need of anything, or if they are struggling with anything in particular. With a good buddy system, you are generally going to find that it is much easier and simpler to keep everyone psychologically well, and it also works as a way to bring people closer together too.
Make sure that people are involved in the system by will, and that they get paired up with someone they get on with. The last thing you want is to create even further problems or divide people more than they might already be. However, with that caveat in place, it is worth saying that this is still the kind of system that is known to work very well in many places, and is one of the best ways to connect teams and individuals within them perfectly well.
Keep Vital Information Available
There are plenty of pieces of information which you need to make sure your employees can see at all times, as they are so vital to the running of the place, or otherwise they are important safety messages and so on. You will need to make sure that you are keeping these messages available wherever possible, whether that is through memos or the use of posters, or word of mouth. Doing that ensures you are doing your bit, and it also helps to show them that you are actively involved in the communications in the workplace.
With all this in place, your people are going to be so much more connected, and your teams will work so much more effectively.
