Communication is an inevitable element for building and maintaining a positive and working place.
Of course, ineffective communication brings in just the opposite results.
Assuring proper work place communication is not just the role of team managers or leaders but a joint effort from the whole team.
However, the leaders should take initiatives to bring in inevitable changes in the whole work place scenario that paves the way for a better working environment.
Applying some strategies can help team managers to improve the communication at work place and thus enjoy the following success. Let us have a look at some of the key strategies that might help you.
1. Giving undivided attention
Whether you are in the one to one conversation or group meeting, giving undivided attention is the key to a quality conversation. Diverting the attention to something else kills the flow of communication and people easily tune away.
Keeping focused to what you are discussing and maintaining eye contact makes the conversation live. It prompts everyone to stay with you.
2. Mastering body language
Non-verbal work place communication adds a lot of value, especially for team managers. Your body language can make a noticeable impact on how the people around perceive your words.
Make sure that your gestures are open and approachable.
Ensure a positive physical presence. See that you keep up an upright posture throughout the conversation.
3. Creating communication-friendly space
In addition to the quality content of your meeting, delivering it in a communication friendly space is equally important.
The team members should be able to express freely without a second thought.
Make the conversation live by asking questions and challenging ideas. Also encourage social interactions to build good relations with colleagues.
4. Taking time to listen
Monopolizing the conversation has to be avoided at any cost. You may even take a halt just to check for understanding and ask for questions.
This makes everyone in the meeting a part of the conversation and they stay more focused.
Communication is always a two way process in which you pass your message but at the same time listen the other side.
Also Read: Why Employee Engagement Matters?
5. Avoiding over communication
Too much of anything doesn’t sound good and it is true even in the case of work place communication. Make sure that your communication is to the point and don’t drag unnecessary elements into it.
Try to keep the communication through emails or over call outside the working hours to very minimum.
This also ensures a healthy work-life balance which in turn improves the productivity of employees.
6. Keeping up constant communication
Instead of limiting the team meetings to once or twice a year, keep up the flow by increasing its number to every week or every month.
This helps you to get an idea on the status of the employees and know if you need to contribute something for the betterment of the work flow.
7. Being mindful during communication
Make sure that you maintain a good posture while you communicate and have a pleasing facial expression and a relaxed stance.
Resting your arms by the side are a nice way rather than going for defensive postures like crossing them. Always maintain the eye contact and bring in smiles and head nods wherever necessary.
8. Personalizing communications
Knowing the audience and changing the way you present the information also works for effective work place communication.
This helps you to bring good connection in your conversations as it goes much deeper than the normal communication.
Try to bring in visuals for easy understanding and quote relevant examples or stories to make it more interesting and engaging.
The best part is to give room for improvisation where the person you are communicating to can make suggestions.
Also Read: How to Build a Better Company Culture
9. Arranging open forum meetings
Communication should not be just limited to weekly or monthly closed room meetings.
Take initiatives to set up open forum meetings where employees get a chance to share their worries, ideas and concerns freely.
Also make provision for post-it notes where employees can ask questions and share the challenges they are facing anonymously in case they are shy to talk in public.
10. Following up with writing notes
It is quite difficult for the meeting participants to remember each and every point you discussed during the meeting. So following up the conversation with notes is very important to make the communication complete.
A bulleted point email will be a wise move .
11. Being authentic while conversing
More authentic conversations at work place can make a notable impact.
Don’t ever try to dominate the listener during a conversation and impose what you are saying thinking it as ultimate truth.
The best thing to do is to talk freely without a preconception and let the listener express his thoughts. Give them the freedom to express their views openly on what you say.
12. Asking for employee feedbacks
Work place communication is always complete if it is two way.
Give them a chance to give their feed backs about you as a manager on a regular basis so that you can improve on it and they get a sense of belonging.
Also let everyone communicate their thoughts while sending company wide emails announcing some changes or setting new goals.
13. Inform and inspire
A better communication should always be the right mix of information and inspiration.
Take some time before the meeting or conversation to see that the content of your meet not only educates them but inspires them too.
See that your ideas are explained and clarified in a tactful way where the employees get inspired for a better show at work than just listening to what you are saying.
14. Incorporating team building games
Some employees will always take a step back when communication is made an optional element.
However, having team building games once in a while will help them to come out of such barriers and they would be encouraged to speak up.
Communicating with the people you know becomes more comfortable.
15. Setting up weekly or monthly 1:1s
Some people would prefer to open up about their ideas or concerns only in a private set up.
That is why it is important to arrange a weekly or monthly 1:1s where they can express themselves without a barrier.
This is the best time to analyze if the resources and time is enough. You can also discuss on current priorities, upcoming goals & change in strategies.
16. Having outside office get together
See that you take some time out of your busy schedule for outside the office get together.
This is the time to build relationships.
Let it be a team lunch or dinner or a one day outing where you keep away all your work and just relax and enjoy with your colleagues.
You can celebrate achievements or milestones of your colleagues through a small party.
17. Including face to face work place communication
With the advancement in technology, workplace is hugely dependent on tools like slack and email for communication.
Even when you use these tools for easy communication remotely, it cannot replace the significance of face to face communication.
Make sure that you arrange personal communication at least once in a month or in worst case a quarter for better connectivity.
For freelancers who are working remotely, at least arrange a video call conversation rather than just normal calls which doubles the impact.
Moreover, you have to build up a foundation first where employees feel free to talk to you with trust and avoid making quick assumptions.
If you are working with a small team, learning each other’s strengths and weaknesses can help you to make better conversations.
The role of a manager even includes setting tone for the meetings to offering constructive feedback in a thoughtful way.
Good communication at work place keeps the work flow transparent and each member of the team feels their importance which apparently results in better results.