Effective communication helps to build trust and work toward a shared purpose. It gets the team working together with a better vision of what the end-state is. Without effective communication, your team will end up guessing and be confused. Additionally, when information is not being shared or the leader’s expectations are not clear, the risk for miscues and poor performance increases.
As leaders, we desire to create a great team who can work together effectively and grow the business. Not an easy task. Concentrating on effective communication gives clearer understanding that when your team knows what you want done and what is important, they can produce higher quality, focused work.
Keep in mind that people interpret different meanings to messages that we believe should be easily understood. Your team members have filters and biases you may not know. Ensure what you are saying is what is being received. Use common terms, watch your body language and validate your messaging by asking to say back your message.
Benefits of Effective Communication:
- Build trust and transparency. Clear expectations, the quick sharing of relevant information, and integrity are the best steps to building trust and transparency. The team wants to know what is going on in the business, and they want clear answers on what you believe and what you want as the leader. No ambiguity. No passive-aggressive behavior. Clear expectations only. Always ensure you are fair with the treatment of your team members. Eliminate any bias you may have.
- Shared vision and purpose. Most teams dislike any weekly status update meeting or “standup”, because they are not effectively managed. When we share information across the team effectively in a positive manner, and we discuss how it fits into the vision, our team will begin to believe in our messaging. They will know where we are going and how we will get there. For example, we should explain how the recurring monthly financial close meetings support the growth of the business. This is an area that we get to teach our team so they can create the best analysis products possible.
- Avoid misunderstandings, maximize effort, and prioritize. When we continually talk about what is happening and clarifying our expectations, our team members begin to maximize their effort. I have been a team member who did not clearly know what the expectations were. Serving as an Army officer for many years, I have had a few senior officer supervisors who acted like they did not want to be bothered. What are the boundaries of expected behavior? What is the critical situation that I must get you involved? Am I completely on my own? Leaders prioritize the work so as a team we are working on what matters the most first.
- We get to listen to feedback. Leaders must learn to listen effectively, so we can reduce barriers. Don’t forget to use the person’s name when you speak. When your team members are speaking, look at them, not your phone or computer monitor. What are they saying, and what are they not saying? Investing the effort to find out what your team is providing as feedback will be important as you develop your plans and improve your own leadership ability.
- Influence positive outcomes. As leaders, we must always work to create positive outcomes. How can we influence our peers, our team, and senior leaders to help drive growth in the business? We must teach our team to produce high quality analysis and to present the analysis within the strategic framework of the company.
The key is to get out of our office and talk to people. Let’s not continually arrive to work and hideaway in our office. Engage and talk. Find out what is going on. Balance your duties so that you can be available. Avoid, or, if you can, improve ineffective meetings and start to lead effective processes.
To fulfill the vision of your company, leaders must learn to use effective communication. The benefits include trust and creating an opportunity for positive influence throughout the organization.
What can you do to create effective communication with your team and throughout the business?
Please comment or email me at comment@stephenmclain.com.
Copyright 2018 – Stephen McLain
