Good communication is key to improving productivity in the workplace. Effective and open communication will allow your team to connect, collaborate, and discuss. This will allow them to produce high-quality work, prevent misunderstandings, and cultivate a healthy work environment. If you want to quickly turn around the communication in your company, here are some easy steps.
Be The Foundation
To establish a certain culture in the workplace, you need to build the foundation and set the tone. It is important to build rapport with employees and encourage this behavior amongst team members. An easy way to do this is to go out for lunch with your team where all work talk is banned. This will allow everyone to get to know each other on a different level, and allows for more connection and understanding.
Cultivate Trust
By establishing that you are trustworthy to your employees, you foster a culture of open communication. The more trustworthy they perceive you to be, the more open and honest they will be with you. The more trust they feel in the workplace, the more they will be comfortable being open and honest with each other. There are various team building exercises you can carry out that will help to foster and build trust amongst the team.
Communication System
In this modern age, not everyone is office based and has regular contact with each other. Physical contact, that is. As remote working has become more popular, we are now finding that we need innovative ways to connect with each other. Connecting with each other is key to keeping the lines of communication open. As the last year has shown us, the world is ever changing, and we need to do what we can to keep up. One way to improve communication is to ensure that you have a great system in place that allows for this. Therefore, the South Africa-based specialists at https://saicom.io/ suggest collaborations as a way to ensure your business has the perfect system for it. Even as a small business,
you can greatly benefit from a seamless communication system.
Regular 1-to-1’s
Opening up and maintaining the lines of communication can be as simple as setting up regular 1-to-1’s. This provides your team a specific space to talk, rant, and share anything that’s on their minds. You will be able to gain a deeper understanding of team dynamics, attitudes, and thoughts that you may not have been aware of. You can foster great relationships with your team by allowing them this time to speak openly. It is important that this is not just an exercise where you cross off a checklist; instead, sincerely speak to everyone and give them the attention they deserve. This makes a huge difference in how forthcoming they are with you.
Strengths And Weaknesses
Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. In a workplace, it is important to be aware of this. Firstly, because it allows us to capitalize on the strengths and work on the weaknesses and secondly, because our colleagues and team can understand us on a better level. If something is easier for one person, they may become frustrated when someone else struggles or does not understand that they take longer to complete a certain task. By understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses, they will understand that whilst that person doesn’t have the same strengths as them, they might be stronger in other areas where they are weaker.
There are a ton of personality tests that help people understand themselves better as well as each other.
Constructive Feedback
When someone messes up or doesn’t complete something on time, it can be easy to get annoyed or irritated. But communicating from this place destroys communication because the individual on the receiving end loses self-esteem and confidence. Even if they have made a mistake, it is much better to provide constructive feedback. It will allow them to take stock of the mistake, and not be afraid to approach you in the future. When discussing a mistake, focus on the specific action or behavior and don’t attack them in a personal way. Give them an adequate opportunity to explain, and discuss how this mistake occurred.
Use these easy steps to foster open communication in your company. Communication struggles are normal but as long as you are being proactive and focusing on improving communication, you will cultivate a healthy workplace culture. The more comfortable your team is to openly communicate with each other, the more productive and efficient everyone will be. You will soon find that tasks and projects are completed much quicker and at a higher-quality.