How to Communicate Effectively at Workplace?

We sit in meetings and intend to convey our opinions righteously with the people on board but with our busy schedules, it is easy to lose sight of the importance of effective communication in the workplace.

Most of the employees look forward to doing their job every day and have less time for real interactions. Nothing can be more discouraging than to find about new initiatives through the grapevine outside work or not being trusted or involved in any decision making.

But why does it happen?

When it comes to business strategy planning, steps like right communication strategies, the process of communication, appreciating team members, body language, feedback mechanism, etc are easily missed.

There are numerous benefits of a good communication strategy. For example, it increases employees management, helps to create a better client relationship, results in the productive and talented workforce, and it mitigates conflicts.

Here are a few strategies to make communication inside an organisation right.

Usually, team members meet when the team leader has to brief about new projects or when they require updates on the current project. This chain should be broken and teams should conduct open meetings where all members should be able to voice their genuine problems.

One-on-one sessions can be helpful too as employees spend most of their time in the organisation. It is important that they are happy and positive about their work.

Also, team leaders should remember to explain the ‘why’. They might have come up with a brilliant idea and they will get right into planning and implementing it with the team, but they usually miss the ‘why’ of the idea.

If employees understand how an idea connects with their business goals and supports organizational strategy, they can understand it better.

A team should be formed that defines a communication process and the benefits of it for the common business goal. They need to decide on the kind of information essential for a certain level of employees, when they should know it, and how to best deliver this information.

For example, a new endeavor of a company has three phases: planning, funding and launch. Now this team will decide the phase which will be right to deliver a particular kind of information to employees.

At present, emails are a safe method of communication where sender trusts that his issue/query/thought has reached to its addressee. But the modern life comes with a negative side — more and more people find long emails intrusive and they go unanswered.

The importance of effective email is the need of the hour. Be sure to write clear subject line, a brief message, focus on the topic and usage of key details such as mentioning if you need a reply by a specific date or using NRN ( No Reply Necessary) if you don’t need a response.

But, before you click on a new message on your mail, ask yourself if this is the best method of communication. Does your query or question can be preferred over another mode of communication. Things that don’t need immediate response can be done over email and things that require long discussion should be avoided through email and you can resort to face-to-face meetings for it.

There are various team communication apps available on app stores that let your team communicate effectively. Find out which members are on such apps. A few co-workers might respond to email instantly while a few others might be on Slack.

This can save a lot of time with people you have to communicate a lot. It’s always better to ask in person rather than assuming.

A lame compliment, like you did a great job, isn’t helpful. This is an open-ended statement that might leave the employee wondering.

Be specific rather than being trivial. Tell them the specific job they were good at. Even if it is a one-line sentence, it will leave a big impression on the employee and keep up his/her energy for days.

Same goes with your body language. These nonverbal communication gestures say a lot about you. You use it all the time so why not get it right?

One way communication never works well in an organisation. It is important that employees have access to a platform where they can offer feedback and ask questions. To foster engagement of employees, it is important that employees feel like their opinion, thoughts and issues are heard.

This is can be done in meetings but many employees hesitate to voice their opinions or thoughts in front of co-workers. In such cases, online forums are more effective.

Not just communication, but feedback is a two-way process too. Even the employees require feedback on their work. But don’t be the manager that offers tone-deaf and aggressive feedback. This is a process to move a step closer in the effective communication chain.

Effective communication is a foundation for success in any organisation. It is a dominant factor that directly affects the overall success and happiness of the company and the employees.

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