Get to know your teammates and make an effort to actively listen to their ideas, opinions, needs, and feelings. When you can better understand your colleagues, you can interact with them more effectively and engage in more productive and healthy conversations. When you urgently need to contact you or make sure your employees have the right information before they connect to the Internet, text messages can be the ideal method of communication. If you want to ensure that your team remembers vital information, visual communication methods, such as text messages, are 25% more effective than oral communication.
A key component of communication is listening to what others are saying. Provide the team with ways to talk to leaders. This includes having open door policies to address problems. It also includes having tip boxes, information sessions on projects and conducting surveys with team members.
Don't let these be superficial or symbolic communication opportunities. Please consider all comments and take the necessary measures. The next time you're in a conversation, try to focus fully on what the other person is communicating to you. Techniques such as clarification, reflection and active listening show that you focus on the conversation.
Instead, try to be clear and concise when speaking to an audience you don't know so that people don't have to try to read between the lines. There are several reasons why it's so important to be clear and concise when communicating with others, especially when you don't know them very well. One of the reasons is that you never know if someone you're talking to might have neurological differences and you might find it more difficult to understand each other. This is related to showing that you are actively listening to a conversation.
Asking questions can help show and develop your understanding of something and often helps to show that you're interested in what the other person is saying. Don't immediately judge people in conversations and try to listen more objectively and without prejudice. It can often be seen on your face and in your body language if you disapprove of someone, so it's helpful to keep a truly open mind. Working on your leadership skills also goes hand in hand with improving your communication skills.
In our open section on how other people communicate, you can listen to Dana Denis-Smith, business leader and executive director, talk about communication as a business leader. Train employees on diversification and offer days on diversity, which allow employees to celebrate the unique qualities that make the entire team great.
