Effective Team Communication: 20 Best Practices for Enterprises
Enterprise-level companies employing several teams often want to know how they can communicate with their employees more effectively. Effective team communication is something that managers and employees can achieve if everyone cooperates and works together. Continue reading to discover 20 best practices for enterprise companies to achieve effective team communication.
What is Effective Team Communication?
Good communication is essential for the success of any business. When verbal communication between team members is working well, it can lead to several benefits for the company including higher productivity, increased efficiency, and better employee engagement. The work environment is a positive one where people understand each other and work with each other to help the company reach its goals.
Effective teamwork doesn’t have much to do with whether the team members are exceptionally intelligent. A team may have the smartest, most educated employees who are nevertheless not the most productive workers.
The best teams are the ones that have mastered the art of good communication. They know exactly how to convey information to each other to get the job done. Why can they outperform team members who are more academically gifted than themselves?
Why is Team Communication Important for Companies and Employees?
In many organizations, the company culture expects employees to work as part of a team. It’s not unusual for an employee to be part of more than one team while performing their duties. If a team is working well together and communicates properly, it will be efficient.
Barriers to Effective Team Communication
On the other hand, if the team lacks good communication skills, there may be miscommunications, duplicated work, and mistakes. The team will not work together effectively.
— Inconsistency
It’s crucial that all team members have the same level of communication. This policy applies to full-time workers, part-time employees, and remote workers. The level of communication should not vary depending on whether an employee works on the company premises or from a different location. The message should be the same for everyone.
— Lack of Clarity
Communication in the workplace must always be clear or employees will have difficulty understanding what is expected of them. To ensure that the message is delivered clearly, get to the point quickly. Give the listener or reader some context so that they can understand the message. Check to make sure the other person or the group understands the message. If there are questions, answer them directly without making the other person feel uncomfortable.
— Lack of Listening
Communication works in two ways. To be effective, it’s important for people to listen as much as they speak. Unfortunately, most people spend their time thinking about what they want to say next rather than actively listening to others.
To improve listening skills, it’s important to encourage other people to give feedback and practice actively listening to what they say. Resist the urge to interrupt when others are speaking. Repeat the key points to confirm understanding of what the other person has said and ask for clarification before responding.
— Be Mindful of Non-Verbal Cues
When communicating directly with someone, keep in mind that body language is very important. The way a person acts while they speak can be even more important than what they are saying.
To get the message across effectively, it’s crucial to use body language that communicates a message of friendliness, acceptance, and attentiveness. These messages can be conveyed by maintaining eye contact while speaking and listening to the other person. Avoid crossing the arms or legs, since this conveys a message of being closed off from the other person.
— Language Differences
If a manager literally doesn’t speak the same language as employees, it will definitely get in the way of good communication. If an employee isn’t proficient in English, the company should invest in ESL (English as a Second Language) training to help them learn to communicate with team members effectively.
Internal Communications – Measurement to Mastery
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Effective Communication within a Team
The following are examples of effective team communication strategies:
1. Rethink your current communication strategy
Switching to new communication tools may seem like a daunting task for companies with many employees. If employees are used to using a certain tool, that doesn’t mean it’s the one that will help them communicate effectively. Everyone is familiar with phones and email, but these may not be the best options for the workplace.
An online communication platform may be better for frontline workers since it can be used with mobile devices. Employees can log in from anywhere to check their schedules and get messages.
2. Create clear communication guidelines for employees
Let employees know what the company communication strategy looks like and what is expected from them. It may seem as though management is treating employees as though they are children, but it can be handled in a way that avoids micromanaging workers.
The company can let employees know that they are expected to check their messaging app daily to ensure they stay up to date, which is a reasonable expectation. If employees were told they are expected to check their messages every hour and if they don’t, they will have to explain to a manager why they have not done so.
3. Gather and listen to employee feedback
Make time to get feedback from employees and act on what they are telling the company. This tactic is a critical strategy to improve team communication between remote team members. Since these employees may never see each other face to face, there are some built-in challenges to working together.
Ask focused questions to determine what kinds of challenges the team members face. Ask about the communication tools they are using and if they are comfortable communicating with their team members and manager. The employee survey should also ask what the company can do to help the team communicate more effectively. Taking this step will build trust and improve employee engagement.
4. Give fellow employees complete attention when communicating
When someone else is speaking, they deserve the other person’s full attention. If they are trying to communicate and the other person is busy staring at their smartphone, it’s a sign the listener isn’t really listening. It’s also disrespectful and rude. Everyone in the workplace deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. It doesn’t matter what position they hold or whether their coworker happens to like them personally.
Listen to people when they are speaking and respond appropriately. Anything else is simply not acceptable in the workplace.
5. Minimize the use of meetings
Meetings aren’t very efficient because they pull employees away from their regular duties. Before scheduling a meeting, consider whether it is necessary. Could the goal be achieved by sharing the information via a group chat that participants could attend at any time?
If the meeting is required, make an agenda, and distribute it to all participants in advance. Be sure to stick to it. Keep the meeting brief (less than one hour) to allow attendees to decompress afterward.
→ Recommended article: 17 internal communications best practices for a stronger employee engagement
6. Choose the best communication method for the situation
Communicating effectively means choosing the right way to get a message across to the other person or a group. Use charts, maps, images, and graphs to explain complicated ideas. Spoken communication (face to face, by phone, or using video) is best when a matter can be dealt with simply or the message is short. Written communication includes email, the internet, books, and magazines and makes up a lot of the way people consume knowledge. Non-verbal communication is through eye contact, gestures, and body language.
7. Be clear and direct when communicating
Get to the point quickly when communicating in the workplace. Avoid using slang and expressions that only certain groups will understand whether communicating orally or in written form.
Since everyone has a job to do, it’s critical to respect coworkers’ time in the workplace. Try to be brief. At the same time, take care to ensure that the message is clearly understood by everyone.
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8. Explain and clarify your thoughts
It makes sense to have a policy of sharing more than “just the facts” when communicating with employees and coworkers. Effective communication in the workplace thrives on including the whys and wherefores when appropriate. This helps employees to feel included.
Let the listener know what they are supposed to do after a conversation. Are they supposed to take action? If so, what are they specifically supposed to do? Employees are much more likely to behave in a particular way if they understand why the company expects them to do something.
9. Show professional respect for others
Good interpersonal skills are important in the workplace. They help everyone understand that no one likes feeling that they are being patronized while on the job. Ideally, managers and executives should have the attitude that the workplace is like a symphony and all the musicians need to play their instruments together or they can’t produce music. In an enterprise company, if all the employees don’t work together, the company will fail.
10. Be confident and have patience
It’s important to have confidence in one’s own ability to communicate effectively. Sit or stand up straight when speaking to others to feel effective. Smile and keep your arms uncrossed. Look directly at the other person when speaking and listen carefully when they are talking.
Have patience if the other person needs to take their time to choose the right words to express themselves clearly. Some people aren’t as confident in their ability to express themselves and may feel nervous when speaking. If they are met with patience and understanding, they will develop confidence in their ability to communicate.
11. Use breaks to get to know team members
Coffee and lunch breaks are a good time to get to know your fellow team members better. During these times, employees can have informal discussions with each other. They can exchange ideas on any number of subjects, including their work.
While coworkers enjoy their coffee and their caffeine boost, they can find out what they have in common with each other. They may even find they can help each other out if someone is having difficulty with an aspect of the office technology. These moments can lead to more effective teamwork.
12. Conduct team-building activities
Team-building activities help the participants get to know each other better. They also help people learn how to communicate with their team more effectively.
These activities can be added to team lunches. They can also be included as icebreaker games in meetings. Employees can also participate in puzzle-solving games, fitness sessions, or outdoor activities. Team-building activities can be scheduled at the end of the month or as a weekly part of the schedule to improve team communication and build trust within the group.
13. Show your appreciation for your employees
Let your employees and colleagues know how much their efforts on the job are appreciated. Showing appreciation is a good way to boost morale in the workplace. It makes team members feel like they matter to the company, personally and professionally.
Thank them for their work, let them know that their ideas are appreciated, and express gratitude when they go out of their way to do something extra for the company. Employees will repay the company by continuing to put forth a greater effort and encourage their colleagues to do the same.
14. Invest in a communication app
It’s very time-consuming and can be confusing for employees and clients to keep track of lengthy email threads. Communication apps make team collaboration much easier. Employees can work together on projects no matter where they are located to achieve them on time.
Employees can exchange messages throughout the day, so no one is left wondering what needs to be accomplished. Users can ask for help when needed, notify the group when a step has been completed, and attach files for others to work on. Everything is kept in the same place and all team members can stay up to date on the project’s status in real time.
Internal Communications – Measurement to Mastery
Enhance your internal communication strategy and learn the impact of communication done right.
15. Encourage transparency and openness
Transparency and openness are crucial for good communication in the workplace. These characteristics clear the way for honest conversations between employees. When team members can ask for help or clarification, discuss any issues that arise, and trust each other, they feel more empowered at work
16. Prioritize frequent check-ins with the team
Managers should make a point of checking in with their team members by scheduling conversations with team members. These can take place online and can include one-on-one chats as well as discussions with the entire team. During individual conversations, the manager and employee can ask about anything the team members may be having difficulty with. In a group discussion, the team can focus on success strategies, current and upcoming projects, and anything else the team feels is important.
17. Respect each other’s opinions
It’s important for team members to respect each other’s points of view, even when they don’t agree. People in the company will come from different backgrounds and have varying life experiences. It’s impossible for everyone to agree on every issue all the time. It is possible to be an effective team when the individual members aren’t necessarily on the same page.
As long as everyone can listen to each other and be respectful, the team can still work together. The members can agree that everyone has been heard, and a decision made about how to proceed. It may not be possible to always implement each person’s ideas but that doesn’t necessarily mean the ideas themselves are bad or wrong.
18. Practice empathy when communicating with each other
Empathic communication is a way to interact with others the way they would like to be treated. It requires the individual to always be mindful of the way the other person is thinking and feeling.
In an empathic communication encounter, an individual considers what the other person wants to get from the conversation (what their goal is), why they want to reach that goal, and how the other person wants to interact.
The individual can adapt their communication style to keep the other person’s needs in mind. Each person can get the most out of the conversation.
19. Lead by example
Managers and executives must adopt good communication strategies and continue to use them. Only then will employees do the same.
Effective communication in an enterprise company isn’t something that is achieved overnight. It takes time and commitment on the part of everyone who works there if it is going to work. The effort is definitely worthwhile since the company will reap the benefit of happier, more efficient employees who can communicate more clearly and work together more effectively.
20. Offer formal communications training to employees
Communicating effectively is a skill that can be taught. Employees who participate in formal training don’t go because they don’t know how to speak properly. They pursue training to improve their professional skills in this specific area. It’s no different from a sales representative going to a course to learn about how to close more business. An employee who improves their communication skills can have better career opportunities.
Courses can include topics such as conversational skills, presentation skills, or business writing. Employees could also explore managerial skills training from a communication approach. Once the employees complete the training, they should have improved their ability to express themselves and work with other team members.
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Internal Communications – Measurement to Mastery
Enhance your internal communication strategy and learn the impact of communication done right.
