The depth and quality of team communication is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of a successful project. As a team manager, it is your job to take care of it and improve it as much as you can. Thankfully, there are always some things that can be done to further improve an already decent team communication system.
So without further ado, here are the 5 simple steps you as a manager can take to improve your team communication.
1. Arrange Leisure Activities
In order to improve your team communication, you need to work with each other like friends, not like colleagues. This is important because people are willing to put in so much more work if they know that they’re working towards something with others who support them and have their best interest in mind. To achieve this friendship status within the team, you have to be honest, caring, enthusiastic and ready to arrange something to do after the workday is over. To give you an idea, the most popular leisure activities for teams are video game nights, dinners, parties and movie nights. Just make sure that whatever you planned doesn’t seem forced; or you won’t achieve the wished result. Nobody wants a fake friend.
2. Equality
Big corporations are usually the companies that suffer from this problem the most. They have strong hierarchical systems and strict rules to follow in order to stay alive. It does not have to be like this in your team though, even if your company happens to be a corporation. As a team manager, you are the one your team directly connects to – which means it is in your power to open the line for clear internal communication and make everyone feel equal. Successful teams are the ones who can discuss problems openly and figure out the solutions together. If your team feels intimidated by you then trust me, your team communication is suffering tremendously. To fix it, start by simply telling them to not be afraid to express their opinion.
3. Knowledge Of Bigger Picture
Again, the smaller the company, the easier it is to follow this rule. But as of today, even the biggest corporations can’t use their size as an excuse for not using any software that would let every employee see the bigger picture.
One of the best such tools is Weekdone where your companies quarterly goals and objectives can be set and tracked, and your team’s goals and personal plans can all be connected to the big picture, company goals to confirm that everyone knows exactly what they are working towards.
4. Improved Team Communication Tool
The main mistake many companies tend to make is choosing more tools than they would need at once; causing everyone more harm than good. Examples could include team management, communication, video conference, file sharing tools (etc.) all separately. Having all those different tools creates confusion and decreases general productivity due to logistical reasons within the team. This results in negative feelings, and eventually a suffering team communication.
Instead of that, what would be advised is to use what’s called a one-in-all toolkit. This is a centralized space where most of (if not all) the features you desire exist in some form. One of those all-in-one toolkit’s is Weekdone for example.
In addition to the task and goal management mentioned earlier, it also features a highly collaborative communication system with discussions, 1:1’s, reactions, recognitions and emotional feedback features. Furthermore, it is a great tool because the learning curve is relatively small and design is very simple yet appealing to the eye. Your team members don’t have to spend too much time learning the software to enjoy the benefits of it. Simple as that.
5. Collect Feedback Regularly
The last thing you can do to massively increase your team collaboration and enhance your team communication is collect and analyze feedback regularly. Try implementing pulse surveys in order to measure employee engagement and increase job satisfaction in your team. This helps you to better understand your teams needs and make adjustments to your leadership style as needed. The best feeling an employee can have is knowing that what they said mattered. Meaningful team communication truly thrives on that feeling.
Conclusion
Some things in this post may have seemed obvious yet I believe no one can argue how important they are. And when you think it all through, I’m sure there is something you could learn from. As a start, why don’t you learn more about Weekdone and try it out within your team for free? You don’t even have to connect a credit card.