Think about it: you can’t provide a team with psychological safety, make sure that everyone has a clear understanding of how they impact the business’s bottom line, or ensure that employees find their jobs meaningful if the team isn’t communicating effectively.
Transparent and open communication is key when it comes to building a great team.
Employees need to know what their colleagues are working on, how their jobs are interconnected, and how their combined efforts and hard work are driving results. After all, Google didn’t name their project after Aristotle’s famous quote “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” by accident!
As you might imagine, communication skillsare some of the most in-demand soft skills in the workplace.
Indeed, 93% of employers consider that a demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is important in the workplace.
3 Things You Can Do Now to Make Your Teams More Successful
Improving team performance doesn’t come overnight!
You’ll need to rethink the structure of your teams, your internal communication as well as your company values.
It’s most likely that improving the performance of your teams involves organizational change. And let’s be honest, driving change in the workplace is basically like climbing a mountain!
Read on: Change Management: Definition, Best Practices & Examples
However, there are a few changes you can implement already now to boost the performance of your teams.
Let’s take a look at these changes that will help you take your business to the next level:
1. Think of your team as a sports team
The analogy here may sound a bit funny but it’s one of the change management experts’ favorite ones!
Think about it: just like an athletics team or any other sports team, your team needs a clear structure to deliver results. If some of the team members don’t play their role and don’t try their best to support the team, the machine can easily break down!
Let’s imagine for a moment that you’re a coach and your team made it to the Olympic Games relay finals — which is quite a big deal — but your team takes the second place on the podium because runners didn’t understand each other while passing the baton in the last meters of the race.
So many baton pass failures happened because of a lack of communication! Relay races require team members to be connected and well synchronized.
And guess what? The same goes for your team!
Essentially, you’re not just a team manager, you’re a coach! You need to communicate your strategy with your team, motivate your employees, and make sure that everyone is on the same page. That’s the only way you can build a successful team!
2. Use your employees’ preferred communication channels and devices
Team communication is key to success. And you can’t expect your employees to effectively communicate with each other if you don’t implement the right communication channels at your workplace.
By “the right communication channels”, I mean the channels your employees want to use, the ones they feel most comfortable with.
