Yesterday’s blog post was about the importance of “adaptability” as a team member at work. Today we are going to look at the importance of good communication at work. I assume we all know communication is vitally important, but how often do we work on our communication skills to improve them?
COMMUNICATION: “Open communication fosters trust”
Take time to evaluate your communication skills. Do people understand you when you speak to them? Do you listen to others for understanding? Are you the one who tries to communicate with others or do you prefer to isolate yourself?
We tend to think that if we are talkers that we are good communicators, this is not necessarily so. I am sure you have met people who talk, talk, talk and are not really saying anything at all, they speak to hear themselves talk.
What about our communication with our teammates? Do we really put forth the effort to understand and be understood?
It is very important at work that there is time for teammates to do some socialization with one another. It is a known fact that the more the teammates get to know each other the more they are able to understand each other.
Most people tend to NOT communicate if there is conflict, thinking time will fix it. This is not always true. Without discussion the parties tend to believe they are correct and assign negative feelings toward the other person and without communication the situation becomes worse.
Smart work teams will adopt the 24-hour rule. That is, if you have any kind of difficulty or conflict with anyone on the team do not let more than 24-hours go by without addressing it. Actually, the sooner the better.
Improve your communication skills:
Be candid – open communication fosters trust
Speak truthfully, but kindly to your teammates
Be quick – do not sit on things. Address issues when they come up
Open communication increases trust, trust increases ownership, ownership increases participation!
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