It's good to talk: How to open communications with your team

Whatever business you’re in, it’s essential that members of your team feel that they can talk to you. 

Why is it so critical that lines of communication stay open? 

Well, for one thing it will help you to manage the performance of the business, but more than that it will ensure that staff are motivated, happy and willing to work hard! 

Here’s how you can open communications with your team… 

Arrange weekly team meetings

A regular group discussion that happens without fail (even if you have to adjust the meeting time and location to account for other work events) is really useful. 

This kind of communication will give your team a chance to air their concerns, share their successes and reinforce the feeling that you’re ‘in this together’. 

So, talk about your workload, divide tasks up amongst the group and give everyone the opportunity to chip in. 

Book regular one-to-one meetings

Face to face meetings in a private setting are important as there will be many team members who feel too timid to speak in large groups or would prefer to share their concerns confidentially.. 

One-to-one meetings are a great opportunity to catch-up with your team on a more personal level. You’ll be able to check how their latest project is going, get an update on their workload, and chat about their performance.  If things are operating smoothly it may provide them with a chance to request more work or take on a different kind of challenge. 

Provide the right tools and equipment 

As well as ‘big chats’, there are lots of smaller instances where good communication is vital. Whether it’s informing team members of progress, sharing documents or keeping track of tasks, we all do a lot of communicating every single day! 

Streamline the process and ensure that lines of communication stay open by investing in human resources software to monitor workloads. Additional features like messaging and notification systems, could help to streamline communication across the whole organisation.

Encourage ad-hoc discussions 

To really make sure that your team communicates well with one another, foster a culture whereby it’s normal to get up from desks to chat to other colleagues when necessary. 

Not everything needs addressing in a formal email or in a pre-arranged meeting! So, encourage your team members to have proactive discussions, ensuring that things just get done. 

Make yourself available 

It’s best practice for you to sit alongside your team members so that they’re able to speak to you whenever they need to. But if you have an office of your own, make sure you operate an ‘open door’ policy. 

Finally, practice ‘active listening’ and encourage team members to do the same 

Many of us think we’re good listeners, but most of the time we’re actually distracted, thinking about something else or already formulating a response to what is being said. 

So, consider doing some training on the subject of active listening to make sure your team members are really hearing one another, ensuring that not just communication, but effective communication, is taking place.