How to create a culture of team communication
To build a driven and collaborative team that will stick with you as your company grows, you need to foster open communication within the workplace. Taking the time and energy to communicate with your staff will lead to trust among employees, as well as a more effective, productive, and satisfied team. Ensuring your employees feel heard is one of the easiest ways to boost company morale and improve employee retention.
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Follow these tips to create a motivated team that feels comfortable openly communicating with one another:
Make Expectations Clear & Follow Up
When delegating projects to your top performers, you need to make time to check in with them even when work is extremely busy. In order to maintain effective workplace communication, prioritize your employees by setting clear expectations and following up throughout the project to help them overcome any obstacles they’re facing. Ensuring you’re looped in every step of the way will reduce the chances of miscommunication.
Schedule Regular 1:1s with Your Staff
Adding a recurring time to your calendar for meetings with each of your direct reports is the best way to open up a line of communication. Without a set meeting, it can be easy to keep pushing off something you want to speak with your staff about (or that they want to bring up with you!).During your 1:1s, set an agenda that is consistently covered each time. Have your employees come with challenges they’re facing, recent accomplishments, or questions and feedback. Touching base with your employees will help you have a better pulse on what’s going on around you.
Utilize Communication Tools to Enhance Dialogue
Because your employees will be scattered between the production floor, the taproom or tasting room, the back office, and the open road, it’s important that you have a way for different teams to communicate when they aren’t in the same space. Using modern technology like instant messaging and a business management software built for your industry can be a great way to keep everyone in the loop of important company updates or simply check in to see how they’re doing. Building up the relationships between your employees is an easy way to cultivate buy-in among the team.
Hold Team & Company Meetings
While 1:1s allow you to better communicate with individual employees, you also need to spend time building a strong relationship among your staff. Holding weekly or monthly meetings with specific teams or the entire company allows for open dialogue, reflection on company goals, and the opportunity to problem solve together.
Recognize That Communication Is a Two-Way Street
You need to make sure your employees feel heard when they speak up and offer feedback or constructive criticism. Whether you’re in a group setting or a 1:1, you need to actively listen to what your staff is saying. If you don’t show them the respect they deserve, they aren’t going to listen to you when you have something important to share — breaking down the strong communication channels you worked so hard to build. Offer your full attention, listen to what they have to say, and ask clarifying questions as needed. Active listening can be hard when there are a million tasks on your to-do list, but giving the team your undivided attention is paramount.
