20 Ways to Communicate Effectively With Your Team



20 Ways to Create Effective Communication in the Workplace

Effective communication in the workplace is imperative in a leadership role. An age-old aphorism goes, “It’s not what you say, but how you say it.” Good communication is what separates a poor leader from an exceptional one. Having effective communication skills is the key to good leadership.

When you communicate well with your team, it helps eliminate misunderstandings and can encourage a healthy and peaceful work environment. Efficient and open communication with your team will also let you get work done quickly and professionally.

The moment you get the lines of communication open with your team, the process of carrying out tasks and projects will most likely go by smoothly. Plus you will be surprised how meeting targets will become a whole lot easier.



Ways to Create Effective Communication in the Workplace

1. Open Meeting

It is easier to communicate your passion and how you feel to your team via open meetings. In this kind of forum, they will not only hear what you are saying, they will also see and feel it. This approach still remains one of the best approaches to communicate effectively with a team.

2. Emails

In official settings, communication via email remains potent. It will enable you to pass messages to members of your team without pulling them out of their workstations.



3. One on One

Experts have been able to prove that some people understand better when you take them aside and talk to them on a one-on-one basis. Ensure that you maintain eye contact with them to enable the message to sink in.

4. Create a Receptive Atmosphere

To effectively communicate with your team, you must create a receptive atmosphere. Avoid a tense environment at all costs because when you communicate in an overly intense manner, the message you are trying to share might not be well understood or retained.

5. Communication via Training

Your training should be tailored towards communicating certain information to your team members. Most employees take training serious, especially when it’s part of their appraisal.

6. Display Confidence and Seriousness

Ensure that you display confidence and seriousness to ensure that you will not be taken for granted. When your team members notice any uncertainty and lack of seriousness when you’re communicating with them, they are likely to treat the information with disdain or disregard.



7. Use Simple Words

The truth is that everybody cannot be on same page when it comes to vocabulary. Therefore, to be effective in your communications with your team members, use words that can be easily understood. When ambiguous words are used, you can be misunderstood and/or waste precious time having to explain yourself.

8. Use Visuals

Place visuals at strategic positions around the workstations of your team. They should not just hear the message, they should also see it. This gives room for better comprehension.

9. Listen to Your Team Members

Communication is intended to be a two way street. Don’t just talk because you are the leader without listening to anyone else. Encourage them to open up so you can be well guided when communicating in the future with them. You have two ears and one mouth –so you must listen more than you speak.

10. Use Body Language

Your body language will pass your message faster and better. Master the art of using body language when communicating with your team. Stand/sit up straight, use smiles, handshakes and eye contact.



11. Act Out Your Message

Someone once said, “Tell me what you want me to do and I might forget it, but do it in front of me and I will never forget it.” Acting out your message is a very potent way of communicating with your team. Let them see you do what you want them to do, and watch their excuses disappear.

12. Use The Appropriate Tone of Voice

One word can mean a different thing when said in a different tone of voice. Make sure you use the appropriate tone of voice to communicate your message to your team so that you won’t be misunderstood and discourage or demotivate members or cause them to shut down completely out of fear.

13. Avoid Unnecessary Repetition

If you want your team members to take you serious, never sound like a broken record and don’t beat a dead horse. Tell your team members what you want them to know or do and ask them if they are clear about it. If they are not, only then do you repeat what you have said.

14. Use Presentations

Some people grasp messages easily when pictures and sounds are involved. Using presentations like Microsoft PowerPoint to communicate with your team will give them the opportunity to refer back to it if they aren’t clear about certain things.



 

15. Be Humorous

Using friendly jokes when communicating with your team members will help pass your message along in a more relaxed way. This method of communication has been proven to be a highly effective way of dousing tension. When the atmosphere is unfriendly and intense, being humorous does the trick. If you must use jokes, please don’t overdo it. Remember, you are not a stand-up comedian.

16.  Be Articulate

Communication is indeed a skill that must be learned by all, especially if you want to lead any group of people. Being articulate  when you communicate to your team members makes it easier for them to understand your message.

17. Avoid Mumbling

Your team members should be able to hear you clearly. When communicating with them, try as much as possible to speak clearly and not mumble words. When you mumble words or speak too quickly, you may assume that they are clear on the subject. But the truth is, they might not be. It also shows a lack of confidence on your part.

18. Encourage Feedback

Don’t just talk and walk away. Give room for feedback so that you can measure the effectiveness of your style of communication. It will also afford you the privilege of knowing if your message was well understood.



19. Gesticulate

Use your hands to demonstrate your message. Make hand motions and signals to establish the seriousness of your subject matter when communicating with your team members. This shows that you understand what you are trying to relay to them. Just don’t let your body movement become too exaggerated and intense.

20. Be Appreciative

After every communication session, via whatever means you have decided, always remember to thank your listeners for their time. It will cost you nothing and it’s a simple courtesy.

Remember that the point of working as a team is to share ideas and boost productivity. When effective communication in the workplace is hampered, it can sidetrack the entire effort.

You must work hard at these communication tactics and create ground rules to keep everyone up to date, which helps avoid confusion and ensure the completion of the project with ease.



Team Photo via Shutterstock

Presentation Photo via Shutterstock

Open Meeting Photo via Shutterstock

52 Comments ▼

Valentine Belonwu Valentine Belonwu is from Nigeria and is the Founder of Business Gross, a site designed to help individuals understand that the economic and political climate is crucial when mapping out a quality financial strategy in their lives.

52 Reactions
  1. In all of these situations, keep it short, simple and to the point. Whether good or bad, belaboring the point takes away from the message.

  2. Also, team building activities and out-of-work activities can foster bonding and camaraderie among the team. This way, team members would be more willing to contribute and reach the team’s goals.

  3. All great ways to communicate. And Communication is key. Very few things set the tone of employment mood then lack of communication. All employees like to be “in the loop” with company choices and decisions. Be excluding employees, a company can shut out their best performers and actually drive them away from the company.

  4. face to face or one on one communication is best for my business and i really satisfied with it.

  5. it is not what you say, but how you say. thank you for this article

  6. Effective communication in the workplace can increase work productivity and output which leads to the success of the business. Thank you for sharing the bunch of ways that would be helpful for business success.

    • I agree a team that is working together to get the same objective is always better numerous minds are always better than one, different prospectives always help to get the outcome more efficiently.

  7. I agree with all these methods. Being open for anything ideas are always good. No one wants a work environment that is quiet and have there head down, un fun. Communication is what also makes time go by fast.

  8. Face to face communication is the best way for any communication

  9. Agreed! Communication is key to all successful projects and a lack of adequate communication can prove to be the downfall of many what would otherwise be successful. We’ve summed up a list of things to talk over with your Project Manager at the beginning of a new web/mobile project: https://netguru.co/blog/10-questions-to-project-manager. Hope you’ll find it useful!

  10. Sandra M harrell

    “Face to face communications is still my favorite I’m able to see my audience and with their moves or faces I can get immediate feed back . and is true the way we project ourselves is how they are going to take it, keep it fresh interesting informative and open for questions,

  11. Face to face communication is the best because some people understand signs,demonstration can easy the understanding and also Avenue to air there views.thanks for this article

  12. What makes communication at work differrent from communication in your home?

  13. In addition to above, using tools like R-HUB web conferencing servers, webex, etc. you can effectively conduct team meetings, online meetings etc. These tools allow you to effectively communicate with your remote team.

  14. I agree to the above ways of communicating for the betterment of our business sites,,,,,mr proximal from Baringo Technical college-Kenya.

  15. Open communication is so important in the workplace. A think that the most effective types of leaders are pleasant and approachable. When individuals are close minded, it stunts growth within a workplace and diminishes creativity.

    • i love the above ways of communication indeed they are going to help in as meet the public . Thank you very much

  16. Well put!

    Communication is key to success. Also understanding the subject, and what you want your receiver to learn. will keep you, and you’re team RELAX.

    • Thank you for improving my ability to use face to face communication style in my business it is doing miracles .

  17. Communication is at the very heart of the workplace. Communication is vital to any organization, no matter what its nature of business and size.

  18. You’ve got some great communication tips for a business here. I think a lot of people underestimate how important communication is to a business. The office I work at isn’t great at this, even through emails and in meetings, like you said, so maybe I’ll talk to my boss about this.

  19. I recently got a new job and I was having trouble learning how to communicate with my coworkers effectively. I loved the advice to be humorous and use friendly jokes, I like to joke around outside of work and I didn’t know if that would be appropriate in a work setting. I will try to be more lighthearted and fun at work and see if that helps me be more comfortable communicating with my coworkers!

  20. Its always good to work as team and sharing all you have,Thus you are easily accomplished your goal and objectives.

  21. well noted

  22. For every situation, we need a specific style, but the best type of communication is “open meeting” or” face to face” when we meet with all of the team, but the style “one on one’ when we meet with each of them if you want to discuss more particular subjects. that we adapt our communication style to the group and/or to the various personalities same for management style, we cannot have one management style, we usually adapt to each person just like we usually cannot have one communication style, because we cannot talk the same way to everyone.

  23. We find a great way of bridging between 1 to 1s is using a tool like Weekly10.

    We have a weekly check-in with employees globally and managers are encouraged to provide quick feedback and support. For us this is a good way of building an agenda for the next 1:1, and allowing managers to come prepared with solutions rather than leaving with problems!

  24. As a manager, I feel I use 9 (listen to team members). I am constantly doing this on a daily basis. Though I am the manager, I understand that I do not run the store on my own. I must rely on others and part of that is listening to team members and understanding their concerns and suggestions. In presenting, I feel I struggle with 6. Confidence at times. There are times when I am not confident in what I am speaking about. I am able to understand the image I am trying to get across, however I struggle to carry out that message.

  25. Totally agree that the communication is the key factor in all successful projects. I have seen live examples of people who underestimate the importance of business communication and are not able to succeed in their careers.

  26. Effective communication in the workplace can increase work productivity and output which leads to the success of the business. Thank you for sharing the bunch of ways that would be helpful for business success. I agree with all these methods. Being open for anything ideas are always good. No one wants a work environment that is quiet and have there head down, un fun. Communication is what also makes time go by fast.

  27. Take these with a pinch of salt and do what feels right to you & your personality. Don’t overthink. It can look strange if you all of a sudden start cracking jokes in meetings.

    At my workplace we’re very big on visuals which works super well. And there’s no ‘whales’ that don’t let you speak or don’t listen to what you’re saying. The whole atmosphere is quite relaxed, but professional.

    I think structure is also very key to communication since side chat can quickly eat into your next meeting. Best way around this is to call it out and quickly move on.

    that’s my 2 cents

  28. Very interesting facts revealed in this piece of write up. Yes open meetings have the benefits, but unfortunately it is not the option in many working set ups now. I enjoyed reading this. Thank you for sharing this.

  29. Very interesting facts revealed in this piece of write up. Yes open meetings have the benefits, but unfortunately it is not the option in many working set ups now. I loved the thing that act it out your message to say it with effect. I enjoyed reading this. Thank you for sharing this.

  30. communication in group work is essential. Increases work efficiency and employee comfort. We have selected the most important values for us in this article:

  31. As we are talking about team, manager should be the center of this topic and what things and qualities should be in manager to be a good manager for team and organization. I researched online found a interesting blog mentioned in this comment. i think its worth to read.

  32. First of all thank you for publishing this informative article. Most important facts revealed during this content. Yes open meetings have the advantages , but unfortunately it’s not the choice in many working set ups now. I enjoyed reading this. many thanks for sharing this.

  33. Thanks for sharing this informative article about number of way to Communicate Effectively With Your Team, I like It, I hope I will see more updates in the future.

  34. Informative Every Founder Team Leaders and team needs to learn this.