Want to improve your communication within your team? Does your team act as if they are just a group of people instead of a real team with the same purpose?
Here are some tips to clear the air and create better team dynamics:-
Be interested in your teammates. Increasing your level of interest, even slightly, can make a difference for people. We are just wanting for others to pay attention to us. The level of interest is in direct correlation to the overall results of the team.- Ask questions for clarification. We listen and speak through all sorts of filters – opinion, judgments, experiences, education. It’s truly hard to hear exactly what someone is saying through all of the noise. Always ensure you have received a communication.- Respect teammates in all ways. Everyone is on a team to complete a goal. Everyone has been selected because of who they are and what they bring to the group.
How can you honor the greatness in teammates today?
- Let them know what they are doing right. Make sure you say what you see in the other person’s behavior. Things like — how observant they were in a meeting, how they took the time to come to the meeting. It must be fact and not an opinion about what they did.- Be clear about your requests. When requesting something from another teammate or stakeholder, ensure the communication was heard and clearly understood.
Ask for them to tell you in their own words, what you communicated. You may be surprised what you hear!
- When reading email, DO NOT READ into the words. And whatever you do — don’t take anything personally! Don’t jump to conclusions without verifying what the email really says.
- Pay attention. Like increasing your level of interest, really pay attention to all the nuances that are happening in communication. Body language, tonality of the voice, inflections, energy, and enthusiasm; is the communication normal for the communicator?
- Put more ‘human’ in the connection. Try connecting face to face or voice to voice – and particularly when communication between teammates is suffering. To avoid the suffering, try different things! Also try an ‘email free’ day
- Don’t send email for a whole day (includes text messaging!) and see what happens!
- Come up with communication strategies and norms as a team. What will be the communication protocol of choice? Will you have team distribution lists? Will you have a team website to post documents and build a project file online? How often, where and when will the team communicate as a whole?
These tips can get you back on track with projects in no time. A team is a group of individuals who are wanting to do a good job, be valued for what they do, and be recognized for their participation.
Take the time to think about your communication. You will be glad you did!
Author: Patty WaltersArticle Source: EzineArticles.com
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