What is one best practice for communication in the workplace?

To help you communicate effectively in the workplace, we asked HR leaders and small business owners this question for their best insights. From practicing active listening to providing your team with timely feedback, there are several strategies that may help you communicate better within your business.

Here are 11 best practices for communication in the workplace:

• Practice Active Listening
• Skip the Slides
• Strengthen Your Documentation Process
• Consider a Reverse Mentorship Program
• Communicate Successfully with the Three C’s
• Encourage Two Way Communication
• Know Which Method of Communication to Use
• Explain the Context of Tasks
• Utilize Microsoft Teams
• Implement Slack to Keep Everyone Connected
• Provide Your Team With Timely Feedback

Practice Active Listening

Active listening is one of the best communication tools for effective collaboration. The ability to let whomever you are speaking with know that you are engaged in the conversation is a great practice both personally and professionally. Active listening- also called conscious or mindful listening- involves more than listening to people’s words. It’s making a deliberate effort to hear, understand, and retain the information someone is relaying to you instead of giving them a fraction of your attention. Mindful listening is extremely important when collaborating with teammates. Doing so lets coworkers know that you are genuinely interested in completing a project, finding a solution, or achieving a goal. While active listening takes some practice, a simple head nod or well placed “yes” will work to significantly improve your communication and collaboration skills.

Chris Gadek, AdQuick

Skip the Slides

PowerPoint has its place, but it’s become a crutch for poor communicators. It is so pervasive in the workplace that many people talk through, or worse, directly to their slide deck ignoring the audience completely. Remember people who can read, cannot NOT read. If you put words in front of them, your audience will unconsciously tune you out. Slides, if used at all, should be image-based and designed to reinforce your key points. When speaking, you are both medium and message. Need 87-text heavy slides to make your point? Skip the speech and craft a whitepaper.

Tim Toterhi, Plotline Leadership

Strengthen Your Documentation Process

With more and more workplaces being increasingly distributed, it’s time to aggressively hone your communication skills. For instance, Zoom meetings might require a follow-up email outlining your discussion in order to streamline communication. Since many teams no longer have the capabilities of meeting in-person, you want to ensure that things don’t get lost in translation. Do this by tightening up your verbiage, solidifying a meeting scheduled, and strengthening your documentation processes.

Matt Woods, SOLD.com

Consider a Reverse Mentorship Program

Companies should consider a reverse mentorship program to give younger generations a voice and the opportunity to lead change. Millennials and Gen Z provide insight into modern values and lifestyles, which allows their senior counterparts to have a better understanding of marketing strategies and packaging developments, to name a few that benefit from the program. For example, in one session, a young executive can shed light on sustainability within the packaging and the purpose of doing so. In return, the senior employee can offer leadership experience in a specific field. The ability to collaborate and communicate with different age groups not only engages workers but develops relationships as the business grows.

Corey Ashton Walters, Here

Communicate Successfully with the Three C’s

Sustainable success starts with a healthy workplace culture, easily remembered with the 3 C’s. The first is compassion- Empathy is not storytelling. Hold space for others, and only offer advice if requested. The second is capacity- How are you really doing? Having awareness about your own capacity and that of others can change our approach to the task at hand. Be realistic with expectations for yourself and others. Explore practical ways to relieve stress while letting go of extra pressure brought on by hustle culture. The third is communication- Express clear expectations upfront and as-you-go to avoid unnecessary conflict, surprises, or pressure. Thank you for sharing. Is there anything else? Is one of the most powerful phrases we can use to cultivate all three C’s. When we make space for listening and healthier communication styles we’re able to achieve the lasting results we desire and deserve.

Benjamin Meskin, Cabrella

Encourage Two Way Communication

Listening is just as important to effective communication in the workplace as talking is. To truly be successful in communicating it is crucial to listen and understand what is being said. Most likely there is a lot of communication going from the top down in the workplace. Encourage employees to speak up as much as possible. This will establish a two-way communication channel that will prove fruitful for your business in a number of ways. Laying the foundation for consistent feedback whether it be weekly, monthly, or quarterly, will send the message that everyone’s input is valued and truly heard.

Jeffrey Pitrak, Transient Specialists

Know Which Method of Communication to Use

Understand which method of communication is most appropriate for relaying specific information. In other words, should a message be expressed in a meeting, phone call, email, or instant message? Being mindful about how you relay information and learning your team’s communication preferences will help produce a streamlined workflow.

Benjamin Farber, Bristol Associates, Inc.

Explain the Context of Tasks

When people are hired into a company, they have been advertised a role and hired for their particular skill set. So this is the expectation they are entering with. The reality of joining a company is that there are many people with different roles, different agendas, and different politics or objectives that they need to navigate.

One of the challenges I witness people encountering most in my career coaching work (and in past experience working in advertising agencies), is the problems that arise when people do not understand the CONTEXT of the task they’ve been asked to do or the role they’ve been hired for. They will present a bunch of work to their manager or team, and be met with uncontextualized yes’ and no’s – often coming away feeling frustrated, confused or undervalued. A best practice when it comes to workplace communication, is not just to explain the task, but to explain the context of it. Why does it matter? Who does it need to persuade? What boxes does it need to tick?

Hannah Ray, TAKE Coaching Amsterdam

Utilize Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a must-have for internal communication. Due to availability and training purposes, it’s beneficial to record team meetings for a manager or new hire. Recording and screen sharing options allows employees to go back and review the content after PTO or refresh their memory so no one has to repeat information twice. It can be a helpful guide for projects that require a lot of steps or an important meeting for a new launch.

Natália Sadowski, Nourishing Biologicals

Implement Slack to Keep Everyone Connected

Slack allows employees to stay connected with colleagues and work on projects in any office setting – in person or remote. Workers can send a manager a direct message instead of tracking them down in the office, which makes them more readily available virtually than they would be in person. They can quickly reply to urgent messages during their busy meeting schedule or give feedback in between conference calls. As the traditional office world evolves, Slack is an effective way to communicate with team members more than ever before.

Jodi Neuhauser, Ovaterra

Provide Your Team With Timely Feedback

Leaders need to be able to communicate effectively and directly. Providing your team with feedback in a timely manner can be really important when it comes to helping everyone improve. As a leader, you should strive to better your team whenever possible. Not only is this beneficial to the person you are helping improve, but the team as a whole will benefit in the long run as everyone improves their skills.

Leo Livshetz, Unhide

 

 

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