Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The Art of Communication has changed - How do you ensure your Teams communicate effectively?

Communication is changing fast we can hardly keep up with it and yet we can still get it so wrong!

People 'hide' behind emails to deliver  bad news - do you do that. Do you power of an email and regret it later when the backlash is all apparent? Do you rely on email to deliver the news good or bad?

Email, text, twitter are all great when used well but can cause monumental problems when they are used to deliver the wrong message in the wrong way to the wrong people at the wrong time.

So it is not surprising when team relationships break down, when partnerships dissolve, when business and team's fail because of ineffective communication.

Most people avoid confrontation face to face and will do anything to stop that happening. They hide then power off the email to the poor unsuspecting person. They open it  and either fire one back or they wait gather momentum before they retort, cc'ing in everyone, escalating unnecessarily, Either way it does not work.

Teams can avoid this by coming together face to face regularly!
Teams must build the Trust and that is difficult to do once there is a problem between people.
Trust is built by having robust courageous conversations about the problems a team is facing.

Global Teams can use Tele Presence. A Tele Presence Team Session is just as good almost as a face to face. It is proving very successful in transforming teams who cannot meet face to face because of budget limitations.

A few tips;

1 Tell 'them' as soon as possible by phone or face to face.
2 Don't jump to conclusions without speaking
3 Don't send that email - stop and think first.
4 Put the effort in upfront to build the trust
5 Be honest - be open - just talk.

By all means use everything available to us to communicate better - just make sure you do it right!
Great Leaders take the time to communicate in person, face to face with regular telephone calls!