How to Improve Effective Team Communication in the Workplace (Updated)

“What is team communication?” is a million-dollar question as it has various definitions based on business preferences and requirements.

What is Team Communication?

The sharing of information within or between teams is called Team Communication. Effective team communication at the workplace exemplifies the fact that teamwork makes the dream work. A seamless workplace team communication enables everyone to learn about any issue, which improves operations. It also fosters trust, friendship, morale, and employee engagement in the workplace.

Healthy and unhindered team communication plays a vital role in boosting the productivity and efficiency of any organization.

Working in isolation and in a silo-type environment will break down the equations between working staff and harm their productivity. Team communication helps in achieving goals in a unified and targeted way. 

As the saying goes,

it takes two to tango. No organization can afford to progress without bringing about a collective work culture among its employees.

At times communication can get strained due to the pressures of corresponding on multiple platforms to achieve the common objective of work. It is where team communication skills play a major role.

It is imperative that the larger a team grows in number the communication channel should be smarter and smoother, of course, safer. This fosters strong and binding teamwork for the overall benefit of the entity.

This being imperative, it makes a lot of sense to plan ways to improve workplace communication.

While effective team communication is not easy to achieve, a concerted and focused effort will ensure all the staff is on a single platform, irrespective of the place of work.

A few decisive steps enumerated below can help achieve the objective of team building and improving work efficiency levels. Take a look.

1. Gel Well

It pays to build a positive attitude and team communication skills among team members through inclusive strategies.

Higher trust, more open and sincerer will be the exchange of information within the organization.

The leader should ensure to have a personal rapport with the team to establish a fair and frank exchange of work-related opinions and viewpoints. Participative working and management styles are any day better than working in silos.

2. Instill Trust

When do you think you people will open out to you?

Is it your wealth, charm, or authority? Well, these qualities may rather ‘force’ colleagues and subordinates to be pliant than ensure a committed and honest response to work.

Let your actions stand up and showcase who you are. Lead by example and instill a higher degree of trust and team communication among the employees. Show genuine interest in people, and empathize with them to elicit fairer relationships to foster work culture. According to several surveys, nearly one-third of employees have a positive abhorrence towards their employers.

This feeling of distrust is a stumbling block in achieving a harmonious working. A flow of information breaks down in the absence of trust, seriously jeopardizing the working environment. It is also important to have good levels of trust between the organization and the customers. One way to achieve this is to buy up domain names that are extremely similar to yours so as to avoid any confusion. This link provides access to cheap domain names.

3. Get to know individuals better

A blanket opinion about the staff is a big no when it comes to managing them. Take time, understand each individual, and know their strengths.

By understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses, it’s easier to have effective team communication in the workplace.

No two personalities resemble fully. Comprehend the subtle variations in moods, responses, and reactions of one and all to varying situations at work.

Do not stereotype people.

4. Provide a level playing field

The ability to respect diversity begets positive vibes in the work environment.

Respect differing styles of working as long as the ultimate goal is not vitiated by divergent work styles.

While some may prefer team chat, some may depend on face-to-face interaction. However, both come under team communication skills.

Factor such preferences wherever possible and feasible to promote seamless communication among and with peers and staff. 

5. Team Collaboration

Excellent team communication develops a workplace where everyone develops skills and ideas to help them become more educated about duties to various degrees by collaborating as a team instead of as individuals.

6. Constructive Feedback

Giving feedback doesn't mean condemning a team member; it means communicating where they fall short on the necessary abilities, how to acquire them, and how they can excel with their skills. Be encouraged to give your feedback in person rather than through the team collaboration software.

7. Open-Door Policy

Do not establish a hierarchy or interaction rules for your team members. You must be transparent that you are there for them whenever they need you. Establishing protocols will only exacerbate the gap between you and your team.

8. Employ the best tool

Your work productivity and the quality of team communication will be determined by the work collaboration software you deploy. Therefore, it is advised that you use the best and most secure chat app that protects your data from every cyber attack and complies with all of your requirements, including conducting business meetings, rather than confining just to chat, calls, file exchanges, and other communication methods.

9. Team Building Events

A team-building event of this nature develops effective collaboration and improves team communication. Use these occasions to end hostility between teams and team members. Make sure everyone takes part in it. If your company lacks adequate funding, you can organize certain events that are affordable. For instance, you could invite your employees to demonstrate their creativity by making mental health memes.

10. Favoritism

Nobody wants to work under a manager preoccupied with rewarding their favorites while ignoring the accomplishments of others. Avoid favoritism because it will demoralize your employees and ruin the workplace environment.

11. Ensure transparency

When a team is working on a big project and coordinating multiple tasks,

it is advisable each member is aware of the goals, deadlines, and limitations in the project work sphere.

Also, each should be clear about his/her role, responsibilities, and duties.

Seamless exchange of necessary data among the members will facilitate the economy of time as well as the effort of team members. 

12. Unifying platform

Apart from the various psychological perspectives cited above regarding the importance of team communication, a unified platform to communicate enhances team communication in the workplace.

While choosing such a multi-purpose tool, the choice for entities, thanks to modern technology, is very wide. Effective team communication tool depends on several parameters like

Several parameters like

• ease of use;
• safety and security of data;
• multi-platform compatibility;
• cost etc form prime differentiators amongst the multitude of business chat apps available for users.

While the trail-blazing and trendsetting apps like Skype offer these and several other features in abundance, it comes at a cost.

With the office chat app domain swelling in size over the last few years, several low-cost but high on features and facilities like Troop Messenger have emerged in the market.

Many chat applications available now are proof of the importance of team communication for businesses irrespective of size and form.

Troop Messenger offers, among other features the following for ensuring effortless, safe, and secure communication within the entity:

• Individual chat for one-to-one communication
• Group creation to catch up on team activities in the group, and make team communication easier than ever before for business performance
• Multimedia sharing for exchanging audio, video, images, and still images was taken with your phone camera
• File sharing instantly and with ease.
• Data sharing with external apps to share attachments with third-party chat apps like WhatsApp, Viber, Gmail, etc
• Location and contact sharing to share your current location with your team and colleagues and directly make a call to catch up with your colleagues
• A forward message with one click to the group, individuals, or multiple contacts
• Attachment preview and download for easy checking files without downloading and download it with a single tap to save to a local device
• Group creation to catch up on team activities in the group, and make communication easier than ever before for business performance
• User Profile for being professional and recognized by others
• Pin chat to avoid multiple scrolling, just pin your favorite or frequent contacts at the top of the chat list.
• Data backup for automatic restoration of data on reinstalling Troop Messenger.
• Notification to facilitate the announcement of events, deadlines, celebrations, etc
• Server-side encryption for tight security and privacy of information and data.

What are the different types of team communication?

Some of the different types of team communication are as follows:

• Verbal: As was already established, one-on-one interaction is the ideal way to nurture effective team communication. Paying attention to one another and the dialogue promotes a sense of value and credibility. Face-to-face talks allow you to examine your team member successfully.
• Body Language: Body language is a method of communication in which information is expressed or conveyed via bodily behaviors rather than words. This behavior includes facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch, and the use of space.
• Written Communication: Any interaction that uses the written word is considered Written communication which involves expressing yourself clearly, using precise language, constructing a logical argument; note-taking, editing, summarising; and writing reports.
• Visual Communication: Visual communication conveys information and ideas using symbols and visuals. It is based on actions that convey concepts, viewpoints, and values using visual materials like text, images, or video. Given that the message or information is communicated using a visual medium, visual communication is considered one of the best team communication styles most likely to impact and foster improved comprehension significantly.

Conclusion 

The unified chat app domain is choc-a-block with business chat apps providing diverse features and catering to the myriad needs of users. While most of these team communication tools charge users monthly, few are available which provide free services with heightened security features. Choose wisely because improving team communication is the key to success