Before considering the principles of team communication, it is worth starting by clarifying the concept of what a team is and the essence of communication and information flow between its participants. There are many different definitions, while they mainly boil down to the fact that “a team is a group of people with complementary skills, presenting a common approach to work, a real commitment to activities aimed at achieving a common overall goal and specific goals, for which everyone feels jointly responsible.”[1] Referring to the business sphere, all employees who strive to achieve a common goal of the company can be considered members of the team.
Team communication is an aspect that is extremely important for a company to function properly. Unfortunately, many companies focus only on good relations with external customers, seeing them as tangible benefits. However, they overlook the essence of intra-organizational communication, yet the foundation of the company is the people, as it is they who build its position and it is they who strive together to achieve certain results.
The atmosphere in the team is also crucial. Good relations, empathy, giving each other respect, and mutual help build a positive atmosphere, which translates into a good mood of employees, increasing their efficiency and enthusiasm for work. Instead, any conflicts, distorted information flow, and miscommunication between employees have a negative impact on the tasks performed and the results of the company's operations.
One can see the benefits of an employee's access to information through communication with the entire team. Such a person, will identify more strongly with the organization, and thus will be more involved in all activities. He or she will perform his or her tasks much more effectively, knowing how they can translate into joint success or the achievement of the set goals.
Good communication in a team, starts with the supervisor. It is very often the case that, due to a flurry of duties and insufficient time, the team leader withholds information without sharing it with the other participants. This disturbs the pyramid described earlier, causing uninformed people to feel less important and unappreciated, and their incomplete view of the matter will cause him to interpret the given assumptions differently and not fully perform his duties well.
Staying on the topic of the leader, one of the most important aspects of effective communication in a team is how the message is built. One should avoid speaking from the position of “you” only try to form a statement without being judgmental. Instead of reproaching someone for always doing something wrong or never doing a certain thing, we should objectively and impersonally inform about irregularities without unnecessary attack, which will only cause aggression and annoyance in the other person, especially when the conversation takes place in the group. In the team there is also a place for constructive criticism, which should not aim to offend the other person, but add value. Here you should be especially careful and follow a few important rules, such as:
- Do not criticize a person completely, but focus only on specific behaviors, decisions or positions presented by him or her,
- Before criticizing someone, think beforehand about what you want to achieve with it,
- You should not criticize several things at once, but do it gradually, alternately referring also to positive aspects,
- One should try to talk about the pros and cons starting with the positives,
- One should not compare the person being criticized with others, as he or she may feel humiliated,
- Sarcasm and malice should be avoided during criticism.
One should also know how to respond to criticism by thanking the person for expressing someone's opinion, a new perspective on the matter, and pointing out a fact worth improving. However, if you disagree with the person making the comments, you should make this clear.
Another extremely important and fundamental principle of team communication is open discussion. It is worth organizing meetings of the whole team, in which each member of the team can openly express his or her views and opinions on a given topic. If each person has a different idea and different insights, they can complement each other. Even if someone suggests an idea that is not quite perfect, the other person can be inspired by it giving a great end result.
It is also worth bringing up any problems and stumbling blocks on the forum, as it is well known that a person learns best from mistakes (both his own and those of third parties). To eliminate the number of such mistakes, it is worth talking about them with others. By observing a mistake that someone else makes, we can guard against it ourselves. Often, it is also easier to find a way out of a problem in this way, since everyone can propose a different solution and together choose the best one. It is essential to avoid trying to hide mistakes, so that they do not give rise to larger, growing problems. At the same time, it should be remembered that people are reluctant to admit a mistake, fearing evaluation by others. Therefore, the atmosphere in the team must be friendly enough for everyone to feel comfortable and at ease, without feeling exposed to hostility or bad attitudes from the rest of the group members.
In joint discussions, mutual respect is very important, especially toward the speaker. Avoid the communication chaos that occurs if several people speak at the same time. However, it very often happens that while listening to another person's speech, various issues or observations come to our mind, which we would like to talk about as soon as possible. On the other hand, it should be remembered that in this way we can interfere with someone's speech, knocking him out of rhythm, and mutual shouting will not bring much good to our conversation. Discussions should be devoted to a given topic, without bringing up too many threads at once. If someone deviates from the topic, it should be politely pointed out to him that another meeting will be devoted to discussing the issue.
In mutual communication, we should also not forget about empathy. If someone expresses a different opinion than we do, we should “get into his skin” and try to understand the presented position, for our right does not always have to be the only right one. Let's listen to others attentively and try to understand why they think a certain way.
The principle of good teamwork is also to clearly divide tasks that will be feasible and rewarding for the individual, with specific goals to be achieved. Everyone should know what they are specifically responsible for, but don't overlook cooperation with others. It is necessary to communicate with each other at every level, so that it is always clear at what stage an issue is and who is currently dealing with what. Then you can avoid a situation in which one task is duplicated by several people, while another is skipped altogether.
Many management concepts in business say that management without proper communication means the risk of squandering the optimal use of the productive potential of employees in the enterprise. Thus, communication in a team starting as early as the management or leaders is an extremely important aspect, but it is not always easy. A group of people with even the greatest substantive knowledge and key competencies, but lacking the ability to communicate with others, will not function cohesively and properly. On the other hand, a team that respects the principles discussed above will not only work effectively and achieve the set goals, but also the very way to achieve them will be traveled in a pleasant atmosphere devoid of unnecessary conflicts and bad mutual relations. Translating this to the company's staff, by creating cohesive teams you can also avoid too much employee turnover.
People who work in teams where they feel important and united as a whole will be loyal to the company and their co-workers. A good attitude towards the company as a community will not give reasons for discouragement and the need to change employment.
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