Communicate Effectively
Nothing sinks a relationship faster than communication problems. Without effective communication, it’s impossible to maintain respect, trust, and camaraderie. Worse yet, troubled communication breeds misunderstanding, resentment, and emotional distance.
Likewise, businesses cannot thrive and reach their full potential without a strong emphasis on communication. It’s not easy to converge different types of people with varying backgrounds, needs, personalities, and communication styles under one cohesive roof. Yet, it’s management’s responsibility to ensure that the staff is all on the same page.
For business owners and leaders, it can be difficult enough to spot a communication issue, much less solve it. When the communication is really suffering, a third party consultant can help reveal where the true heart of the miscommunication lies.
Do These Top Communication Challenges Sound Familiar?
Ghosting– Once a term known in the dating world; now a common term in business. One client may disappear suddenly, without reason, due to a family crisis, a financial dry-spell, or the discovery of a more favorable arrangement with one of your competitors. However, a pattern of “flaky” clients isn’t their problem; it’s yours! Companies need established parameters on how to communicate — both internally among staff members and externally with clients.
Employee avoidance – Do you struggle to “get through to” some of your employees? Feel like you’re wasting time asking employees to complete the same tasks over and over again? When employees fail to respond to your attempts at clear communication, leadership needs to take a closer look at how they are delivering their messages.
Delays – Are delays clogging your pipeline? Delays (and the excuses that accompany them) are not simply annoying; they waste everybody’s time and ultimately hurt your bottom line. Delays are frequently the cause of disputes amongst employees, standoffs with consumers, and disagreements with third party vendors. Find out the root cause of these hang-ups, whether it’s you or them, and learn how proper communication tactics can help avoid delays.
Team breakdowns – Are you experiencing frustration between steps of a project? Are your teams out of sync? Successful projects require accountability from team to team. Without proper communication, flow will inevitably suffer.
Communication overload – Today we are communicating on so many channels – email, phone, Skype, social media, direct messaging, text, virtual meeting platforms — it’s hard to keep it all straight. Information can get lost and employee productivity can suffer with redundant messaging occurring in so many different places. Repetitious communication can be just as harmful as no communication at all. We can help you determine which modes are the most effective for tackling the task at hand.
Unanswered correspondence – Social media, hotlines, and email platforms are great for client outreach, but what if you don’t have the personnel in place to handle the inquiries? Now your brand reputation is at stake. Find out how to eliminate the source of unnecessary drains on your resources and how to maximize internal efficiency before communication problems spiral out of control.
Unrealistic expectations – Are you continually making promises to clients you can’t deliver? Do you find it difficult to deliver the bad news and instead tell the client what you think they want to hear? Believe it or not, this is a common thread with companies of all sizes… BUT… it doesn’t have to be that way. The best businesses manage client expectations by setting realistic goals that can actually be achieved. Clients much prefer working with a company that means what they say, and says what they mean.
One-way communication – Delivering the message is not enough. You can’t talk At employees or clients and expect the information to be received. Effective communication is a two-way street that requires at the very least some measure of acknowledgement from the message recipient, if not an opportunity for the recipient to respond. Without proof of receipt, messages get lost.
