The communication you have with your team should be sharp, clear, quick, and easy. When the communications within your team aren’t clear, then it is more likely you will suffer from miscommunications, missed deadlines, and less productivity.
Effective communication doesn’t always require long emails. It can be short emails that get to the point. Inefficient communication will need countless emails, many ‘going over’ the conversation, and to put it in numbers, Forbes covered a study that stated over 17 hours a week was wasted on clarifying communication.
How can you manage your communications and push for clarity and efficiency?
Clarity
Being as straightforward as possible is essential. It is vital that when you are trying to make sure someone understands their role, you have put the time and effort into communicating it with them effectively.
New people to your team might not understand what the ‘SEO Wizard’ is meant to do.
Make it clear. Repeat it.
Write it down
If you are communicating most of the time verbally, then it might be time to make sure that you are taking clear notes. Those notes can then be sent to everyone who attended the call (and those who didn’t). This can clarify and serve as a reminder for things that people didn’t manage to hear on the call.
A great idea is to also have each member write down their own action points and collate them at the end for everyone to use. That way, everyone knows who must do what.
Management
Many times, team members will add documents to emails, and it can take a long time to find them when needed if not immediately saved. Not only that, but the name on the file might not be obvious to you either. Both paper and digital files are needed, and one of the key things you can do to reduce this waste of time is to use a digital mailroom.
Mastering document and record management can help with organizing files and make finding what you need fast and easy—minimizing the amount of time that you need to spend emailing and chasing files.
Updates
It is important that you keep regular and consistent updates. After the first initial meeting, there should be a set and expected path for updates. These updates will make sure that everyone is aiming for the same goal and allow you to pick up on anything that might not be going as well as it could be. You can also ask for regular updates and update your master file and project as required.
Crisis
It is very easy to get angry with your teammates if something hasn’t gone well. Cross words can sour the speed at which people can be productive or are willing to respond to emails and provide updates. Keep calm and focused on the final outcome, and this will help to stop your communications from becoming stilted and difficult.
Keeping people focused on the end goal, being approachable and firm will enable your team to be productive.
