Communication can make or break a team. Today, we discuss some effective communication strategies for business leaders and managers.
One of the main drivers of ensuring success with every business endeavor is communication. The quality of conveying any information or message impacts the delivery of tangible or abstract outputs.
For example, an unclear instruction may create results outside of the desired or expected outcome. In addition, if the leader is strongly emotional in giving feedback or commands, it may discourage or demoralize team members.
As such, it is fundamental for any company leader to practice effective communication strategies to avoid conflict. In this article, we list the top nine communication strategies for managers, leaders, and business owners.
Top 9 Effective Communication Strategies for Business Leaders
Whether it’s talking to peers, subordinates, or clients, quality leaders have the ability to use the right words along with the right delivery. Some are lucky enough to be born great communicators. But nothing beats the power of learning too!
Here are some tips to apply in your communication strategies. We categorized the strategies depending on the method of information delivery: verbal, written, and remote communication.
Verbal Communication Tips
One key role in organizational leadership is facilitating meetings and delivering reports and announcements. Verbal communication is crucial in this process. Here are the best practices to excel in verbal communication.
Be straightforward
As a leader, you have to keep your team or business as productive as possible. Be direct with your expectations and instructions. In that way, your team is crystal clear on what to do, how to do it, and when you can expect it to be done.
Even when negotiating deadlines or deliverables, provide proper reasoning so the team can understand the level of priorities. Being straightforward shortens the amount of time spent on discussing requirements and gets the team to work faster.
Avoid filler words or language
To appear more professional and credible, practice avoiding slang, filler words, and irrelevant information when you speak. Even in team meetings, use an assertive yet respectful tone.
While humanity is important in handling people in your business, professional spaces should be treated as such. You can save the casual conversations for after hours or when the meeting is adjourned.
Learn the power of the Pause
People often think that leaders should be quick on their feet when answering questions. And for the most part, they should. However, there is no need to pressure yourself to vomit words just to avoid an awkward silence.
You can take a moment to think before answering. You can either give a response or an “I’ll get back to that once I have more information.” The power of pausing could save you from saying something that you might regret later or jeopardize your credibility as a leader.
Written Communication Tips
Communication letters, emails, and marketing messages—are just some of the written materials a leader encounters on a normal day. Here are tips to improve your writing skills and, ultimately, your ability to excel at written communication.
Cut down unnecessary information
Just like in verbal communication, it pays to cut out unnecessary clutter in writing. This simplifies the whole material and shortens the time a recipient consumes it. In doing so, the information exchange is much faster.
When writing marketing messages, some audiences may not be receptive to a lengthy message. So, your marketing content must be short enough to capture and arouse the interest of its reader.
If it doesn’t feel right, don’t write
Ever heard of “cancel culture”? In the era of consciousness and political correctness, which is a positive thing, you should infuse inclusivity in written materials when appropriate. Remember that words are permanent. So, choose your words carefully to avoid tarnishing your business’s reputation and credibility.
Don’t publish it if you are unsure about what’s written in your content. Take a step back and reflect on the message you want to convey. Then, think if there is a better way to express that message.
Get an editor
To avoid all kinds of written communication faux pas, the best way is to get an expert writer or editor to do it for you. With so many ideas and insights, you may haphazardly jot down whatever comes to mind. And it is easy to overlook these mistakes when writing.
Having a fresh set of eyes to review your work will prevent such a situation from happening.
Read: How to Hire Content Writers
Remote Team Communication Tips
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need for a new and improved communication paradigm. With sudden shifts in work arrangements, remote communication has become the glue that holds teams together.
So, managers and leaders must employ effective communication strategies to combat the common challenges of remote work. Here are the best practices in remote team communication.
Use productivity tools
The best way to continue business operations digitally is to introduce tools that boost productivity despite the remote setup. There are different tools depending on the nature of remote communication.
For video conferencing, Zoom, Skype, and Google Meet have become the most popular tools to use. As for messaging apps, Slack is now a great choice as it gained more traction during the pandemic. In 2019, they had 88,000 paying customers, with a reported 177% increase in 2021.
Avoid micromanagement and overcommunication
Even in face-to-face work activities, micromanagement can get into the nerves of your team members. Much more so when you try to get updates in short intervals of time. This dynamic may disrupt their focus on finishing a task as soon as possible.
So, what can you do? Make sure to provide proficient instruction and goals. Even better? Provide detailed steps to achieving the defined goal for the task at hand.
Set up support tools and channels
When working remotely, it’s easier to forget instructions, especially when you don’t have someone at arms-length to ask quick questions to.
So, you can create information hubs or channels that support your team’s productivity. For example, you can build a repository for your processes’ knowledge and FAQs. Try exploring tools like Monday or Atlassian’s Confluence. In this way, your members can simply visit these hubs for information instead of waiting for a response.
Work with Excellent Communicators Today!
Full Scale boasts a community built by excellent leaders. We are an offshore software development company led by successful serial entrepreneurs.
Matt DeCoursey is Amazon’s best-selling author of Million Dollar Bedroom and Balance Me. Meanwhile, Matt Watson is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to building tech companies, having two acquisitions in VinSolutions and Stackify before the age of 40!
The duo also created Startup Hustle, a podcast for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. They, alongside co-hosts and special guests, discuss different aspects of building a business—from leadership to communication and strategies. As such, they have mastered the different aspects of business communication, as evident in the growing client list of Full Scale.
Build a Software Development Team with Full Scale
As a software development company, Full Scale hosts a pool of talented software professionals from our offshore arm in the Philippines. We provide software resources that have undergone a meticulous interview, assessment, and examination process. In this way, you can be sure that every hire from Full Scale will support you in building your software product.
We also have project managers, quality assurance specialists, and content marketing professionals for all your operation and marketing needs.
