What do you do if your team's communication is hindering productivity?

It is crucial to observe and understand the problem, establish team dynamics that strengthen communication, which is good, but also to understand individual expectations through one-to-one meetings to generate an improvement plan involving HR. Problems need to be made transparent in order to be addressed and resolved.

Create a safe space for communication. Employees need to feel comfortable voicing their opinions, offering ideas, reporting issues, asking questions, and sharing criticism. For direct reports, they need to feel comfortable bringing issues to you, knowing they’re in a safe space when communicating within the set standards. For your leadership, you need to feel comfortable approaching them with issues. If not, gently force the issue to uncover the reasons why it isn’t a safe space for broaching problems with them. While horizontal communication focuses more on personal communication skills, it’s important to recognize issues that could arise from poor communication, rely on consistent efforts and communication should sound consistent.

I have found that spending a few minutes every month with my team asking them what they need from me or what their feelings are about our progress opens terrific lines of communication and allows me the opportunity to set expectations without making anyone feel like they are being singled out. We can all agree on the path forward and work as a team.

My team and I share a calendar so that we can all see what is on everyone's plate, have reminders for all tasks that need to be completed so we can pitch in if needed, and coordinate time off, meetings and training.

I encourage my team to bring to my attention any training possibilities that interest them, assign training to each of them through LinkedIn, and have memberships that notify me of upcoming training sessions to review. I participate in advisory groups and online Teams discussions to learn about industry happenings to find training that would be valuable to us all. There are many online "Lunch & Learn" sessions that I sign us all up for so there is always new information and ideas being presented to us all.

Again, monthly meetings, first one on one and then a brief team meeting afterwards has been invaluable. I ask for feedback regarding any issues they have faced, how they feel about how the company is doing and our part in it, ask for ideas to improve our performance or just ask for any support they need personally and professionally. Letting my team know that I am invested in their success and happiness is important to me. I also continually remind them that I am not their boss. We are a TEAM and I am just the person chosen to coordinate our teams objectives and hold the responsibility for making sure we are all successful.

Mediate any conflicts or misunderstandings among team members swiftly and impartially to prevent them from escalating and disrupting productivity.