When managing performance of a team, an essential skill to doing this effectively is communication, written or verbal. If your team does not fully understand the responsibility given to them, they are being set up for failure. Here are the 7 C's to Communication:
- Clear. Your team should know why you are communicating with them and what your goals are by communicating with them. Goals should be spelled out separately.
- Correct. Make sure the communication is error-free. This can range from addressing someone by their correct name, verifying a policy beforehand, or spell-checking an email. Errors related to these distract from the message and reduce your credibility.
- Concrete. Communication should contain enough focus, detail, and facts, if necessary, to paint a clear picture of your meaning to your team. It is ok to stray away from complex jargon if it means that your message is more easily understood.
- Concise. Avoid convoluting your message with unnecessary filler words or repetition. Stick to the point and keep messaging short and simple, or else the risk of confusion will increase.
- Coherent. Your message should make logical sense. Check your grammar, word-choice, and your logical arguments to make sure they support each other.
- Complete. When communicating, your team should receive all of the information required to reach the conclusions?in your mind. If action needs to be taking, be sure to outline what that action should be.
- Courteous. Communication should be polite, friendly, professional, considerate, respectful, open, and honest. If you don't know if your communication is courteous.
In general, if you don't know if your communication meets these 7 criteria, think of your messaging from your team's point of view or you can write it down and have someone proof-read it from the perspective of your audience. Communicating well is key to setting up your team for success and will lead to improved work efficiency and improved team confidence.
