Fostering Effective Team Communication for Emerging Leaders

Welcome back. As you did your self-assessment, I hope you're never discouraged by these because there are certainly things that you are doing well already. Otherwise, you wouldn't be identified as an emerging leader.

But we also know that this thing called the leadership journey is never done, that we are investing in continually learning and continually learning and continually learning. The way I put it is, about the time I think I know everything about leadership, I find out I don't. I'm presented with a new situation, a difficult problem, and another kind of personality type.

There's always more and more and more. So now, let's move it forward and spend some time talking about how your talk matters. And so, when you're leading a team, obviously, you know that effective communication is critical.

And team members are expected to work towards a common goal. And that needs planning, and it needs cooperation and understanding of the individual roles, and good communication, and all this is easier said than done. Isn't it great if we could just read it in the participant guide, and it would happen? That would be lovely.

But nope, that's not the way it works. And so, there are some ways that you can encourage quality communications in a team environment. And you're going to be the role model for that.

You're going to be the person everybody wants to be like because of the quality of your communication skills. And so, you know, building rapport with your team is really, really important. And you want to encourage interaction in, with, and through the conversations.

It helps to have casual conversation, does it not? Being open, friendly, and influencing your team to have a good rapport with each other. And doesn't this go back to the things that we were talking about in building a network of relationships? The same skill sets that we are going to apply here. Encouraging questions and discussions.

I think one of the mistakes a team can make is, well, if we want to prove we're a really great team, we make a decision really quickly, and we all agree. Well, no, no, no, no, no. That doesn't mean you made a great decision.

It just means you agreed quickly. But let's encourage questions and discussions and make sure it's in a safe space where this can happen. That people don't get shut down.

That people can have a voice and people can have a different opinion, and we consider it exciting and energizing. Showing support for different ideas and suggestions. It doesn't mean that we adopt every idea and consideration, but there's support for it.

And so, we're not just going to dismiss ideas that are not terribly realistic, but maybe it's something we can discuss and learn from, and especially from your expertise. Clear and concise. That's really important.

And really making sure that you double-check that. You may think you're clear and concise, but if they don't think you're clear and concise, there's a gap there. But yeah, and one of the ways that you can tell if you're clear is can people understand what you're asking them to do and do it without too much difficulty? It says, have one-on-one meetings.

You know, group things are great, but don't I want to get to know each member individually, on its own, on their own? And, you know, have one-on-one discussions in a very personal setting. This isn't a work setting, but I think it's applicable. I have a group of sorority sisters from college.

And for the last 20-some years, we have met in the springtime for several days. It's about 12 of us. And we rent an Airbnb, and we get together.

And we would spend a lot of time together. But what I also loved about those weekends is I would have time to talk one-on-one with, and I would make it a point to talk to each of those sorority sisters, even if it's just 15, 20 minutes, a half hour, one-on-one. You know, what are you doing? How are you feeling? You know, what's working for you? What's not working for you? And we have such a strong group that when COVID hit and we could no longer meet for our spring get-together, we're back to it now, but now that COVID is over, we started Zoom meetings.

And we meet every Friday afternoon. And we have had 259 Zoom meetings where we enjoy one another. We had topics that we talked about, and we have gotten to know each other so much better.

And so when one of our sorority sisters just passed away recently, boy, did we come together like this to support each other, but also to support that sister's family as well. Yeah. One-on-ones, private conversations, group conversations, they all work.

Feedback. Again, without feedback, you're kind of walking blind. And so are the people around you.

So feedback is a way for you to say that you're listening, you're paying attention, and you value the opinion of your team members, and you hope they value your opinion. Team environment, back and forth, all of these things. So again, I don't have to be the designated leader to be able to make a difference in the team.

So we have a tired team in Exercise 5-4. And in this case, you're going to read a case study. And as you finish the case study, you're going to see that there are four questions.

What are the underlying issues that may exist in the scenario that you're reading? What ways can the leader use personal influence to help this team get back on track? Specific communication strategies, and what obstacles should the leader anticipate and plan to overcome? Take some time to do that.