Toolkit: Communicate Clearly and Often

LEADERSHIP CONNECT TOOLKIT

Connect the Dots Consulting, we are committed to providing practical and timely leadership coaching and development. At a time when leaders are stretched to the limit, we want to share a Toolkit for effectively leading and connecting with your teams.

ToolKit: Communicate Clearly – and Often

Communicate clearly and often to reduce the opportunities for frustration, disengagement, and performance challenges.

As we adjust to new work environments, employees are looking to their leaders for clarity even more than usual.

Although leaders do not have all of the answers and are dealing with their own questions, establishing a regular cadence for communicating priorities and expectations and providing feedback is important. And, because most of our communication will be done virtually, by phone and email, taking the time to be deliberately clear is critical.

Establish a regular meeting cadence with your team and each individual.

Continue staff and one-on-one meetings.
Send meeting agendas, keeping the scope tight and relevant.
Establish expectations for participation.
Include time to recognize team members’ well-being.

Make yourself available to your team.

Let your team know the best ways to communicate with you during this time.
Reinforce and “apply” organizational communication and policies to increase understanding and compliance.
Appropriately share how you are feeling about and managing the situation.

Be aware of assumptions: They will throw you off track every time!

Be specific about your expectations: “As soon as possible” may mean tomorrow to you, and next week to your team member.
Keep the basic communication model in mind: As information is exchanged between the sender and receiver, there may be a disconnect between what is intended and what is understood—particularly when you are using a different medium than usual (e.g., email vs. face-to-face).

We would appreciate hearing from you about which strategies are working or not working in our evolving workplaces. Please drop us a note, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, or check out our website.

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