The way you communicate with your employees makes a big difference in their morale. Since morale has been linked to productivity, poor communication means you may not be getting the most out of the people you’re paying. As a leader, good communication not only keeps your employees happy, but it sets a good example for them. Here are a few things you can do to improve your daily interactions.
Get to Know Your Employees
The truth is, no one communication style will work with every employee. You’ll certainly have to choose a tone for your group meetings, but one on one, it can help to get to know the various personality types. TTI Success Insights’ DISC: The Universal Language of Observable Behaviors can help you determine the communication style that works best. An employee who always walks quickly and uses plenty of hand gestures while talking probably has Dominance as a leading personality trait, which means you need to provide minimal supervision to get the best results.
Listen to Your Employees
It may seem like it’s obvious, but many unhappy employees simply don’t feel heard. Showing your employees you not only listen to what they have to say, but you seriously consider it, can inspire loyalty, reducing turnover and making them more passionate about their work. This is especially important for Compliance personalities, who prefer to have all the information before beginning a project. If one of these employees comes to you for more information and you don’t have time, it can easily lead to frustration and disgruntlement.
Encourage Team Communication
In a business with a positive work culture, employees not only feel they can easily communicate with their leaders, but they can also communicate openly with each other. Part of your role as a leader is to facilitate discussion among your team. Your meetings shouldn’t be you giving speeches while everyone else listens. Instead, give everyone a platform to talk and work together to resolve problems. This is especially important for those who have Influence is a dominant personality trait since they thrive off interacting and building relationships with others.
As a business leader, you likely have a full schedule without enough hours in the day to get everything done. However, if you can build your team, you’ll find that they eagerly help take on some of that work, freeing you up to focus on taking your business to the next level. Making the effort to get to know your employees’ inner motivations can also benefit you as you decide how to allocate the work since you’ll begin to know each person’s strengths and weaknesses.
