We are often confronted with several different tasks that we need to carry out daily. For most of these tasks, it is almost impossible for us to carry them out on our own. As a result, we would have to work alongside other people to achieve the task. When it is a personal task, we might work with family members, friends, and even employ people skilled in that task. When it is an official task, we would have to work with our colleagues, and in some cases, contractors to achieve that task. Whenever more than one person is working on a particular task, they are working as a team. The more people working in a team, the more difficult it could be to manage the team. However, communication is a principal key that must be judiciously utilized when working with a team. Here are some of the reasons why communication is a principal key in team management.
Pass across information and instructions
Communication is required to pass across information and instruction when managing a team. The information and instructions to be passed across include the purpose of the team, the task to be achieved, the role of each team member as well as changes in what is to be done and instructions. This information needs to flow freely and quickly as soon as they are available. It is also important that everybody involved should clearly understand the information and instructions. This will help to ensure that everybody knows what is expected of them.
Receive feedback
Another major importance of communication is that it helps the manager, supervisors, and other team members to get feedback. For instance, if a particular team member has been given an assignment, he or she would have to update the team on the progress or if the task has been concluded. In some cases, there might be challenges the team member needs to pass across so that the management can solve the challenge or instruct on how the challenge should be taken care of. Communication is expected to be a 2-way thing and not just one-way. Thus, a good manager will not only give instructions but will be sure the instructions are understood. To achieve this, he would need to give space for questions and clarifications regarding the instruction passed across.
Tips to enhance communication in team management
The importance of communication requires that it should be passed across as soon as possible. Information that could save billions of dollars might become useless if it is passed, sometimes as little as 60 seconds late. Since the supervisors and managers would not always be on-site, they should be very reachable. Fortunately, telephones have made this possible as you could easily put a call across to the person that should receive the call. They will subsequently be able to take immediate action. You can read telephone opinions, experiences, and reviews to know how to choose a good phone that would not disappoint when there is the need to be reached for an emergency or other reasons as a team leader or team member.
It is also important that as a team leader, you are not strict and deliberately leave space for your subordinates to ask questions. When you are friendly enough, it would be easy for any information to be passed across to you, some of which might be sensitive or seemingly unimportant to a team member but very vital for the project.
If you are working with a large team and it would be impossible to be available to every team member at once, you should delegate authorities. Group the team members in groups of 5 to 10 with a leader. Thus, those team members should always be able to reach that leader who should be able to reach you or reach other leaders that will be able to reach you as soon as possible.