Improve communication and culture in your business with these 4 easy steps!
I was recently scrolling social media and came across an interesting anecdote about an employer who apparently was stood up for an interview.
The interviewee was about 45 minutes late for their scheduled interview with the hiring manager. Now, in my experience, if someone is more than 10 minutes late without notice, that person is a write-off.
In this case the interviewee comes bolting into the office drenched. He states that: there was an accident, so he got out of the taxi and walked part of the way in the rain.
The manager did not even bother to interview him. She simply got him a cup of coffee, told him that he was hired and to go home and get some dry clothes.
Let me tell ya – he ended up being her top performer on her sales team. Life happens! The question is are we WILLING to communicate and listen to our staff?
Based on the years of experience in running my own business, as well as fellow managers within other industries, here are the top 4 communication barriers holding your business back.
1. Ego & Attitude
2. Poorly Written Communication
3. Lack of Interest or Motivation
4. Language Barriers
1. Ego & Attitude
As an employer it can be a tough role to balance. Of course, you want the best for the company you manage and/ or have built, but we also have to rely heavily on the help of our staff that we [hopefully] trust.
Often as a member on senior staff we train and teach, but do we open our minds to learning from our staff, too? Do we think that we need to win every difference of opinion? Do we believe we know all? Are you willing to see another perspective? Are you willing to admit you may have been wrong or made a mistake?
Teamwork is the true definition of collaboration towards a common goal. If we can open our minds and subdue our ego, we will find our team can and will cooperate more; our team will grow more; most of all, our team will be willing to communicate more.
2. Poorly Written Communication
Have you ever tried to read someone’s handwriting and can’t quite make it out? Same thing applies to the way we communicate. Do you have many channels you communicate across: i.e. email, group chats, internal system messages, texts or phone calls, and we somehow expect everyone to be clear on the expectations of the job. Especially in a service-based industry, let’s do our best to speak across to our staff on one platform to avoid any type of miscommunication and error. Especially when things are changing so much on the fly.
3. Lack of Interest or Motivation
How are we engaging with our employees? The effort and time we spend with our employees to speak, teach and work goes along way when done in a fun and genuine way.
An engaged employee is someone who feels cared for and trusts their employer. These employees will not only remain dialed in and engaged at work to represent your brand in the best way possible, but they will likely stay loyal to you as well [less turn over, yay!].
4. Language Barriers
We’re extremely lucky to live in such a dynamic society with so many different cultures.
However, sometimes with this can come language barriers. Sometimes the staff we’re looking for may not be able to express themselves effectively in the main source language[s] in your area. Or, maybe they can’t speak the language well, but they can understand far more than we’d expect.
These staff members could be your greatest asset if you just take your time to teach and engage with them. Kindness is a universal language.
Solutions: ways to work around a language barrier would be to slowly explain procedures or processes and repeatedly going through them with your staff until they’re comfortable.
Another great way is via pictures! Creating infographics to clearly explain the steps of how to do their assigned task can save you time, effectively listen to you in a less comfortable language and serve as a guide to take with them on the job so that they do not feel too overwhelmed while trying to learn a new skill.
From our years working as fellow entrepreneurs and closely with some of the most successful companies to create greater efficiencies, we’ve learned these key four points can either hold your business back or propel it forward, if the actions to improve communication are taken.
This is our sweet sauce! StaffNet scheduling system was created to increase communication, increase prodcuity and scale up.
We aim to create better leaders in the industry for our clients.
Let’s boost each other up, collaborate and grow together. 🙌
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Much love,
Team StaffNet ✌️
