The most important element of effective and useful communication in your business or organization is timely delivery, this is key to the success or failure of any endeavor. Timely communication can be defined as useful communication occurring early and promptly.
Timely Communication is not Just About Minutes and Hours
People in organizations need information early so they can act promptly. In addition, when communication is timely in an organization or enterprise, its leaders can make the most of every opportunity. It affords them the time they need to plan and analyze the information. More specifically, timely communication can help organizations make the most of every opportunity through informed decision-making.
Successful and seamless project management includes successful, effortless, and on-time communication between the sales department, the project manager, and the leadership. This is the key to your business's productivity and bottom line.
What Gets in the Way of Timely Communication?
If you attend a basic class on communication, one of the things you'd learn is that noise is the biggest hindrance of effective communication. Although, noise isn't just about sounds - it also includes distractions competing for the attention of any of the people involved in the conversation.
Take two people in a quiet room as an example. While there's a total absence of competing sounds, if one of them were lost in thought, chances are they wouldn't hear the other person if they tried communicating something to them.
For example, a manager may be so focused on their emails or something equally intensive that they don't hear spoken communication from their teams. This is not a good thing because missed communication sometimes means loss of income opportunities. In other cases, it can lead to bigger issues.
5 Tips for Better Communication
1. Specify who is on the team and know what is on their minds -
Beyond specifying who is on the team, it is important to clarify each individual's roles and responsibilities. Take time to learn what is going on in the lives of the people with these responsibilities. Doing so can help you capitalize on opportunities or avoid danger.
2. Develop communication procedures -
Outlining procedures for communication will eliminate any confusion by providing employees with a clear-cut plan of action.
3. Establish a check in hour each day or week -
Set up a check-in time where you discuss what went right, what went wrong, and what lessons everyone learned from the day. As part of your procedures, it is a good idea to provide employees with platforms where they can share project updates, new ideas, questions and concerns, and so on.
4. Encourage Interaction -
Team interaction is an investment in building positive relationships between coworkers. When your team members know and care about each other, they are more likely to collaborate and share honest feedback.
5. Lead by example -
Model the communication styles you want to see by treating employees with respect, providing and asking for honest feedback, and celebrating teamwork.